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I posted to hackaday.com

DMX keyboard display

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/10/dmx-keyboard-display/

This keyboard display has an RGB LED for each key that is addressable through the common stage lighting protocol, DMX. The project video, seen after the break, does a good job of walking us through the concept. By using a MIDI to DMX converter box [John] can show MIDI signals coming from a keyboard on the appropriate key of the display. By further monkeying with the firmware in the converter box he shows a plasma effect on the whole keyboard, making the corresponding light for each pressed key pop out in bright white. Jump to about 3:45 to hear and see “Sweet Child o’ Mine”.

This isn’t the first time [John's] been caught with a slew of blinking lights. He helped create the giant LED Christmas tree that brightened up our holiday.
- Tags:
- digital audio hacks
- dmx
- rgb
- midi
- led hacks
- hair band
June 10 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Color clock makes telling time impossible

http://hackaday.com/2010/06/07/color-clock-makes-telling-time-impossible/

[Bogdan] set out to build the all-too-familiar binary clock. But, he didn’t want to be ordinary, and set the goal of making the clock as hard to read as possible. What he ended up with is a clock that is almost impossible to read correctly.

He’s using colors to tell the time. We immediately thought this might make use of resistor codes as the display but it doesn’t. Red shows the hours, green for minutes, and blue for seconds. Now stack all of them on top of each other in binary and you’ve got the time. That means you’ve got to know all of your color combinations, plus read the binary value correctly, to decipher the time. Add to that the display changing every second and we’re in trouble.

Aside from the user difficulty level, this is a really clean build. It uses an ATmega8535 in conjunction with our favorite DS3232 RTC chip. The etched board is nice and clean, making for an aesthetically pleasing clock.
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- binary
- rtc
- clock hacks
- ds3232
- atmega8535
June 7 2010, 8:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Adding SCART to a cheap CRT television

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/27/adding-scart-to-a-cheap-crt-television/

[133MHz] cracked open a cheap tube television to add a SCART connector. He knew he had a chance at success when he discovered all of the knock-outs on the back of the connector panel because one of them was exactly the right size for the connector. But it wasn’t quite as easy as soldering in one component. He ended up injecting his own RGB data from the SCART connector directly into the onscreen display, making an end run around the missing feature. [133MHz] removed some resistors in the circuit and used the empty lead holes to patch in his own circuit, feeding the RGB data from the SCART connector to the OSD chip in the format it needed.

This one takes you way down the rabbit hole. We’re glad he provided so much background about the hack but it’s going to take us a little while to fully wrap our heads around how he figured it out.

[Thanks Victor]
- Tags:
- home entertainment hacks
- television
- rgb
- crt
- classic hacks
- scart
May 27 2010, 3:31pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

USB VU-meter

http://hackaday.com/2010/04/22/usb-vu-meter/

WaitingForFriday’s [Simon Inns] is quite possibly the USB interface and PIC master. This week he let us know about his VU-meter repurposed as a computer performance monitor using a PIC18F2550 and his open source USB Generic HID communication class. With PWM the meter’s needles and RGB LED can be accurately set and even dampened for CPU usage, network usage, HDD utilization, and even memory usage. Oddly enough, in his software we didn’t find the ability to use the device as a VU-meter – go figure.
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- led
- pic
- rgb
- pwm
- VU meter
- usb
- hid
- needle
- PIC18F2550
- waitingforfriday
April 22 2010, 8:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/08/dr-boardmans-color-conundrum/

We feel like trumpets should be sounding. Someone took the overused project of connecting RGB LEDs to a microcontroller and produced something useful. [Paul] created Dr. Boardman’s Color Conundrum which works much like a simple mechanical coin-op game you might find at a carnival. When switched on, a random color is displayed by the ping-pong ball covered LED on the left. The player then manipulates three knobs to color-match the two lights.

Inside you’ll find a minimalist set of hardware. An ATmega8 polls the three potentiometers and uses them to mix the appropriate user color. Everything is wired-up using prototyping board and draws power from two AA batteries. He’s using a random seed stored in EEPROM and increments it every time the uC boots up. This keeps the input color different for every game.

