Difference between revisions of "LED Tiles"

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==Overview==
 
==Overview==
 
LED tiles are just that, a piece of PCB with five RGB LEDs on them and a single white LED.  They use a 16 channel LED driver with a SPI interface so that many can be driven from the same microcontroller.  The idea is that you can play with just one, or tile them on a wall or other surface for neat visual effects like fading a color across the surface.  The size of the PCB is yet to be determined.  Initial prototypes will be through-hole parts, but further revisions will be on real PCBs with SMT parts.
 
LED tiles are just that, a piece of PCB with five RGB LEDs on them and a single white LED.  They use a 16 channel LED driver with a SPI interface so that many can be driven from the same microcontroller.  The idea is that you can play with just one, or tile them on a wall or other surface for neat visual effects like fading a color across the surface.  The size of the PCB is yet to be determined.  Initial prototypes will be through-hole parts, but further revisions will be on real PCBs with SMT parts.
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 +
With the current design of 5 independent LEDs per board, pairing is currently the best way to use these, so you get a 5x2 array out of each pair of tiles.
 +
 +
An alternate configuration would be to use 3 drivers on a single board to power 16 RGB LEDs in a 4x4 or 8x2 array.
 +
 +
[http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=760 Look here for a comparable product.] It would take 8 of these tiles to come up with a comparable array. At that point, the custom array would hold 16 more LEDs and be programmable to infinitely more colors.  My goal is now to reproduce this product (or something similar) for less.  The LEDs alone will cost at least $16, so that leaves ~$44 for the SPI LED controllers, resistors, and breadboard.  A better way to recreate this would be to go with the 4x4 tiles that use 3 controllers each to make more efficient use of the controllers.  This would require a total of 12 LED controllers instead of 16.
  
 
==Parts List==
 
==Parts List==
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===Prototype===
 
===Prototype===
 
* Breadboard
 
* Breadboard
* 5 tricolor through-hole LEDs
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* 5 [http://store.fungizmos.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=203&zenid=e542ed06aaaee56f85574b4d23aa1dad tricolor through-hole LEDs] [http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=LEDS alternate] [http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=10017 cheap bulk]
 
* 1 white through-hole LED
 
* 1 white through-hole LED
 
* 1 [http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=497-5974-5-ND 16 channel DIP LED driver]
 
* 1 [http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=497-5974-5-ND 16 channel DIP LED driver]
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===Production===
 
===Production===
 
* PCB
 
* PCB
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* 1 16 channel SMT LED driver
 
* 1 16 channel SMT LED driver
 
* Header for pluggable SPI interface
 
* Header for pluggable SPI interface
 
==Proposal==
 
===LED Tile Display===
 
* Have a small 10x100 resolution display for simple text; time, date, outside weather, etc.
 
* Have a larger display that can display simple low-resolution images, animations and games (pong, space invaders, etc. as the controller permits).  Something on the order of 50x100 resolution. 
 
* Have a display that can operate on a resolution comparable to a computer monitor; CGA (320x200) to SVGA (640x480).  A computer could be attached to display the IRC channel, presentations, etc.
 
===Cost & Size Estimates===
 
Assuming the tiles are 1" squares, each one is a pixel and cost 50 cents/pixel:
 
* 10x100 Display - 0.8'x8.3' for $500 (1,000 pixels)
 
* 50x100 Display - 4.2'x8.3' for $2,500 (5,000 pixels)
 
* CGA (320x200) Display - 26.7'x16.7' for $32,000 (64,000 pixels)
 
* SVGA (640x480) Display - 53.3'x40' for $153,600 (307,200 pixels)
 
In short, let's just stick with the 10x100 Display
 
 
--[[User:Spacefelix|Spacefelix]] 16:47, 27 May 2009 (CDT)
 
  
 
[[Category:LED Hacks]]                                                  <!--MAKE AS MANY CATEGORIES AS YOU NEED-->
 
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[[Category:Hardware]]
 
[[Category:Hardware]]

Latest revision as of 16:50, 6 August 2010

Creator:
Opticron
Status:
Research
Born On:
22:38, 6 July 2008 (CDT)
Last Updated:
16:50, 06 August 2010 (CDT)

Overview

LED tiles are just that, a piece of PCB with five RGB LEDs on them and a single white LED. They use a 16 channel LED driver with a SPI interface so that many can be driven from the same microcontroller. The idea is that you can play with just one, or tile them on a wall or other surface for neat visual effects like fading a color across the surface. The size of the PCB is yet to be determined. Initial prototypes will be through-hole parts, but further revisions will be on real PCBs with SMT parts.

With the current design of 5 independent LEDs per board, pairing is currently the best way to use these, so you get a 5x2 array out of each pair of tiles.

An alternate configuration would be to use 3 drivers on a single board to power 16 RGB LEDs in a 4x4 or 8x2 array.

Look here for a comparable product. It would take 8 of these tiles to come up with a comparable array. At that point, the custom array would hold 16 more LEDs and be programmable to infinitely more colors. My goal is now to reproduce this product (or something similar) for less. The LEDs alone will cost at least $16, so that leaves ~$44 for the SPI LED controllers, resistors, and breadboard. A better way to recreate this would be to go with the 4x4 tiles that use 3 controllers each to make more efficient use of the controllers. This would require a total of 12 LED controllers instead of 16.

Parts List

These two versions may be merged at some point or the version I create may use parts from both.

Prototype

Production

  • PCB
  • 5 Tricolor SMT LEDs
  • 1 White SMT LED
  • 1 16 channel SMT LED driver
  • Header for pluggable SPI interface