Ever wondered what goes into the process of making LED goodness? Here’s a how-to video from OSRAM on the basics of LED manufacturing. Via Adafruit.
Tag Archives: LEDs
ExpeditInvaders: IKEA Expedit shelf modified with RGB LEDs
Michu shared his IKEA Expedit shelf RGB LED mod ExpeditInvaders. He connected 40 RGB LED modules and a keyboard to an Arduino to make a color changing Ikea bookcase: I just finished my project “ExpeditInvaders”, a spiced up Ikea shelf! I added 40 LED modules to it and glued a keyboard on the bottom of […]
7400 competition entry: Animated LED Christmas sign
Raj entered his Animated LED Christmas sign into the Open 7400 Logic Competition. Having already build a PIC controlled version, he wanted to try and control the sign using discrete logic only. The individual letters are build from red LEDs and run of a 32V power supply. Check out the video of this project below. Via […]
Partlist Wednesday: LEDs
Every Wednesday we highlight a component from the updated partlist. This week: LEDs. Surface mount LEDs feel a bit smaller than capacitors and resistors in the same package. Despite moving to 0603 C and Rs, we still use 0805 LEDs. It’s not just because we’re stuck with a reel of them, we find 0603 LEDs […]
App note: LED brightness controller with 64 taps
An app note on a LED brightness controller: In this circuit, a digital potentiometer (DS1869) aids an LED-driver IC (MAX16800) in providing manual control of the LED brightness. The circuit also provides thermal protection against excessive heat and overload conditions. Thanks rsdio!
App note: Control high-voltage LEDs with low-voltage pins
rsdio writes: Although this circuit does not directly show how, you can use the same idea to make a 3.3 V tolerant I/O pin control an LED with a much higher voltage. The caveat is that all of the current still passes through the I/O pin, but at least you can control several LEDs in […]
App Note: LEDs allow new remote-controlled lighting applications
A remote-controlled lightning applications: One benefit LEDs offer in general lighting applications is that they are easier to control remotely. This application note describes a remote-controlled architectural or street-lighting system and describes how to implement power-line or wireless communications control of a lighting system. Thanks for the tip rsdio!
Christmas lights as a chat list indicator
Andrejk uses an individually-controllable Christmas lights to indicate the presence of someone on his IM contact list. Via Hack a Day.
Hacking RGB Christmas lights
Deep Darc has successfully reverse engineered the operation of a 50-light set of GE multicolor Christmas lights. His work involved snooping the protocol used on the LEDs data bus line and exploration of the remote control unit, resulting in source code allowing control of the display of colors and patterns by an Attiny13A. Via Wonderhowto.
Understanding seven segment displays
John Park at Make has a really nice introduction to 7-segment LED displays and reverse engineering. He maps the relationship between bits in a byte and each LED segment connected to an SAA106 driver. This is a real-world introduction to the tedious art of poking at hardware to reverse engineer a circuit.
Free PCB Sunday: USB RGB color changer
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few professionally-made PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. This is a USB controlled RGB color changing light. Someone made some minor modifications to […]
Bus Pirate script for 8×32 LED matrix
will_j posted a Bus Pirate script that controls a Sure Electronics 8×32 LED marquee: Here’s a quick and dirty perl script to display ‘BPv3’ on a Sure Electronics 8×32 LEd Matrix display. You can also use a 16×24 display if you change the second command code to 44 from 40. Any improvements gratefully received – […]
Demo: Sure LED matrix
This is an old version, see the latest version on the documentation wiki. You may have come across this 16×24 LED matrix board on eBay or at Sure Electronics. Each board has three 8×8 LED blocks and a controller to drive them. A simple three-wire serial interface toggles each LED and configures the overall brightness […]
Free PCB Sunday: USB RGB color changer
We go through a lot of prototype PCBs, and end up with lots of extras that we’ll never use. Every Sunday we give away a few professionally-made PCBs from one of our past or future projects, or a related prototype. This is a USB controlled RGB color changing light. Ian did this project at DIY […]
LEDs too bright
Nuxx.net writes: Today I finally got to poking around with the Hack A Day Bus Pirate v2.go … the LEDs on it are far, far, far brighter than they need to be. At my normally-lit desk in a normally-lit office, they are glaring. I’m going to consider replacing them next time I place an order […]