Fun and simple, it’s not going to make your guests marvel at the complexity but [Paul's] come up with a unique game that we think has marketing potential.
- Tags:
- led
- Toy Hacks
- rgb
- atmega8
- color conundrum
March 8 2010, 2:14pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED and fan controller

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/03/led-and-fan-controller/

Needing a front fan to keep his hard drive cool, [CalcProgrammer1] found he was unhappy with a single LED color for the fan. He swapped them out for a set of four RGB LEDs and whipped up his own controller board for the unit. It is based around an ATmega168 and patches into the COM2 header on the motherboard, providing a serial interface. [CalcProgrammer1] wrote a GUI to control fan speed, and individual LED color settings. You can take a look at and enthralling, edge-of-your-seat demonstration of how slider controls work after the break. Wouldn’t it be great if the HDD LED clock could be adapted to use a fan so that the front panel had a colorful analog dial on it?
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- serial
- fan
- led hacks
- classic hacks
- com2
March 3 2010, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Controllable LEDs spice up the living room

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/21/controllable-leds-spice-up-the-living-room/

[Sprite_tm] brings us another great hack by lighting up the living room. Unsatisfied with just replacing incandescent bulbs with an LED alternative he went with strips of LEDs to illuminate the length of a wall. Starting with a seven-meter strip of the lights, he cut it down to fourteen pieces in order to make the RGB devices individually controllable. [Sprite_tm] whipped up a design for controller boards using RS-485 to communicate with each, and sourcing an ATtiny2313 for the PWM necessary to generate any color. As you can see in the video above, the finished project is brilliant. Oh, and the Lounge Music as a background is nice too.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- led
- rgb
- led hacks
- rs-485
- incandescent
February 21 2010, 10:01am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGV laser

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/10/rgv-laser/

[Carl] sure has come a long way with laser modifications, now introducing his portable RGV Full Colour Laser. Although it feels just like yesterday when he showed us his green spiro and his Lego diffraction grating projector.

But enough of the past, the RGV laser is built using a White Fusion Mixing Kit and his own Full Colour Driver Extension. We couldn’t find any circuit diagrams or code to build your own at the moment, but it appears fairly straight forward and you can always take a look at [c4r0's] Colour Laser.
- Tags:
- portable
- rgb
- laser
- laser hacks
- color
- diffraction
- grating
- colour
- driver extension
- full
- rgv
- white fusion
February 10 2010, 5:36pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB display development

http://hackaday.com/2010/01/17/rgb-display-development/

[SeBsZ] tipped us off that he’s working on a display using RGB LEDs. He’s etched some nice surface mount controller boards to carry the ATmega8 microcontroller and NXP PCA9635 drivers. This setup uses the I2C bus to address each expansion board of 5 LED modules. Theoretically this hardware would allow for 638 RGB modules but because of power and refresh rate issues he’s set his sights on reaching somewhere between 100-125, a total of about 25 expansion boards.

There’s not a ton to show off yet. But we expect big things from the project. Partly because one of his goals is to generate a display that can be rolled up and easily moved, and partly because his large-scale light bulb displays are so impressive. Take a look at the video of his 60-bulb unit after the break.
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- i2c
- display
- atmega8
- led hacks
- light bulb
- pca9635
January 17 2010, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB Keylock Shield

http://hackaday.com/2009/12/13/rgb-keylock-shield/

Hackaday alum [Will O'Brien] cleaned up his messy breadboard with an RGB keylock Arduino shield. You may remember this two-part project from last year. It uses buttons backlit by an RGB LED to operate a door lock.

[Will] is still mulling over what type of kit options he will offer. We’re happy to see if the most important part, a laser-cut key bezel, will be available. This makes for a professional looking finish that made the original project difficult to replicate.
- Tags:
- led
- lock
- rgb
- shield
- key
- kit
- led hacks
- android hacks
- bezel
December 13 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

DIY mood lamp looks store-bought

http://hackaday.com/2009/11/17/diy-mood-lamp-looks-store-bought/

[NeZoomie] built an RGB mood lamp as his first electronics project. He certainly hit it out of the park with this one, ending up with a design so clean it could be a commercial product. The controller is an Arduino board (further proof that this is a fantastic entry-level platform) that interfaces with 8 RGB LEDs. He’s built an enclosure out of thick polypropylene that does a great job of diffusing the light and adding a stylish look. The control system features a rotary potentiometer from SparkFun and what he calls a tilt-potentiometer of his own design after drawing inspiration from Hack a Day.

