Individually Addressable RGB LEDS

[Dan E]

I was hoping to have some pics of my finished night rig to post up but thanks to some late night soldering half my lights are reversed. Also finding a working digital camera which isn't a phone has proved somewhat difficult. The whole project has been a bit rushed as I had planned to do it over the course of the year but am now attending a funfly at the end of February with some night flying!!

The lights I'm using are individually addressable rgb lights. This means each one can be turned on and off and the colour can be changed. There's more info on the strip here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/306 The only downside is its got 32 LED's per meter, not the more common (for night helis) 60 LEDS per meter. I got 5 meters, just enough to cover my trex 600.

Its all being controlled by an Atmega 32u4 breakout board from the same place I got the strip from: http://www.adafruit.com/products/296 Best 20 bucks I ever spent! Runs on 5 volts, same as the lights! This little guy can be plugged in directly to your pc via usb and programmed just like an Arduino.

To power it I am using my receiver pack, a 2500mah lipo, more than enough for 5 minutes of flight. I got a cheap 7amp max 5 volt regulator from hobby king. Which is a little low if the specs of the strip are to be believed. The 5 meter strip can draw a max of 10 amps if every light is white. From various tests people have found it only draws 2 to 4 amps all white, so I figured 7 amps would be plenty given that its never going to be all white.
I also picked up hobby kings receiver operated switch to hook up to the gear channel on my dx7. This will allow me to switch between effects. Eventually I want the lights to have their own receiver and be controlled directly from a computer.

I've attached a dodgy iphone picture so you can get an idea of what the lights look like. When I get them all running I'll go find a decent camera and take a video as well. (yes that's an ironing board, my temporary work bench when the kitchen table isn't clear).

[prototype3a]

Why not just sample one of your receiver channels with your 32u4? I'm looking into tapping one of my satellite receivers and decoding the full stream of data to use as an input for mine.

[Dan E]

Yeah that would be the ideal situation, but it would take me a while to get my head around it all. It's all still very new to me and I need it finished in a hurry.
Even better would be if you could then simply send any signal down that channel. The possibilities are endless.
In the meantime I re-did the faulty wiring and its now all running. Excuse the messy photo but here it is running one of the demos. You can see the lights under the skids reflecting off the table!! Neater photos and maybe a video will come later. I'm aiming for a test flight later this week.

[u8mydog]

That looks good. I would really question 60 leds per meter. The 32 leds looks fine to me.

prototype: I presume you've seen this project: spectrum-receiver-satellite-to-arduino

[prototype3a]

Yeah, I'm just not sure if you can 'listen in' when they're connected to a FBL unit. I need to make a cable and test it.

[ethan75]

I ordered the same individually addressable rgb strips for 119 bucks, and am ready to do the similar projects, as soon as I get everything I need.

[Dan E]

Awesome!! That's very cheap. Soon as I get some spare dollars I'll have to grab another strip.
I put my night flyer into the dirt no-one thought to get a video of it. I'm rebuilding it for a funfly this weekend and will be sure to get videos of it in the air.

[aclysma]

You should look at the pololu wixel microcontroller. It supports and has source examples for reading serial (I.e. satellite receivers), i2c, and pwm lines. It also can run off of 5v, connects with a USB cable, and supports wireless communication with other wixels over 2.4ghz. They cost $20 each. You can have one on your pc and another in the heli. Range is not far but if you are just wanting to push new patterns while it is on the ground it would be very convenient. I'd avoid sending much from the heli for RF interference reasons.

[gertjan33]

Hello Dan E!

I've seen you're Led strips and have one too wright now. Very cool stuf.
And I've bought a teensys2.0++ with it too.

My question is...would you mind to make your program file and hex file public.
I'm not that good with programming and then I can experiment a bit.

Kind Regards, Gertjan (Netherlands)

[Dan E]

Hi GertJan,

I used the Arduino 1.0-Rc2 software to build the source code for it. You may have to download the LPD8806 and SPI libraries seperatly, get the LPD8806 one anyways as it has a pretty cool strand test in it.
PM me your email address and I'll happily send the source to you.

[gertjan33]

Hey Dan!

I sended you a pm

Don't have experience with Arduino but, I have a teensys 2.0++ and about 3ft of ledstrip.

Have a nice day!

