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[Q]Simple electronics question

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Xeofreestyler Belgium6774 Posts March 05 2010 14:17 GMT #1 Hi! I am working on a project that would involve a system that would roughly work like this: To be more specific: I'm going to make something pretty much like a simple signboard using tubularly shaped lights that light up as letters. To do this I'll need lots of lights so I need to be able to control them all at the same time. I'm guessing a system kind of like the 3x3 LED cube would work but I in the end I'm probably not gonna use LEDs (unless someone knows of tubular LEDs that are about 10cm long?) so I'm guessing individual control of normal 230v spotlights or something would be easier. But I still need a micocontroller to manipulate the relay I guess? I'm asking because my knowledge of practical electronics is pretty much nonexistant. I don't know anything about microcontrollers, how to control them (probably gonna use 'processing' like this: http://88proof.com/synthetic_biology/blog/archives/273) or how to connect them to the lights or the computer So if anyone knows anything about what I need to know, please help thanks

Navane Netherlands2749 Posts March 05 2010 14:48 GMT #2 Do you really need a pc to be hooked up? How much variations do you want in the behavior of the lights? If much variation: There exists IO port-cards for pc's. That way you can use your PC as an IO. If you hook up relays to the IO card, you have everything you need. You;ll only need some kind of software to operate the IO card, but i presume it comes with the IO card. No microprocessor needed. Otherwise you can throw out the PC and go with the microprocessor. Pre program it via your pc, then hook it up with relays and it will be stand alone.

Aresien United Kingdom305 Posts March 05 2010 16:22 GMT #3 Have you looked at Arduino? (http://www.arduino.cc/). I had to use it for one of my university projects. It's pretty cheap and relatively easy to code for.

Xeofreestyler Belgium6774 Posts March 06 2010 02:56 GMT #4 Whoa. Arduino is like the Processing of electronics thanks <3

Myrmidon United States9452 Posts March 06 2010 03:40 GMT #5 I'm not quite sure on what you're trying to accomplish yet. Correct me if something is different than what I interpret: You want some kind of grid of lights that you can turn off and on to form different letters, kind of like how you turn different bars off/on for a 7-segment display to show a different number from 0 to F or whatever. How/when do you want the display to change which letters are showing? I see the big picture problem being broken down into these parts: Some logic/program to determine what letters you want to display, for how long, and when Some logic/program to map the input of desired letters into the output of which lights turn on/off Some way to turn the lights on/off So how are you planning to power the lights? How would you turn them on and off? How is it right now that you envision the microcontroller physically turning on the lights? The processor chip itself will not be able to drive the light sources (like on a digital output pin, of course). And I don't know of lights that accept digital controls for on/off. Granted, my knowledge here is all from undergrad lab work in academia, so I'm sure there's all sorts of devices I don't know about. You can amplify any signal out of the microcontroller, of course. But how do you amplify, and with what? Anyhow, I'm just telling you to that the output stage deserves some more attention! Good luck.

ZBiR Poland1092 Posts March 06 2010 15:04 GMT #6 You said "probably USB", could this be also LPT? It's way, way easier to program (just set a voltage to each pin separately, google how to do it), less likely to broke (USB brokes really easily if used slightly differently than should be used), and if you have less LEDs than LPT pins then you also don't need any kind of controller, just a resistor in series with each LED will be enough. edit: obviously meant LEDs, not LCDs

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