Multi-Color LED Fog Spreader

This Instructable is my entry into the Halloween contest. If you like it, please remember to vote.

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Fog machines are common equipment when it comes to Halloween, but they have their drawbacks. They shoot fog in only one stream, and the fog is limited to the color white. Now you will be armed with knowledge about how to create a fog spreader that has colors which you can change with the flip of a switch.

Step 1 Materials

For this you will need:

• Fog machine.
• 2 sections of PVC pipe.
• PVC T fitting that fits your pipe
• 12 bright red LED's
• 12 bright blue LED's
• 1 SPST (single pole, single throw) switch
• 1 SPDT (single pole, double throw) switch
• Soldering supplies
• Wire (several yards)
• Hot glue and hot glue gun
• Drill with 1/2 in bit and 5 mm (or close) bit.
• Epoxy
• Cable ties
• X-acto knife
• Tape measure
• Piece of scrap wood
• Some sort of strong tape (Foil tape is recommended. This stuff is amazing)

The best place to find cheap LED's is on eBay. You can get 100 from China for under $10, including shipping.

Comments

[DWiggy]

you should have it run through a fog chiller first so that the fog stays low to the ground, which makes for a very cool and creepy effect.
nice job though.

[emotec]

This is just for all you folks looking for an easy and low cost solution to driving Led Projects!!


I found this driver board awhile back and for the cost , I'm giving it a try. I 'm building a lightshow system for my Granddaughter for Christmas and needed a no-programing- required interface to bring it all together.
.
What's nice about this device is that it is also programible via serial port and Hypertext terminal if later on she would like to gain direct
control of her lighting system, so I'm also includeing a
serial interface (RS 232) card and cable in the package with a programing lesson gift card (with myself as the instructor-lol).

These two items are availible at the same website for $ 12usd.
Oh, I almost forgot, this little gem of a driver is only $15 usd+shipping! Both the driver and the serial interface are fully assembiled
and ready to go.

To supply the lighting ,I also purchased a 5 meter 5050 smd rgb strip with 300 LEDs (or 60 Leds per meter )waterproof and fully addressable,
and three 3watt ultra high intensity rgby/w modules, (to be used as wall washers) which are also compatable with these devices and can be
chained to add as many more as you would like.

.
While I'm waiting for this stuff to arrive from China, I'm building housings for all the different effects tI have designed into this system
I'm reworking 2 ATX computer power supplys to give the system plenty
of power and they should remain very reliable for years to come.

Now for the good news! I'm making my first instructibale as I put this project together with lots of pictures and what I hope will be clearly explained narration.
I'm hoping to finish all the editing and tweeking on that and getting it
posted before the end of Feb. 2012. If I can borrow a good camcorder from one of my friends, I'll include a video or two
of the finished project in operation.

Hope the info about the hardware will help some of you solve your problems with building your Led projects.
What follows is a link to Sure-Electronics LLc in Nanjing China and tech specs for the driver.

Good Luck everyone and happy tinkering!!

Emotec In Texas


http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=1159

Audio Synchronized RGBW RGB LED Driver Demo Board

Brief Introduction:

DE-DD13111 is a LED driver with an audio synchronization mode that virtually
eliminates the need for real-time software processing for LED lighting effects,
especially for use with RGBY(W) LED lighting color displays (CD-001-xxx series) , but may also be used to drive LED arrays and LED strips of any length.
In audio applications,your PC, MP3 player, CD, DVD or cell phone can be used as the audio source. Connected to the driver ,which is
powered by DC12V, RGBY(W) LED lighting color displays
will dynamically display the variation of the incoming audio signal.

The audio input signal is filtered into four kinds of frequency: low, medium,
medium-high and high, with each range of frequency assigned to a specific PWM driver. Four PWM outputs respectively control one of red, green
blue and yellow LEDs. You can write commands via Hyper Terminal to
specify LED color to a corresponding frequency of your choice and adjust the gain of each frequency to change LED intensity. LED intensity can also be
controlled by duty cycle which is adjusted by the amplitude of the spectrum.
In addition, either of the two on board jacks can be used for audio signal input or output.


Definition of frequency:

Low-- 150HZ
Medium-- 600HZ
Medium-high-- 3KHZ
High-- 6KHZ

Specifications.

Supply Voltage Input Sensitivity Operating Temperature Humidity Range
Typ. 12vdc ±0.5vdc -10 to +60 degrees cel. 0-85% RH
Max. 13.7vdc +75 degrees cel.
Min. 11.5vdc -40 degrees cel.

