Blinder - Custom HB RGB LED Wall Washer

This project consists of 3 units called "Blinders" (a fitting name if you ever see it in person)

Each blinder is a custom built wall washer that has 8 individually controlled 3 watt RGB LED's. These things are BRIGHT. Each LED is wired to its own PCB (containing the MOSFETs and bias resistors onboard) which is mounted to the large aluminum front plate. Each board is then wired through a hole and to the inside of the unit where it is connected to a main control board.

The control board has three main components:

1) An AVR microcontroller - ATmega168PA to be exact in a DIP package (used a DIP because I was still learning about microcontrollers and frequently fried them in the process)

2) An XBee Pro Module (2.4 Ghz, wire whip antenna)

3) A TLC5947 24 channel LED Driver. These drivers are only meant for small LEDS (no more than 20mA or so max) - I used these drivers because it had a 12 bit resolution and alongside with a MOSFET can control all 24 total channels individually with only a basic serial interface.

The software is written in Java (not my favorite language, but it works) and uses the Minim and Xbee-API libraries to control each blinder individually. The software is then either controlled using key presses on the keyboard (which is what I do in the video) or by an iPad interface using the TouchOSC app.

Thanks goes out to:

Minim - the open source java audio library - used for FFT analysis and filtering for the light modulation from an audio input. website: http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/

Xbee-api - open source java xbee library - extremely useful for controlling multiple Xbees from a single Xbee. website: http://code.google.com/p/xbee-api/

Sparkfun - for their tutorials. website: http://www.sparkfun.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• LED
• 3W
• RGB
• TLC5947
• Blinder
• Wall Washer
• Light Show

[mamitazavala]

Congrats ! I love it man, how much it cost to do something like that? is it really expensive?

[andrewortman]

@mamitazavala It ended up being a couple hundred dollars. I didnt really keep track but it cost me quite a bit. A lot of it was not planned and I just went with the flow. If I did it again, each one would cost just over $150 including the case. I designed a full PCB for each box and a PCB for each LED (which contains the driving mosfet and resistor and a thermal connection to the metal backing.

[bollerabis]

@kctess5 all this in video how work;; with remote control; can i;

[Janekim2011]

I like this kind of LED wall washer, because we also manufacturing LED light. Does somebody like purchasing from LED light manufacturer,pls email me.

MSN:janekimyan@hotmail.com,Sky­pe:janekimyan

[kctess5]

@mamitazavala Im making something very similar right now. Im not using this many leds so the price is quite a bit lower. It also doesnt use a driver or xbee just because theres no need for my purposes. Right now the price is estimated at around 75 dollars for mine so im guessing his was more like 125 with all those leds and the xbee

[kctess5]

Im going to do something similar. Im going to use a arduino as the main brains and also a vu meter ic connected in parallel. I will have 3 pwm pins off the arduino going to 3 high power switching transistors which will be connected to the rgb pins on all 10 of my 3 watt leds. Then i will have the 9 free I/0 pins connected to transistors and the transistors going to the common anode on one led each. 6 more pins on the arduino will go to a keypad for mode selection and the last 2 will be audio in.

[DiscoGekHelptNED]

soo nice :D now add 1 rgb lasers and 2 green or rgy :)

[kctess5]

very nice. good description

[landonrocks36]

YOU ARR A GEENUS!!

[completemyrias]

Why does this thing only have 8 views?