Who knows RGB LEDs?

[yyrkoon 250]

So, I'm wondering if anyone here may know a bit about the subject, and would care to talk some about it. Basically, I'm curious about the single common cathode / anode types, as well as perhaps some of the higher wattage variants. Basically, I know nothing about whats available and what makes a decent LED. My interest basically has to do with light show type stuff, and I'm starting to look into DMX lighting, etc. From scratch - Meaning I want to build my own "system".

 

Also, in this context, I have no interest in the ws28xx LEDs . . .

[bluehash 1,581]

@@RobG @@Rickta59 and a few others are into this. Rob has some DMX lighting BoosterPacks/boards too.

[RobG 1,892]

Yes, I have 10W & 20W RGB flood lights with a companion 24ch DMX controller.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's my board used for Xmas show (in Puerto Rico.)

 

 

[will post link to video once it's made public]

[bluehash 1,581]

@@RobG Videos are private.

[yyrkoon 250]

Ah, well here is my insperation:

This person has had light shows for the last couple years at least. Which leads me to believe that this person is also a professional. Anyway, I want to do something similar, but probably could not do something so grandiose. I would like to sync lights to a soundtrack though, which I think would require midi ? I'm not sure, I do not know a lot about the subject, but have looked into it briefly.

 

Another inspiration . . . http://www.amazon.com/Laser-Stars-Indoor-Light-Show/dp/B000VBNIP2which is laser actually. I've looked into this a bit more, and . . . yeah I think I'd probably just buy that projector. Beam splitting, and all that is fairly complicated.

 

@@RobG are those floods expensive to build ?

[RobG 1,892]

The big spot lights in the video are DMX moving head lights, the rest of the lights are WS2811.

There are several ways to control them, but you will need specialized software, like Vixen, and one or more controller, like SanDevices' e682 or Falcon F16.

 

I have few types of floods, WS2811 and plain RGB. The total cost to build 10W is about $12-$15 per flood, 20W $20-$25.

The 24ch DMX controller kit is $32 and it can be driven from LaunchPad, USB-DMX dongle, or other controllers like e682 (which has pixel and DMX outputs.)

If you go with WS2811 floods, you will not need 24ch controller.

 

To learn more, check out http://diychristmas.org/and http://doityourselfchristmas.com

[yyrkoon 250]

@@RobG Do you have a blog page or something that talks about all this ? I found the wiki for your 10W assembly, but I'm not necessarily interested in using the exact same parts you're using. I mean, I could be interested in the driver board, or one similar to it, but I'm looking into using lower power LEDs. Perhaps even the same type, just 1W, or maybe 5W LEDs.

[RobG 1,892]

I don't have a blog (at least not one that is up to date.) 

I post about my stuff here, diyc.com, diyc.org, and just started on hackster.io

 

You have to first decide what LEDs you want to use.

If you are thinking 1W-5W, I would use LM317, MOSFET, or NSI50350 as LED driver.

My driver would be inefficient when used with LEDs <10W.

[yyrkoon 250]

I don't have a blog (at least not one that is up to date.) 

I post about my stuff here, diyc.com, diyc.org, and just started on hackster.io

 

You have to first decide what LEDs you want to use.

If you are thinking 1W-5W, I would use LM317, MOSFET, or NSI50350 as LED driver.

My driver would be inefficient when used with LEDs <10W.

Yeah, I knew the driver would not match a 1W or 5W LED. But I guess I'm just looking for as much information on the subject as I can find. Also, I could not find any 1W of the same type you seem to be using. I did spot many 4W though, with and without "PCBs" but see, I do not even know why one would need a "star" PCB for one of these. Unless they have a heatsink mounted on the opposite side, like some seem to have. I saw on your assembly wiki though, you just seem to use only teh LED mounted to your PCB kit.

[RobG 1,892]

Star PCB is needed for cooling (they should be mounted on larger heat sink, PCB is used as a conductor,) 1W and 3W/4W LEDs do get hot.

My kits were designed to fit standard 10W and 20W enclosures, those enclosures are made out of aluminum and provide cooling.

If you power 10W or 20W LEDs without heat sink, they will get super hot and will most likely get damaged after some time.

[RobG 1,892]

If you don't want to invest time and money in all that software/hardware, you could pick another way to run your show.

You could use MIDI player to play music and at the same time control your lights.

I had a plan to do just that and designed MIDI-DMX bridge. To keep things simple, MIDI would trigger events, and then smaller controllers (like this one) would drive pixels and take care of animations. You could use DMX devices and WS2811 pixels.