RGB LED chaser

[miaoo1016]

OMG youre so hot!!!!! you make my nipples hard!!!!

[gewroo]

In case you were REALLY fast - I had an update about 10 minutes ago. Please pull down latest.

[gewroo]

PIN Notes:

If you were connected to 8,11 and 12 like the shiftOut tutorial.. you need to move your 8 pin wire to 10 and 12 pin wire to 13 on your arduino.

[gewroo]

I also have a VB library. If you have / download VB Express (free from MS) I can send you the app that can do some basic control. Still adding pattern creation / load caps .. all real early stages .. but I can set the color, control modes, etc via the app now (using that command interface commented out).

Decode -> "gewroo" is the name .. hot -uh- mail is the place and you got my mail.

[gewroo]

ok - so I'll just assume you have the R leg of LED 1 connected to leg 1 if shift register 1 .. and then G to leg 1 of shift register 2, B to leg 1 of shift register 3 and the grounds all connected into common ground.

If you tell me what three bytes you send in to make the second LED white .. I can get the details from that to setup some code to allow you to run some patterns, cycle hue and cycle a RGB test run.

You will have to install some libs I created for commands and RGB LED (source).

[batteryhead15]

Well I send this byte 3 times : B00000010

[gewroo]

Sorry - and would Red on the 2nd LED be:

B00000010

B00000000

B00000000

or

B00000000

B00000000

B00000010

?

[batteryhead15]

B00000010

B00000000

B00000000

[gewroo]

OK - You have been so responsive .. I think you may actually try this :).

So I spend some time making it work with only eight of my LEDs .. reducing to using one set of LEDs .. commented out the command library and put it in a loop. I also pulled the library class into the main file .. so you don't have to run load any libraries .. but steps to make a library for the color control included.

You may have to tweak some settings .. search for "untested"

Pls let me know how it goes

[batteryhead15]

Thank you very much, I think I will give it a try today.

I never made a library so it will take some time to make it work.

[gewroo]

Note - you don't have to make a library. I removed that need. Just create a new file - pull in those three parts of code in order and hit run. May just work :)

[batteryhead15]

Well I created the libraries any way, and I am very happy to say that it works great.

I will try to make a vid today.

Thanks again man!

[gewroo]

That is really cool that is works :)

Thank you for letting me know.

I have some updates on how to apply patterns, this is really rough draft 1.

Cheers :)

[gewroo]

Nice job. I have three of those 74HC595 running 12 RGBs with individual 16.16.16 (4096) colors (ready for 2 more with open slots). I have the code for non flickering processing for 208 pins. I had to rewrite shiftout to bitSet the port directly .. much faster than digitalWrite. Doing that got me able to stuff way more bits into the shift register in the interrupt cycle and reach the 200 pin PWM mark on one ATMEGA328 and 7 SRs. May take some more tweaks to hit 375 pwm pins for 5x5x5 though

[gewroo]

ran out of space - if you need the code - post back and I'll send / post on ardino forum or here.

[batteryhead15]

Thanks, the only thing I would want to know is how to get more color from each LED.

I get confused in the PWM part.

[gewroo]

PWM in this case is "software" pwm using the shift register. Which means it turns on and off the lights really fast making them dimmer. So if you create an interrupt timer process and set all bits on 255 (B11111111) every time - you have "full on". If you set 0 1/2 the time and 255 1/2 the time you have (1/2 bright). So you can use this to setup (x) levels of brightness. 16 levels R, G, B (16x16x16) is 4096 colors. Basically loop 0 - 16 in a timer and * 16 the counter and compare to array

[gewroo]

My code includes some custom libraries for serial control and RGB LED color conversion (can set HSV value and it sets the RGB colors), etc. I may be able to get this posted where you can get to it easier (i.e. arduino forum) if you are interested in the code.

[batteryhead15]

Ohh ok, I will try to look in to this when I get some free time. Btw thank you for your offer and help and I would like to see your code it sounds really good.

[gewroo]

See the arduino forum and I posted a faster shiftout with details on running in a timer. This is step 1 to PWMing. You will need an array of byte values (0-255) .. one for each leg. You can then set the values in the loop and the timer process should count to 0-15, then start over. Your current position is that counter times 16 (16*16=256). Then if the value is greater than the pwm value for that leg .. you turn that leg on .. else you turn it off. This creates levels of brightness.

[gewroo]

To find the code .. search for ShiftOutFast .. then check out all posts by me (marklar) to see some rough early versions of a color control and command interface. I'll post PWMing on SR when I get a chance. Note: I am new myself - but this stuff works.

[gewroo]

Note: You can do alot more lights if you use some of the legs to multiplex. That one looks soldered together with one leg per LED leg .. and the grounds common connected to a single ground. If that is the case .. I can help by showing you how to create color classes with the port number of the legs for that led. Then how to PWM those .. then you can simply set the color of the led .. everything else just happens. I have patterns I can run in sequence and apply to Hue, etc. Have fun!

[batteryhead15]

Thanks for the help man, I will give it a try

[gewroo]

After getting some help from the forum - now much faster version avail - read the entire thread. Using this and multiplexed grounding .. no problem with 5x5x5 matrix I'd say. the more grounds .. the dimmer the whole thing will be .. but it will use that much less power.

[batteryhead15]

Wow this is super fast for 6 shift registers.

LOL I can't wait to try it.

[gewroo]

How is that puppy wired? All R's to one, G's to another and Bs to another? If you tell me your pin-out .. I may be able to toss something together for you that works. I am multiplexing, which means you would have to "de-complexify" my crap. But if you are controlling eight leds with 3 shift registers .. you got the perfect hookedup for max brightness.

[batteryhead15]

Well I have 3 shift register, one for every color (I didn't multiplexed because this was just a little test with shift registers)

[coolmusicadam]

Mmm.

Thanks for the offer but i dont have any of the Arduino stuff :(

Too complicated for me, all the setting up.

I might buy a easy kit :)

[batteryhead15]

well good luck with that

[coolmusicadam]

How did you program it?

I would love to do something like that.

But im not too good with tech stuff :S

[batteryhead15]

I used the arduino IDE which uses a programming language based of C.

And if you have the arduino I can send you my code, just give me your email.

[omlan]

Good work

[systemvadim]

Thanks ^^

[coolmusicadam]

how long did it take to you make that? :D

[batteryhead15]

About 2 or 3 hours with the program.

It wah fun because there was lots of soldering to do

[maalit72]

מגניב!

Cool!