Introduction: LED Wall Mount Display
In this instructable, we will be learning how to make a wall mounted LED light display suitable for both a casual and a professional environment. I wanted to do this because LEDs are a new concept to me and often overlooked however,they can be an easy and fun project to make. this is an original project that I had a tough time making but learned a lot from.
Supplies
Wood (I used wood to make the light but any materials would work)
IR Sensor (Infrared sensor) i'm using the sunfounder IR receiver (CA$9.38)
IR Remote kit (Infrared remote with the corresponding IR Sensor (CA$4.48)
An RGB LED Strip (CA$29.99)
Arduino UNO R3 (CA$14.29)
Jumper cables kit (optional) (CA$5.29)
On off Rocker Switch (20 Pack) (CA$14.99)
Double A Batteries (CA$12.99)
Quad Battery Case (CA$9.98)
Arduino Battery connection Power plug
2025 Battery
Tools
Drill
Wood Glue
Wire Cutters/Strippers
Soldering Iron
Step 1: Creating Light Box
Personally, I wanted to go for a smooth clean wood look soi just made a simple box then glued it on to a flat 5 1/2"x9" piece of wood. this was a quick and easy construction. there are a few methods of doing this. my first step was cutting two 1 1/2"x 2 1/4" pieces of wood. this is acting as the width of the box. Then I cut two 5"x1 1/4" pieces of wood and glued them together. making a rectangle, GLUE the smaller pieces on the INSIDE of the two longer pieces of wood, this allows just enough wiggle room for the Arduino and the battery pack to squeeze in. I personally glued the box together and then I secured them in with 2 1" screws from each side. this allowed the glue to dry the fastest and in the correct position.
when I screwed the box together I then started to cut my surface piece, this piece of wood was 9"x 5 3/4" I then waited for the wood box to dry (24 hour wait time). once all dried I then centered the box onto the display surface then I glued it down (24 hour wait time) and that it that the box construction
then i just drilled 2 holes, one for wiring and the second for the rocker switch, for the wires i drilled a 1/2" hole in the bottom. then for the top i had to make an outline of the switch. once i outlined it i got the 1/2" drill bit and drilled 2 holes on either side of the trace in order to make the space inside as empty as possible. i then used a file to square everything up (check diagram).
Step 2: Mounting LEDs
Once the box is completely dried and drilled you are good to go to mount your LEDs onto the surface.i took a few precautions when mounting my LEDs that are not necessary but make a difference in the display. I found that the closer that you got to the center the smoother the light would come out the sides as seen in the video. I centered my LEDs and made sure that they were mounted straight and true to the center. I made my LEDs 1/2" from the outskirts of the display surface. this made the light consistent all around. you don't have to do this and in fact its fun to play around with positions and angles. it is also very important that you are attentive to the arrows that are on the LEDs, this shows the direction that the current must flow in or you could end up reversing the polarity in the LEDs.
once I lined them up I used the glue that came on the back of the strip to glue in place, in the case that you can't get it to stick effectively it's always good to clean the surface to make sure it's gluing onto the wood instead of the dust and other things on the surface. you can also use double sided tape but I personally dot prefer it as it is larger than the led strip width and gets dirty easily and peels off.
because of the LEDs that I'm using they need to be soldered to make 90 degree turns as seen in the photo. you must connect all of the open circuits to their corresponding circuit on the other end of the LED strip with some jumper cables as seen above.
something else to keep in mind when working with your LEDs is the voltage that they can handle, the LEDs that I'm using can handle up to 6 volts of electricity, this is why I'm using a quad battery pack. the max voltage that it can give out is 6 volts.
Step 3: Wiring
the wiring for this project is super simple, the IR sensor only needs power, ground, and data. my data pin for the IR sensor was pin 3. a problem I ran into when making this display was that my IR receiver needed 5V of electricity, however, the IR sensor should be able to operate just fine. but in the case that it doesn't work for you as well you can solder the sensor power cable to the 5V cable for the LEDs. this can be seen in the photo. My LEDs data cable is 6. the LEDs also only need one data wire, one power, and ground. super simple.
If you choose to do a rocker switch .like I did you should solder the power wire coming from the quad battery pack to the prong on the left. at this point you should have inserted the switch into the hole on the top of the box, then solder the wires on. the right prong should have the dc connector power cable. the ground can run directly from the battery pack to the connector. the switch stops the current from passing to the connector and stopping the power going through the Arduino, this will be your master control( ON, OFF). on the LEDs that I'm using there is a spot that you have to solder the power, ground and data wires onto as seen in the photo, do so now. when you do makes sure that you pass the cables through the hole on the bottom so the box can lay flat on the wall.
once everything is soldered then pass the 3 wires coming off the IR sensor and pass them through the hole on top (where the switch goes) you should have enough room to slip your switch through and have the wires free for movement. you can adjust the location of the sensor freely to suit your needs and location in the room.
Step 4: Code
the libraries a i used are all addressed on the top of the code and can all be installed on GitHub.com.
Quick Note: Make sure you change your pins and led # accordingly.
this code is currently working on the windows 10 pro model, going to mac or another model may affect the code so stay attentive to that.
as you can see there is Serial.ln so you can use the serial monitor to keep up with the code and see where things could have went wrong.
#include
#include #ifdef __AVR__ #include #endif#define LED_PIN 6
#define LED_COUNT 60
int MY_RECV_PIN = 3; IRrecv irrecv(MY_RECV_PIN); decode_results results;
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(LED_COUNT, LED_PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
// setup() function -- runs once at startup --------------------------------
void setup() {
#if defined(__AVR_ATtiny85__) && (F_CPU == 16000000) clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1); #endif
Serial.begin(9600); strip.begin(); strip.show(); strip.setBrightness(50);
irrecv.enableIRIn(); // Start the receiver }
// loop() function -- runs repeatedly as long as board is on ---------------
int button_mode = 0;
void loop() { Serial.println("in loop"); if (irrecv.decode(&results)) { button_mode= button_mode +1; if (button_mode >= 3) { button_mode=0; } Serial.println(button_mode); if (button_mode==0){ Serial.println("Clearing all LEDs"); colorWipe(strip.Color(0, 0, 0), 0); } else if (button_mode==1){ Serial.println("Setting LEDs to chase effect"); colorWipe(strip.Color(255, 0, 0), 50); // Red colorWipe(strip.Color( 0, 255, 0), 50); // Green colorWipe(strip.Color( 0, 0, 255), 50); // Blue colorWipe(strip.Color(255, 255, 255), 50);// white } else if (button_mode==2){ Serial.println("Setting LEDs to rainbow effect"); rainbow(10); colorWipe(strip.Color(255, 255, 255), 50);// white } irrecv.resume(); // Receive the next value } //delay(500); }
void colorWipe(uint32_t color, int wait) { for(int i=0; i
// Rainbow cycle along whole strip. Pass delay time (in ms) between frames. void rainbow(int wait) {
for(long firstPixelHue = 0; firstPixelHue < 5*65536; firstPixelHue += 256) { for(int i=0; i
/
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