Blinky things are fun and that’s why we see a lot of mood lamps around here. Take a look at the video after the break and if you’ve got the parts, give this one a try!
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- potentiometer
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- mood lamp
- polypropylene
November 17 2009, 3:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Wireless RGB light bulb

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/20/wireless-rgb-light-bulb/

Want to make the above yourself? [Sprite_tm] did a thorough job documenting the build step by step (complete with pics, schematics, graphs, and links to the parts used). In summary, [Sprite_tm] busted open an Ikea CFL bulb to reuse the housing. Inside, he installed a scavenged power supply, ATtiny44, RGB LED module, and a radio receiver. A remote control allows [Sprite_tm] to change the lighting of his room to nearly any color. The cost of the project is a little under $30. The price tag isn’t so steep when one considers the insanely long lifetime of LEDs.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- attiny
- wireless
- AVR
- rgb
- sprite_tm
- radio
- lightbulb
- led hacks
September 20 2009, 12:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Time lapse light sculptures

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/08/time-lapse-light-sculptures/

[Jared] sent us a feature he posted involving time-lapse photography and an LED. Using a custom built aparatus an LED is moved on two axis’ during a long exposure of around thirty seconds. The frame is wood and PVC with two gearhead motors powered by AA batteries to provide the locomotion. The LED is powered by a 3v button cell and automatically transitions through different colors.
- Tags:
- misc hacks
- led
- POV
- camera
- digital cameras hacks
- rgb
- time-lapse
- exposure
- led hacks
September 8 2009, 4:42pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Hard drive RGB clock

http://hackaday.com/2009/09/07/hard-drive-rgb-clock/

We’ve brought you an HDD clock in the past, but [mb1988] tried to bring his project to another level by fully documenting it (in Polish). Inspired by [dzgdzzh]’s version of the same invention, [mb1988] decided to reverse engineer it (as well as make a few changes) and base it on the powerful ATmega128. Since this clock, along with most HDD clocks, can only display solid lines of radii, it cannot be used to display text. However, color schemes and animations can be toggled using a remote control. The housing itself is also pretty impressive. The back part of the enclosure was molded out of Rayobond, while the front was simply the original HDD case but spray-painted black and etched with some original artwork. The source code, schematics, and PCB layouts are freely available to download on the project’s thread, but you will have to login to the forum to access them.
- Tags:
- misc hacks
- led
- POV
- rgb
- clock
- hard drive
- led hacks
- mb1988
September 7 2009, 9:30am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

DIY AVR USB RGB LED notifier

http://hackaday.com/2009/07/06/diy-avr-usb-rgb-led-notifier/

Giving us a chance to break out the TLAs, [Blair] sent in his latest hack where he embedded an RGB LED into his EeePC to display twitter, pidgin, and email notifications. It is based around the ATtiny45, and requires very few additional parts. He based the project on a foundation of work laid by [Dennis Unter] on notifications and the work of [Dave Hillier] that used V-USB, a library for implementing USB on AVRs. The entire circuit was done freehand and crammed inside the netbook. He says that it is a lot easier to see notifications, even when the laptop is shut.

Related: Email notification via RGB LED
- Tags:
- peripherals hacks
- led
- AVR
- Electronics
- DIY
- rgb
- attiny45
- usb
- twitter
- EeePc
- led hacks
- email
- netbook hacks
- justblair
- pidgin
- V-USB
July 6 2009, 3:28pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Massive LED screen project

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/30/massive-led-screen-project/

The folks over at basicmicro.com are working on a massive LED display. They currently have one 32×32 RGB panel working. It displays 50 fps at 140 hz but the one above is only running at about 24 fps. The final display will be 40 of these panels. This thing is going to be massive. We have to wonder how this compares, financially and performance wise, to the commercial signage that displays videos.
- Tags:
- led
- rgb
- led hacks
- basicmicro
June 30 2009, 2:16pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

64 Synchronizing Fireflies

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/25/64-synchronizing-fireflies/

[Alex] of tinkerlog created a set of 64 RGB fireflies that synchronize to blink all at once. We covered the kit earlier, but he has assembled a set of 64. Each firefly is independently controlled by an ATtiny13 that reads a phototransistor and lights up an RGB LED. The fireflies are programmed to blink a certain rate, but blink faster if they detect other blinks. After a few cycles, the fireflies begin to blink in unison. When the fireflies are arranged in different configurations, different patterns emerge. He is selling kits and has instructions for building your own. Videos of the fireflies after the jump.

