I've been searching around for some sort of guide on using rgb leds. I'm not looking for anything too complex. I think it would be cool to have a group of them randomly fading from color to color.
Over at Metku they have a good guide... they use multiple leds, but you can just use multicolor and connect the legs accordingly
Now that you say it... But I tought that he would have searched that BTW, the one at Metku only uses 2 leds (so it seems), so no RGB led
If you are looking for just rgb fading leds, look at my answer in Rainbow LED . No components are needed. Only the led and, of course, the resistor. You can get these kind of leds in eBay.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...=LEDS&keywords=&cart_id=1293674.12932&next=50 4th one down, like Vito said, go to eBay. -CollinstheClown
What would be some suitable transistor replacements if I had an RGB with a 1 watt output? Could the same basic circuit still be used?
With the BT circuit? Try BC338's. Alternatively, check out the circuit i designed with 1W Luxeons. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/minerva2/controller.gif http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/minerva2/IMG_0370.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/minerva2/pic9.jpg Because it's microcontroller-based for the actual PWM control signal generation, there's limitless flexibility. It's actually hooked up to my serial port right now.
I've been playing with BlinkM rgb LEDs for PrometheusCU and I'm really impressed, you can use Arduino (they supply a simple arduino project to program them) to save colour sequences directly to the LED. The BlinkM's with then automatically cycle though the colours once you apply power. An Arduino control board will be needed. Here is the BlinkM homepage.