I need some advise on what products to complete my goal. I would like to have a small LED bar that I can control with a a Pi (most experience with) or anduino. The goal would be to stack different LEDs to show progress / levels / warnings. Green > yellow-green > Yellow > Orange > Red. These LEDs would be turned on based on physical sensor values or input values from my network devices.
I was looking at the 10 Segment Light Bar https://www.adafruit.com/product/1923 and thought these would be perfect. Ideally I could control all 10 segments individually but then stack another 3 bars to make 40 total controllable segments.
Below is a example of a industrial version I have seen in my past.
So my ask is for recommendations on other products to achive my goal for a noob wanting to tinker.
LED Status bar
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- michaelmeissner
- Posts: 1832
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:40 am
Re: LED Status bar
If you use 4 of those bars, you will need a microprocessor that has 40 pins to control each individual light. That gets to be a lot of wiring, and most microprocessors don't have that many pins available. Or you can extra chips that allow you to control multiple pins.
It is much simpler to use a string of leds that are controllable from a single pin or 2 pins. In particular look at neopixels, which you can have multiple sets of neopixels that are each chained together, and you only use 1 pin on the microprocessor. In addition, each logical neopixel light has 3 or 4 separate LEDs (red, green, blue, and maybe white) inside that allow you to change the colors. You can also change the power level for each of these individual LEDs. For example look at this product:
It is much simpler to use a string of leds that are controllable from a single pin or 2 pins. In particular look at neopixels, which you can have multiple sets of neopixels that are each chained together, and you only use 1 pin on the microprocessor. In addition, each logical neopixel light has 3 or 4 separate LEDs (red, green, blue, and maybe white) inside that allow you to change the colors. You can also change the power level for each of these individual LEDs. For example look at this product:
- adafruit_support_bill
- Posts: 88154
- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am
Re: LED Status bar
To drive 4 of those 10-segment bar displays, you could use two TLC5947 LED drivers: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1429
But those bar displays are monochromatic. If you want to control the color as well, the RGB Neopixel sticks mentioned above are a good choice: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1426
But those bar displays are monochromatic. If you want to control the color as well, the RGB Neopixel sticks mentioned above are a good choice: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1426
- OHTorx
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:40 pm
Re: LED Status bar
Two good suggestions at first glance. The Pixel bar seems simplistic, however I love the bold (Monochromatic) colors of the display bar. Thanks for the suggestions and I will have more research to do for sure.
- OHTorx
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:40 pm
Re: LED Status bar
Quick followup, suggestion on the compute behind this? I want to start measuring sound, and if the decibles are below some value it is green. As it rises the color gets closer to red. I see in the pixel sick there in an anduino product of some sorts.
Looking to program and forget it.
Looking to program and forget it.
- michaelmeissner
- Posts: 1832
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:40 am
Re: LED Status bar
Each neopixel element has a microprocessor in it that controls the brightness in the 3 or 4 LEDs in the element as well as pass on the information when it is being programmed. I.e. once you do the program to set each element, they retain the color as long as they are powered.
- adafruit_support_bill
- Posts: 88154
- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am
Re: LED Status bar
Note that we also have a bi-color bar-graph display. It sort of splits the difference between the monochrome bargraphs and the full-color Neopixels:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1719
And there is an i2c backpack for it that simplifies the wiring and control immensely: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1721
On the programming end, we have several "VU Meter" type projects here: https://learn.adafruit.com/search?q=vu%2520meter
Most are designed around the Neopixels, but would not be difficult to convert to other types of displays.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1719
And there is an i2c backpack for it that simplifies the wiring and control immensely: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1721
On the programming end, we have several "VU Meter" type projects here: https://learn.adafruit.com/search?q=vu%2520meter
Most are designed around the Neopixels, but would not be difficult to convert to other types of displays.
- edgjr
- Posts: 145
- Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2012 6:18 pm
Re: LED Status bar
If you're not absolutely wedded to the "bar" concept, I've used the Pimoroni LED Shim https://www.adafruit.com/product/3831 for much the same effect.
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.