Related: Jar of fireflies
- Tags:
- news
- video
- AVR
- fireflies
- firefly
- microcontroller
- attiny13
- rgb
- RGB LED
- kit
- led hacks
- phototransistor
- synchronized
- tinkerlog
June 25 2009, 4:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Addressable RGB LED strip

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/17/addressable-rgb-led-strip/

[Synoptic Labs] stumbled upon an RGB light strip with individually-controllable LEDs. The strip uses 5 volts and is controlled by an HL1606. Because the strips are hard to find, this chip is mostly undocumented and he had trouble driving the strip. He was unable to get it working until he met with [John Cohn], who had previously reverse-engineered the serial protocol. Working together, they released a library for the Arduino to drive the strip. So far, the library only supports fading each LED, the only known functionality. If more strips like these were available, constructing LED matrices would be much easier. Embedded below is a video of the strip fading through the rainbow.

[Related: LED ambient light strips]
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- rgb
- serial
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- HL1606
- lighting
- lightstrip
- synaptic labs
June 17 2009, 7:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGBike POV

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/15/rgbike-pov-2/

[Hazard] wanted a full color POV display for his bike wheel. Adafruit’s SpokePOV is single color and Monkeylectric’s original version didn’t display images. He also balked at the cost and decided to manufacture his own version. It uses 16 RGB LEDs on a single layer board he manufactured himself. It’s an entirely through-hole design to make assembly easy. It uses a hall effect sensor to synchronize the image display. The two main components are an ATmega328p microcontroller, which should make it Arduino compatible, and a TLC5940 PWM LED driver. It’s a very well documented build and certainly a good looking effect.

[via adafruit]
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- AVR
- POV
- rgb
- transportation hacks
- pwm
- instructable
- bicycle
- spokepov
- bike
- led hacks
- android hacks
- atmega328
- monkeylectric
June 15 2009, 3:30pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

LED bottle wall

http://hackaday.com/2009/06/13/led-bottle-wall/

Here are two new projects from [Alex Beim] at Tangible Interactions. The video above is the bottle wall with a controllable LED behind each bottle. Embedded below is the 7×5 pixel Rainbow Box. He’s planning on writing a Quartz Composer patch to actively drive the display.

[via Create Digital Motion]
- Tags:
- led
- matrix
- rgb
- vimeo
- cdm
- video hacks
- led hacks
- alex beim
- create digital motion
- quartz composer
- tangible interactions
June 13 2009, 5:44pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

8×8 RGB small form factor toy

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/17/8x8-rgb-small-form-factor-toy/

Here’s a cool tip, sent in by [Martin]. He has put together this very compact package for an animated 8×8 RGB LED array with a tiny footprint. It is controlled by an ATMega16 powered by 2 small lithium cells. While it may not be quite as small as the space invader button, it seems to have a bit more animation horsepower.
- Tags:
- led
- atmega
- rgb
- led hacks
- array
May 17 2009, 11:37am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Peggy 2 super pixels

http://hackaday.com/2009/05/06/peggy-2-super-pixels/

[Windell] from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories took one of their Peggy 2 kits and gave it a little upgrade. The Peggy 2 is a programmable 25×25 LED display. It’s Arduino compatible and can accommodate big 10mm LEDs. Most people assemble them using just one color, but [Windell] decided to create giant RGB pixels by placing discrete red, green, blue, and white LEDs next to each other in the board. This creates a 12.5×12.5 grid of full color pixels. It’s an interesting effect and you should definitely check out the video embedded below which shows how the transition can be smoothed using a diffuser.
- Tags:
- led
- arduino
- matrix
- rgb
- emsl
- evil mad scientist laboratories
- peggy
- video hacks
- arduino hacks
- led hacks
- peggy 2
- windell
May 6 2009, 5:20pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

RGB 7 segment display

http://hackaday.com/2009/04/11/rgb-7-segment-display/

[Markus] noticed a lack of 7 segment LED displays that could show RGB. Like any hacker, he sought to remedy this. The solution he came up with was to basically remove all the electronics from the plastic body of the display. He then mounted new surface mount RGB LEDs in the correct places. This may be a bit messy, and definitely increased the footprint in this layout, but as you can see from the pictures on his site, the final result is quite nice. What uses can you think of for these?
- Tags:
- daily
- led
- tool-hacks
- rgb
- display
- led hacks
- 7 segment
April 11 2009, 11:00am | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Temperature sensing Munny

http://hackaday.com/2009/02/18/temperature-sensing-munny/

Here’s another nerdy present that was built for Valentine’s Day. [João Silva] created a temperature sensing Munny. A Munny is a vinyl toy made to be customized. Other than these Munny speakers, we haven’t seen them in many electronics projects. The LM35CZ temperature sensor has an analog output that connects to the ADC on the ATtiny15L. The microcontroller changes the RGB LED’s color based on the temperature: blue for cold, green for comfortable, and red for hot. It only flashes every three minutes to conserve the power in the coin cells. His one-off circuit board also includes an ISP header for programming. The Munny’s head looks like it does a great job diffusing the light.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- attiny
- misc hacks
- led
- AVR
- Atmel
- rgb
- isp
- RGB LED
- temperature
- adc
- gift
- thermometer
- valentine
- attiny5l
- joao silva
- kidrobot
- lm35cz
- munny
- present
February 18 2009, 7:13pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

