Electronics LED Lighting question...

Hey guys,


I am modding my basement to be like a mini dance floor with LED's all around 15000mcd each and i am trying to make them dance to the music...

I found this instructable on the RGB-controller and want to know more info, i tried contacting the author but no response:

http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-RGB-controller/


now there is a link at the bottom that takes you to a website that has the schematic and i want to know how the author did it with so many highpowered leds? the schematic only gives enough output for about 4 leds, so i am trying to come up with a large scale version that can make 200+ led's dance...


i am a complete noob at electronics but have soldering experience so please bare with me...


note: trying to make this happen before newyears...i am runing short of time...

another question, how can i incorporate this first beat extractor circuit in with the leds?

http://sound.westhost.com/project62b.htm


if everything goes right, my basement is gonna rock the house down

 

i am keeping an eye on this project

 

i need some help making sense of the schematic for the rgb controller... some of the symbols are european and i live in canada which i believe uses the american std. i also cant make out why the transistor IRF9530 are different then the ones in the eagle library, it is simply that the arrow with the curve is pointing up in the library than in the schematic...the caps i don't know what type they are and some of the connectors don't make sense...i am screwed...

if anybody can make sense of the schematic, please let me know...i still can't get a hold of the author who made this schematic.


thnkx

 

The IRF9530 P-MOSFET symbol is correct; if in doubt always check with the datasheet. They will handle 12A which I would expect to run more than four LEDS (400 @30mA?).

You realise the MEGA8-P is a microcontroller and you'll need to program it?

 

i thought this was controlled through the computer by the software by rs232? and what if i want to drive 400 RGB leds? that means that if this only drives 400 led's then that is about 133 leds that are RGB, any way to increase to 1200 led's? so thats 400 of red 400 of green and 400 of blue...

 

There are four channels in all, each 12A. That's 400 of red 400 of green and 400 of blue, plus 400 of UV optional.

 

but can they be driven at the same time? i mean all of the rgb leds plus the UV, each color ON at max power at the same time or does it depend on the power being supplied?

as i said earlier...i am a noob at electronics but i am good at following instructions for soldering, i have no clue how this circuit works so, could you please also explain the basic function of this circuit...


thankx for being patient with me...

 

Well if you supply 48A then you can in theory run 1600 LED's total at full bore.

 

so, how does this circuit work? nothing gets burnt out?

 

NVM, I scrapped the above method and i have ordered an arduino, 45 1 watt leds (15 red leds, 15 blue leds and 15 green leds) each led takes up to 350mA i am still waiting for the spec sheet, also i am getting 3 IRF540 mosfets to drive the leds. my plan is to use pwm to drive the leds using the arduino. the pwm signal from the arduino is going to drive the mosfet and the mosfet will drive the leds. now i noticed that the arduino can only output 5V 40mA max and the gate-source voltage on the mosfet is +/- 20V and the gate-threshold voltage is 2.0V to 4.0V.

does the arduino have enough juice to drive the mosfets?

i have heatsinks from an after market zalman cooler for my 8800-ultra, will the little heatsinks suffice for the mosfets?

 

I designed a club early this year. The entire bar, all the coffee tables, and some of the vip tables were all driven with arduino. We made all of the above out of frosted plexi, and they were wired with RGB LEDs that made one hell of a show.

You'll need to incorporate an external PSU, and you'll likely need several arduino boards.

The walls of the club had 24 92" HD screens and 24 HD projectors. The walls and the furniture danced to the DJ.

 

yes, i am using a PC power supply, but i am most worried about the mosfets...
there are several pins on the arduino that are pwm capable as you already know and since the arduino can't drive the 350mA leds i am going to use mosfets on 3 of the arduino pwm pins (one for red, the other for green and the third for blue) to drive the leds but don't know if 5V is sufficient enough to drive the mosfets... the mosfet has a gate-source voltage of +/- 20V and a gate-threshold voltage of 2.0V to 4.0V, so is this going to work?


thankx for any insight and i can just imagine the bar...

 

i just got an idea from someone on another forum, using a 2N3904 NPN transistor between the arduino and the mosfet, i will post up the schematic later but gives a basic idea of whats happening.

as for the mosfets, i am going to use the 5V from the power supply to power my 8800-ultra stock cooler (i replaced my stock cooler with a zalman on my 8800 ultra) and use the cooler as the heatsink for the mosfets...not a bad idea i guess for a heatsink or i could use the stock heatsink off my AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ but i prefer to use the gfx cooler because of the "personalized space it gives by using the ram chip coolers on the heatsink...

 

did anyone save anything from the page, before the link died?
I need a serial controller for my rgb led, and this one had software to contoll it...

 

i didn't get the software, but i did ask the author for for the eagle files...i will gladly give it to you, but i scrapped the schematic for the controller and i am using a similar setup which is based on the atmega8 chip, but its on the arduino platform...

 

OK, Ill just contact him myself and try to get the software, firmware and the scehm.. Thanks!