Controlling multiple LED's via basic stamp
mspzoom
Posts: 1
Alright – I am defiantly new to this forum and the entire basic stamp idea but I need help. My overall idea is this – I am going to use a basic stamp and Amulet Easy GUI 5.7 to build a complete car automation solution. In addition to controlling some electronic components with a relay controller I am also going to have around 40-50 LED’s for effect lighting. My goal is to have individual on/off and dimming control of every LED. Obviously, I could use a relay controller with a channel for each LED but in addition to only using about 50mA to maybe a 5A circuit, it would cost something unbelievable. So I am looking for an economical way to control these lights. I am looking to have different chase patterns as well as create different mood lighting depending on the other things going on in the car.
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Also has anyone worked with the Amulet GUI? What is your overall impression?
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Thank you for your patience everyone. I can defiantly understand how annoying it is when a newbie asks completely ridiculous questions. However, knowing the answer to these couple of questions will defiantly help me as I move on in the design process.
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Thanks - Kurt ·
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Also has anyone worked with the Amulet GUI? What is your overall impression?
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Thank you for your patience everyone. I can defiantly understand how annoying it is when a newbie asks completely ridiculous questions. However, knowing the answer to these couple of questions will defiantly help me as I move on in the design process.
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Thanks - Kurt ·
Comments
Don't know about the display, but the 40 to 50 LED's can be controlled with a max7219. I have used the 7219, and a sample program posted.....(search on max7219).
Controlling 50 LEDs is not a problem and you have a bunch of options -- for on and off.· To do dimming of each is a who different ball of wax and unless you can find a specialty controller (perhaps one of Al Williams' PWM PAKs would do the trick) I think you're going to have trouble.
I haven't had the opportunity to work with the Easy GUI yet, but many have.· We have a project page on our web site at this link:
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/products/audiovisual/amulet_gui.asp
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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas Office
the touchscreen is not brilliant so i recommend going straight for the backlit model, but the newer 3.8" models look ok
i have the activity board code running but i dont have an activity board and my nx-1000 is wrapped up in another project, so my slow development progress is my own fault.
the only other problem with the gui is that its not a popular item, probably (because of the cost most likely) so there isnt much tinkering code out there and the models on the parallax site are pbasic2.0 code.
but i'm sure between the both of us we could solve any problems that could come up with its development.
rox on
nickB
Post Edited (nick bernard) : 9/7/2004 4:12:56 PM GMT
Anyways, The good news is with the max7219 led driver you can control up to 64 individual leds wired into 7 clumps of 8 with 1 common cathode AND you can control their brightness and on/off.
The bad news is the chip is quite expensive, and when you adjust their brightness and on/off you cant pick 1 led to adjust, you must adjust a whole clump of 8 at once. More good news is you can get led drivers free from maxim IC via the samples program.
I suppose even though the leds brightness and on off status must be adjust in clumps you could still make good use out of it. IE you could have the clumps in different areas of the car ( back seat, front driver, front passanger, right door, etc.) and adjust the brightness of that area turn that area on or off etc. Which isnt excactly what you wanted but I think its still cool!
The only other problem that comes to mind is the more leds you have on the dimmer they get. However, im guessing if you use your cars battery for the power supply (to the led's) it will aliviate some of the dimmness seeing as a 9-volt battery isnt much in the first place.
Good luck.
I have come up with an idea for a universal circuit that would control an almost infinite number of LED's using less than 6 control lines from a Basic stamp.
The circuit design would cover 80 LED's at once and would cascade so you could easily multiply this number of LED's controlled in increments of 80. I also have come up with provisions for brightness control.
Everything is done with off the shelf components.
Let me know the interest level on this and I'll get back to you with a conceptual idea.
Regards,
Gerry Shand
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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas Office
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Post Edited (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 8/19/2005 7:39:25 PM GMT
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"OIOOIOOO OIIOOIOI OIIOIIOO OIIOIIOO OIIOIIII OOIOOOOO OIIIOIII OIIOIIII OIIIOOIO OIIOIIOO OIIOOIOO OOIOOOOI"
Stay cool everyone (I had to say that as we just got our first snowfall in Edmonton two days ago. It is gone now but another signal from nature that the white stuff is just around the corner).
Gerry Shand
·· Hey, some of us have been waiting patiently (Couple of months) to hear your reply about the LED Controller...Have you come up with anything yet?·
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Post Edited (Chris Savage (Parallax)) : 8/19/2005 7:32:05 PM GMT
Chris Isaacson
Use the EEPROM to store the pattern for the LEDs and use shift registers to control the LEDs. If you had five 8-bit shift registers in series you could control 40 LEDs and only use 3 I/O lines on your Stamp (one for data, one for the clock and one for the latch signal). Perhaps something like that is what Gerry Shand had in mind? Perhaps you could even have an EPROM hooked up externally to the Stamp (shift the output of the EPROM to the shift registers). I'm just guessing here but there are plenty of possibilities.
a cascaded shift regisister could control many many led's and if your intent is to envoke a patern rather than individaul LED control then you could control "infinite" LED's with the stamp... but "infinite" LED's do pull infinite current you i guess you'd need an infinite battery/altenator/powersupply...
rox on
nick bernard