Applications

1.Cell Phones
2.Portable MP3, CD, DVD, AAC players
3.PC, PDA's

Features:

1. Size: 78.00 (L) ×77.36 (W) ×18.70(H) ±0.2mm
2. Four PWM outputs control four color LEDs
3. Accesable via serial port and hypertext terminal to set the corresponding
relationship of colors and frequency.
4. Individual PWM gain setting can be configured 4 different ways.
5. Gain of each of four frequency bands: default 10, adjustable from 1 to 50
6. Default corresponding relationship of colors and frequency:
Y/W - low frequency
B - medium frequency
G - medium-high frequency
R - high frequency

Min. 11.5vdc -40 degrees cel.

[britebulb]

Very cool idea and great instructions.

[JamesFXR]

where can i get cheap leds from china(what website)?

[marc92]

I bought mine from eBay. Many sellers there ship from China. Do you plan on trying this project?

[JamesFXR]

possibly but right now i am looking for a cheap place to buy leds in bulk. would you mind telling me who the seller is on ebay?

[geezer.nelson]

besthongkong.com had the best prices on bulk LEDs when I last checked.

[marc92]

I'm not really sure on my seller, but just search for LED's on eBay and sort by price lowest first. That should provide a good list with plenty of options for size, number, and color.

[JamesFXR]

what does mcd mean?

[marc92]

Millicandelas. It is the brightness unit used for LED's. The higher Mcd the better.

[JamesFXR]

did you use 5mm leds

[marc92]

Yep, I've found that 5mm is the perfect size for most LED applications.

[JamesFXR]

i dont know what mcd to get do you know what yours are?

[marc92]

It depends on how much money you want to spend, your application, and how bright you need/want them. Generally, the higher the Mcd, the brighter, and the more expensive.

[JamesFXR]

is a 15000mcd Green LED Super Bright good?

[marc92]

Yes.

[JamesFXR]

i am kinda looking for a lower price what do you think the minimum mcd would be

[marc92]

It depends on your application. If you need brighter LED's then shell out a little more for the higher Mcd's. If you don't need brightness then 4000-5000 Mcd can work. But again, the higher the Mcd, the brighter.

[charliebillington]

Its often better to compare the power consumption of the leds (mw) as the mcd ratings are often grossly overstated

[drake2s]

everyone should take a look at dealextreme.com it's based out of china very cheap prices.

[john12692]

ever think of putting this on a car?

[Metorks]

This is a great mod. I plan to do this for next Halloween for sure. One idea is to integrate a fog chiller into the spreader so that the fog stays low to the ground. Right now I run a tube from my fog machine through a styrofoam cooler of dry ice. I suppose I could hook the spreader up to the other end of the cooler. Cheers!

[peguiono]

dang lol I was going to do this... oh well nice job

[marc92]

Oh I was afraid of that. Lol. Could you post some pictures of yours?

[peguiono]

whelp don't really think its worth the picture its just about the same except mine was going to go down the side of a walk way and the fog machine was gonna be connected to one end instead of the middle

[pertti56]

Great!!! I'm gonna build one of theese! For the Band performance. You should make Longer video! :P it's worth of watching

[marc92]

Awesome! Post some pictures/video of yours.

[pertti56]

Ok when i finnish it.

[rickfmdj]

Very nice job, Im a dj and I can built this.

[marc92]

Thanks. If you do build it, post some pictures please.

[rickfmdj]

will do

[thebboy]

dang, why didn't i think about this. i went to a friends house, we had 2 fog machines and a long hallway that the tric-or-treaters had to go through, and the fog wouldn't fill up the whole hallway. so cool. 5/5 also, the blue fog kinda looks like a dragon or something with it's mouth open.

[1up]

Very nice job! This is a great way of spreading fog to a greater area. And I can't believe nobody has suggested this yet, but you should try using self-cycling RGB leds. :D

[dark sponge]

self-cycling leds wouldn't work very well unless you only used one. Because they can't communicate with each other, they would all be lighting up different colors at the same time. The colors would mix together and have more of a disco effect than a scary effect.

_{but for parties...}

[marc92]

Good point.

[marc92]

Thanks. The self cycling LED's are a great idea. I would have looked into those but I prefer having control of the color... ...it's scarier.

[imgod22222]

hey man do you have a diagram for something that would automate the SPDT? So that like I can dance in the fog while the lights change colors instead of being alone, flicking the switch while everyone else has fun?

[rocketman221]

Here this should work. I think you can get all of the parts at radioshack.

[marc92]

That's excellent.

[marc92]

I'm not an expert with circuitry so I stuck with the switch, but you could use a microcontroller or Arduino to control the color selection. For a less technical way of doing this, you could make some pressure sensitive pads and put them in the dance floor so when they are stepped on, the color would change. If you want to be really fancy, you could create a circuit that changes the color based on music that is being played. The easiest way to do that would probably be with an Arduino.

Again, I don't know exactly how to engineer and create my suggestions but I bet many other Instructables members (*cough* zachninme *cough*) would be able to help you.