SparkFun releases RGB button controller

http://hackaday.com/2009/02/05/sparkfun-releases-rgb-button-controller/

SparkFun has been selling button pad parts for some time and we used them in our RGB door lock project. A excellent part, but you needed to implement your own interface to use the boards. SparkFun has just released two additional versions to make it easier on builders. The first is their Button Pad Controller USB. It has a 4×4 grid of buttons lit by RGB LEDs and a USB interface. This board can be expanded using the Button Pad Controller SPI. The SPI bus means it should be easy to add the button pad to embedded projects. This newest release puts you much closer to building your own RGB monome clone or other custom controller than ever before. The unit pictured above is their own project and they have no plans on selling anything like it.
- Tags:
- news
- peripherals hacks
- led
- lock
- sparkfun
- digital audio hacks
- rgb
- RGB LED
- spi
- monome
- monome clone
- rgb monome
February 5 2009, 4:04pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Wireless BlinkM control

http://hackaday.com/2009/01/10/wireless-blinkm-control/

[John] has been working with several BlinkM RGB devices. He’s created a controller to talk to each of the BlinkMs wirelessly and change their behavior. The core is an old relay tester box used to test telephone circuits. Each of its four knobs are connected to the analog inputs on the Arduino. The signal is transmitted using RFlink devices. Each BlinkM is paired with an ATmega168 and receiver. The control box also has a switch to send the same signal to all of the devices at the same time. The transmit and receive code are available on his site. You can find a video of it embedded below.
- Tags:
- daily
- misc hacks
- wireless
- led
- atmega
- ATmega168
- AVR
- wireless hacks
- rgb
- RGB LED
- blinkm
- receiver
- rflink
January 10 2009, 6:39pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

A ShiftBrite Christmas

http://hackaday.com/2008/12/13/a-shiftbrite-christmas/

[Garrett] took 30 of his ShiftBrite modules and mounted them to his front fence for Christmas. The ShiftBrite is a serially addressable high output RGB LED. The individual modules are quite adept at applications like this where you’re stringing multiple lights together. They have identical buses on either side, specifically for daisychaining. The installation above looks great.
- Tags:
- home hacks
- misc hacks
- led
- rgb
- RGB LED
- macetech
- serial
- daisychain
- garret
- shiftbrite
December 13 2008, 11:00pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Composite video through cat5

http://hackaday.com/2008/11/28/composite-video-through-cat5/

[mixadj] needed to run some video cable from one part of his house to another. He was lacking the proper amount of video cable, but had a bunch of cat5 laying around. so he built a converter to run his composite signal through the cat5. He states that he wouldn’t run it more than 70 feet without amplifying the audio somehow. Aside from that, the performance is supposedly decent. This just adds to the multitude of other uses for that Ethernet cable. We’ve seen voice, data, composite video, VGA, and power. What else have you seen run over cat5?
- Tags:
- home hacks
- home entertainment hacks
- rgb
- ethernet
- cat5
- composite video
November 28 2008, 3:26pm | More »
I posted to hackaday.com

Colorize your election party

http://hackaday.com/2008/11/03/colorize-your-election-party/

[Eric] has put together a simple python script to scrape election results from CNN.com. It uses urllib2 to return the popular and electoral votes for each party and throws an ElectionWon exception when CNN calls the race. He’s planning on hooking this to DMX controlled RGB LED lighting that will shift to either blue or red as the night progresses. It’s a great starting point if you want to pull off something similar.

You may remember [Eric] for building the IKEA MAME table and the TRS-80 wireless terminal.

[photo: skenmy]
- Tags:
- news
- misc hacks
- led
- ikea
- cnn
- colormixing
- dmx
- egradman
- election
- election results
- eric
- mame
- mccain
- obama
- rgb
- rgbLED
- trs80
November 3 2008, 8:05pm | More »

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