RGB LED Mood lighting

Step 9 All Finished

Alright, I hope that everything worked out with this instructable... if you have any questions, thoughts, and or ideas please post them up so everyone can see and learn. Also if you have any pictures of your variations please post those too!! Thank you for your interest, and best of luck!!

Comments

[philgainer75]

Since each LED cycles through the same pattern... this is entirely red when turning on... then green, the blue, etc. Correct?

How long after powering on does it degenerate into a random pattern? Any chance of uploading a video from the moment of powering-on so we can see?

I'm working on something similar, but plan on turning them on at different intervals. This way there is a clearly defined pattern at power, but then degenerates into the randomness as your box does.

[seligtobiason]

You are right, they do all start out red, and fade from each color. But I don't think that there is a need to have them power on at different times, it only takes 10 seconds or so for the randomness kicks in so it would be more or less a waste of time.

The LEDs' themselves are not regulated that well when being made so when they fade from one color to another the timing is off a little bit, which quickly makes them off pattern, then leads to the randomness. I hope that helps!

[philgainer75]

Thanks for the reply!

10 seconds? Wow... that's much faster than I am seeing with mine so far. I've got a lot of 500 here, and in my testing, they seem fairly consistent.... 20 slapped on a breadboard sees about 10-15 of them hold a decent sync for upwards of a minute. Although time-consuming, and if need be, I could test, sort, and group out the ones that appear to have similar timing. Im using 121 (11x11) of my 500 for this project, so I've got more than a handful to pick from.

Like stated above, having the pattern at power-on is one of the main points of my project (through tinkering with adjustable delay circuitry) ... seeing it degrade is part of the goal, but doing so in under 10 seconds will be disheartening. I guess I'll find out more as I progress.

Again, thanks for the reply!

[rbartels]

so does this automatically change colors too?

[seligtobiason]

Yes! Each LED is what they call a "Flashing RGB LED" which really isn't flashing as you can see but fading from one color to another. There is a super small chip inside of each LED so it fades at its own pace automatically when it has power.

[hamidogreen]

Hey do you have a drawing or something to show how you wired the whole thing to a 9V power supply?
Thanks!

[seligtobiason]

I don't have a drawing, but it is a really simple circuit. There is just a common positive and a common negative going to each LED. Each LED has its own Resistor.

So essentially for each LED you have a Positive wire coming from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the LED. And then a negative wire coming from the negative side of the battery going to the resistor which is attached to the negative side of the LED.

If that is not clear enough I can sketch something out, hope that helps!

[placatecj]

 Wow man that looks great.  Question how long will one battery power that many LED's?

c

[seligtobiason]

I haven't timed it out, but for me it lasted a while, but not as long as I wanted, so I ended up changing it to be plugged in.  To do that just find a 9v power source and connect all the wires in back so that it is one big circuit, then wala!  Never have to worry about using up batteries!

[tchristensen0209]

If I wanted to hook up, say, 20 of these boxes together (400 leds in my specific design) . Would a 9v power supply work for the whole thing? I assume not, but I am trying to research the way around it. Would I just need a 9v supply with a high(er) mA?

I guess I am just wondering what an experienced person would do. I am just getting into the LED projects myself. I did make this box already, with great results! Now I want to take this concept and expand. I appreciate the time you put into this! Definitely falling in love with this new hobby.

[seligtobiason]

I am really glad that you like this, and even more that you are loving LED's! They are so much fun to make things with!

As far as what you are wanting to do, you can use any voltage that will power the LED's. And then like you said just make sure that you have enough amps to cover all the LED's and that you are using the appropriate resistors for the voltage you chose.

When hooking up that many LED's I am sure there is a more efficient way to go about it, I just am not advanced enough in the electronics to know how. But this will work for large amounts of LED's! When you get it all done please post a video, I would love to see it. If you have anymore questions please let me know!

[feralpanther]

I just have one question. I'm new in this "LED" devices designing thing so i may just have missed something "obvious". What did u use to cover the front part of the hole pannel? I mean, it looks maybe like some kind of acrylic, but it definetely doesn't look like uncovered silicon-wrapped RGB LEDs to me. I loved ur Instructable, it's awesome, affordable to build and very simple for us begginers. Keep doing more!

[seligtobiason]

The plastic piece that covers that whole front of the box is from Home depot, but can be bought at any store that sells lighting stuff. It is a cover to florescent light fixtures, just a piece of plastic that diffuses the light. So go to the lighting area and look around in the florescent lighting part, you should be able to find some stuff there! If you have anymore questions please let me know, thanks! And good LUCK!