[gertjan33]

Hey Dan!

Thanks for you're help.
I can open the program in arduino but, if i want to compile it, then it goes wrong.
It says: 'LPD8806' does not name a type

Do you maybe know what i did wrong?

Like i told you, i'm a newbe in programming

[Dan E]

Hi Gert,

You need the LDP8806 library. You can get it here: https://github.com/adafruit/LPD8806
Here's a full tutorial on the strip and some code, pretty good for those who haven't come across it yet: http://www.ladyada.net/products/digi...rip/index.html

First thing I suggest you do is load that library, pull up the strand test example and load it onto your teensy then have some fun with it

[gertjan33]

Hey Dan!

Thanx for ur help. It's already working. I think my library was corrupt
I checked it this morning just before I went to work.

When I'm back home I'll check ur program.

[Dan E]

sweet!
Oh, don't forget to adjust the number of lights in the strip length from 160 (or 158 I crashed it and broke some hah) to however many you have.

[Andrewh]

Instead of using the LPD8806 LED strips, I would like to use the WS2801 strips, which LED can also be Individually Addressable, and I did some work on the WS2801 library and used the hardware SPI to get the per-pixel time down to 27.5uS.

[Dan E]

That's nice n fast. If you're more comfortable using that strip do it. The only reason I chose the LDP8806 was because of the adafruit tutorials (for me it was my first venture into this sort of thing so it was good to have something to go on).

Just having a quick look at your link, what's the amp draw of the strip? It mentions 3.2 amps but is that per meter? The LDP8806 draws 10amps over 5 meters.
Its no problem just have to keep it in mind when setting up the power source cause you need a regulator to get to 5 volts.

Post up the results when you have it on your heli, I'm keen to see it go

[Andrea MaGill]

Hi Dan E,
your project looks very nice.
About the LPD8806 led strips you used, I happened to get them directly from a Chinese manufacturer, with much lower price than from USA. Now I'm having time with the strips too.
Also I find they have 52pixels/m LPD8806 led strips.
A 60pixels/m addressable led strip is also available from them.
You can check here:
http://www.gree-leds.com/productshow...eID=TS7X2X7VTP
http://www.gree-leds.com/productshow...eID=T0PZ386YP6
http://www.gree-leds.com/productshow...eID=V495PRYXTP

[gvexiemin@outlook.com]

Originally Posted by Dan E

I was hoping to have some pics of my finished night rig to post up but thanks to some late night soldering half my lights are reversed. Also finding a working digital camera which isn't a phone has proved somewhat difficult. The whole project has been a bit rushed as I had planned to do it over the course of the year but am now attending a funfly at the end of February with some night flying!!

The lights I'm using are individually addressable rgb lights. This means each one can be turned on and off and the colour can be changed. There's more info on the strip here: http://www.adafruit.com/products/306 The only downside is its got 32 LED's per meter, not the more common (for night helis) 60 LEDS per meter. I got 5 meters, just enough to cover my trex 600.

Its all being controlled by an Atmega 32u4 breakout board from the same place I got the strip from: http://www.adafruit.com/products/296 Best 20 bucks I ever spent! Runs on 5 volts, same as the lights! This little guy can be plugged in directly to your pc via usb and programmed just like an Arduino.

To power it I am using my receiver pack, a 2500mah lipo, more than enough for 5 minutes of flight. I got a cheap 7amp max 5 volt regulator from hobby king. Which is a little low if the specs of the strip are to be believed. The 5 meter strip can draw a max of 10 amps if every light is white. From various tests people have found it only draws 2 to 4 amps all white, so I figured 7 amps would be plenty given that its never going to be all white.
I also picked up hobby kings receiver operated switch to hook up to the gear channel on my dx7. This will allow me to switch between effects. Eventually I want the lights to have their own receiver and be controlled directly from a computer.

I've attached a dodgy iphone picture so you can get an idea of what the lights look like. When I get them all running I'll go find a decent camera and take a video as well. (yes that's an ironing board, my temporary work bench when the kitchen table isn't clear).

The LED change a person's life.and quality of life are certainly higher.the new led product will be updated. particularly in led dispay.The lpd8806 strip led would come out on top

The LED change a person's life.and quality of life are certainly higher.the new led product will be updated. particularly in led dispay.The lpd8806 led strip would come out on top