6 Sided RGB LED Alternating Moodlight

[Bowman]

Feeling a bit stupid after the ordeal with my previous post but alas everyone makes mistakes.

Anyway to the point of this post: I wishing to make a 6 sided LED moodlight that uses straight RGB LED strips to be oriented in the shape of a hexagon, and to have each side illuminate in 6 different colours that are designated to its side.

Each side would illuminate one at a time for about a second in a circle fading into the next colour strip and fading out the prevous, then after it reaches the begining again after two rotations, they all illuminate for around 5 seconds and the cycle repeats to the cycling of colours again. the brightness intensity wouldn't be super bright but a more calm brightness so you can see its there but its not blinding you or causing too much distraction.

I know this would most likely require an audrino to run but have no idea where to start, have had a bit of experience dealing with audrino as ive had to do basic reprogramming of a MinimOSD for my quadcopter using one but otherwise am a complete novice at coding.

The Hexagon would look like this in this:


The rotation cycle would start at 1, fading into the next in line and go around twice until reaching 1 again, then all fade to illumination, then the cycle repeats, or could be programmed to cycle at random intervals.

 

[(*steve*)]

The various arduino drivers for these LED strips come with sample code that may do pretty much what you want.

I'd start from one of these examples and then learn enough C++ to change the code to do what you want it to do.

 

[kellys_eye]

Since you have an RGB feed to each side you can 'cross-connect' between sides and feed two lots of RGB control signal to the device i.e. one RGB signal to each of three faces like so:

ROW 1 - R G B then cross-connect the wires to give...
ROW 2 - B R G and cross-connect again to give...
ROW 3 - G B R

Feeding a varying RGB to row 1 makes rows 2 and 3 light up differently at the same time. If you weren't too fussed about duplicating those colours on the other three faces then you'd only need ONE changing RGB signal source.

 

[Bowman]

The various arduino drivers for these LED strips come with sample code that may do pretty much what you want.

I'd start from one of these examples and then learn enough C++ to change the code to do what you want it to do.

What Audrino board would be suitable for this application, as i know there are many to choose from, but preferably one that's not overkill and expensive, as this is all it would be running in its life. Unless there is a way of doing it without an Audrino.

Since you have an RGB feed to each side you can 'cross-connect' between sides and feed two lots of RGB control signal to the device i.e. one RGB signal to each of three faces like so:

ROW 1 - R G B then cross-connect the wires to give...
ROW 2 - B R G and cross-connect again to give...
ROW 3 - G B R

Feeding a varying RGB to row 1 makes rows 2 and 3 light up differently at the same time. If you weren't too fussed about duplicating those colours on the other three faces then you'd only need ONE changing RGB signal source.

Would this set up be using an Audrino? Aslo would it be able to light up 1 strip at a time in the colours shown in #1, and cross fade into the next strip in line? What gets me is how would the two signals communicate when to cross over and not go out of sync?

 

[kellys_eye]

You could do this without an Arduino but using one will simplify the construction.

There are many Arduino sketches available for LED control and there's probably one that does fading-between-colours too - up to you to Google where to find one though!

If you read (and understood) what I wrote in my first post you will see that the wiring arrangement I suggested will provide three different colour STRIPS for ONE colour-fading RGB output.

Of course, if you wanted to, you could simply write code (and build SIX strip drivers) on a one-per-strip basis instead of the two-per-six that I suggest.

 

[Bowman]

You could do this without an Arduino but using one will simplify the construction.

So out of curiosity, what components would i need to be able to do this without an Arduino? Would it be on the line of a load of 555 timers or something similar?

 

[kellys_eye]

In order to fade, you will need a variable PWM signal and another signal to control the rate at which the 'fade' happens. Then triple it (one each for R, G and B) and apply it to appropriate drivers. Add a circuit to randomise the effect and there you go!

Another way to look at it would be to think of it as a 3-phase sinewave with each phase adjustable in frequency and amplitude (randomly) where each phase drives a different colour (R, G and B).

 

[Bowman]

In order to fade, you will need a variable PWM signal and another signal to control the rate at which the 'fade' happens. Then triple it (one each for R, G and B) and apply it to appropriate drivers.

Right, just to keep it as simple as possible, what would I need to make a standard 6000k white 5050 LED strip to illuminate at half brightness and fade to nothing?

From my knowledge, I would say maybe an inline resistor at set current value for mid brightness, and a capacitor that will drain when the circuit is connected by say a 555 timer, then after it is partly drained it would reset the timer and trigger the next in line somehow.

 

[kellys_eye]

Nope - you'd need a PWM (pulse signal) of 50% duty cycle (where 100% represents 'full on') that falls to 0% over the set time period. Regulating LED brightness by resistor is a 'fools errand'.