Hey,
So I am building a vessel where I will have red LED's inside blinking haphazardly to create a sort of plasma effect, I am trying to figure out the design and what system I could use. This is sort of my first attempt at this kind of project so any help would be appreciated. I have a local store I can pick up LED's, as well as basic circuit parts. I am hoping to mount this to the side of a prop so ideally, it won't be too large. I was considering salvaging a few electric candles but then I would be really limited in the brightness.
Compact erratic LED circuit
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- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67485
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: Compact erratic LED circuit
There are lots of ways to approach that general problem.
What size do you want it to be in inches? "Small" is a hugely subjective term, easily spanning the range from cubic inches to cubic millimeters.
What size do you want it to be in inches? "Small" is a hugely subjective term, easily spanning the range from cubic inches to cubic millimeters.
- RobinWill
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2017 7:59 pm
Re: Compact erratic LED circuit
Sorry for the nonspecifics, ideally it would fit in an area of around 10 cubic inches. It'll be cased with a 3d print shell but smaller is better.
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67485
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: Compact erratic LED circuit
That's plenty of room by microcontroller standards. The one-stop-shopping solution would be to use a Circuit Playground with a LiPo battery for power:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3000
It has ten addressable RGB LEDs built in, is about 2" across, and maybe 3/8" thick.
We have lots of other, similar hardware though. Our Learning System has hundreds of projects people have done using some kind of blinky:
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/leds
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/wearables
Take a look through some of those for inspiration and/or ideas to steal. ;-)
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3000
It has ten addressable RGB LEDs built in, is about 2" across, and maybe 3/8" thick.
We have lots of other, similar hardware though. Our Learning System has hundreds of projects people have done using some kind of blinky:
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/leds
https://learn.adafruit.com/category/wearables
Take a look through some of those for inspiration and/or ideas to steal. ;-)
- RobinWill
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2017 7:59 pm
Re: Compact erratic LED circuit
So I picked up a 3V trinket and some high power red LED, My intention is to be able to run the LEDs to a different location on the prop. It says the trinket can push 150mA so would I need to worry about transisting 3 LED that pull 20mA at 1.6V? I think I'll just need to voltage drop the LED and run them directly off the board, And just connect power to the trinket.
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67485
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: Compact erratic LED circuit
The Trinket can easily run one LED per IO pin. Just put a 100-ohm resistor in series with each LED to limit the current to about 20mA.
Be sure to read the Trinket tutorial (linked from the product page) when you start trying to program it. The Trinket doesn't have any real USB hardware, so it has to fake a USB connection to the computer when it uploads new firmware. The tutorial explains how to make things work, but people often plug one in and assume it's broken because it doesn't behave like an Arduino.
Another point to note: the Trinket uses pins 3 and 4 for its fake-USB connection, so you can't have any external circuits connected to those pins while programming it. You can connect things to pins 3 and 4 once the microcontroller has been programmed, but it's something to remember before you solder everything together.
Be sure to read the Trinket tutorial (linked from the product page) when you start trying to program it. The Trinket doesn't have any real USB hardware, so it has to fake a USB connection to the computer when it uploads new firmware. The tutorial explains how to make things work, but people often plug one in and assume it's broken because it doesn't behave like an Arduino.
Another point to note: the Trinket uses pins 3 and 4 for its fake-USB connection, so you can't have any external circuits connected to those pins while programming it. You can connect things to pins 3 and 4 once the microcontroller has been programmed, but it's something to remember before you solder everything together.
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.