mbed driving high power 10W RGB LED

Sorry for the ungodly mess on my desk! I've been hacking away at this for weeks now...

This is a demo of the mbed microcontroller controlling a high power RGB LED. The LED's are packaged so that three of each color are in series. They drop around 10V, and I'm driving them at 350mA. That's 10W in one package! I got them from DealExtreme: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.44043

The driver boards were designed by myself, after seeing how much SparkFun was charging for their triple RGB driver boards ($50). My boards will be much cheaper and I intend to sell them sometime. They are capable of either 350mA or 700mA and can take in any input voltage from 5V to 40V, providing maximum flexibility.

The mbed is pretty good because

1) I got it for free!
2) Really easy to use library
3) Has PWM hardware

I was too lazy to implement high-resolution on the Arduino since it only has two hardware 16-bit counter outputs.

Here's the code: http://mbed.org/users/allanw/programs/rgbfade/lh7h2s/docs/main_8cpp_source.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• mbed
• rgb
• led
• hbled

[nikokapo]

I'm currently looking for a SIMPLE, cheap and effective way to make a slow LED colour fader which can drive one of these 10W RGB LEDs. I plan to stuff all that into a huge white opaline sphere (or whatever opaque white glass sphere I can find). Could you please help me with finding a driver that can drive the LED + fade them slowly? I don't really need the driver to do anything else. I'd really appreciate some help (I did Google to no avail). Thank you in advance!

[allanw]

@nikokapo Yeah my board would be perfect but I don't have any available for sale.

Look for PWM constant-current led drivers and you might be able to find some.

[Vietwhiteboy]

How hot does that LED get? Could I use a smaller heat sink if I got one of those LEDs?

[allanw]

@Vietwhiteboy Gets pretty hot at full power even with that large heatsink. 10W is a lot of heat to dissipate without airflow.

[newton2013]

the 90watt RGB's are out.... i should know, im an LED addict.

[BoschChr]

I like the brightness that comes from the 10W Led cause i want to replace my old 3W Z power RGB Led with the new one!! Love the video!!

[BoschChr]

I would like to post a video but the nice effect witch makes the analog filters so cool (NO CPU So no sample rate!!! and misses nothing(makes no mistakes) + The fading in the analog region blows the effect you get from even a verry strong DMX protocol away so by filming it i would only be sampling the images(make snapshots) so i would get the same effect that the dmx would give. So its pointless to post.

[BoschChr]

Gha nice workspace :) kinda looks like mine.

I have made also RGB led drivers for myself @ home also with the dimming and with a ATMEL32. It has 3 functions: 1- A constant color 2- The fading in and out from different colors like yours but with adjustable speed by a pot. And Third i like the most: I made some analog filters and made an RJ connector to my TV and now everything that outputs my TV Make my Led shake some nice color sequences. You should see it go on Drum and Bass :D -> ....

[DjViOd]

Are you still going to sell those boards? I was wondering because I have a couple of those 10w LED's laying in front of me and I would like to be able to control them.

Nice vid btw, thanks for making it :D

[RDCST]

That is not a mess, it's just randomly ordered. :P

[EDWARDS777JESUS]

SUPER SOMOS DOS PELAO ..ESE ES MI AMBIENTE -...!!!! TODO UN BOSQUE DE TECNOLOGIA ...!!! LAMENTABLEMENTE AHY MUCHO DESORDEN...!!!!..PERO TENES UNA (A ) POR EL PROYECTO ..!!!

[EDWARDS777JESUS]

SUPER SOMOS DOS PELAO ..ESE ES MI AMBIENTE -...!!!! TODO UN BOSQUE DE TECNOLOGIA ...!!! LAMENTABLEMENTE AHY MUCHO DESORDEN...!!!!..PERO TENES UNA A POR EL PROYECTO  ..!!!

[EDWARDS777JESUS]

SUPER SOMOS DOS PELAO ..ESE ES MI AMBIENTE -...!!!! TODO UN BOSQUE DE TECNOLOGIA ...!!!

[nikokapo]

@allanw Sadly all drivers I found don't do what I need, they also can't drive the LEDs I'll use. All drivers I found are limited at 150mA tops :(

Do you recommend using one of these or 3 separate R/G/B LEDs that can be driven at about 650mA? (Also found on DX). Thanks!