Yesterday, Colin and I got together on my back porch to figure out how to use an arduino to control a bunch of LEDs. Connecting the LEDs was actually kind of tricky. We managed to put together two 3X3 planes of LEDs. Progress a little slow, but should pick up soon.
looks as if you tied together the horizontal
ReplyDeleteleads, anode or cathodes I cannot say, and I assume the vertical leads are to be triggered
via the red conductor? I see the 2 3x3 planes.
Is this supposed "grow"?
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ReplyDeleteEverything horizontal (all of the connections in the plane) are cathode to cathode + one more wire to complete the grid like this:
ReplyDeleteSolid lines are LED cathodes
Dashed lines are the wires we added
Ls are LEDs
Periods are just there to create the right spacing and should be ignored.
L__L__L
| . . | . . |
L__L__L
| . . | . . |
L----L----L
The things sticking up are all the anodes. The red leads connect anodes to anodes across the planes (you could accomplish the same thing by soldering the anodes directly to each other, but this was a little easier).
Your guess is essentially correct. The vertical leads (anodes) would all be stuck in a breadboard and then you'd use the arduino to select which pins get a voltage.
We ran out of solder at this stage (we only had a little bit to begin with) and so we have a third complete, but unattached plane. We probably won't end up using this sort of arrangement for the project, but we might complete the cube/write a controlling program for it for fun at some point.
OK. So this seems to be taking on a 3 dimensional structure. How is it incorporated into the balloons? (I fear the anodes would puncture the balloons)
ReplyDelete