Loading Profile...
How did you get LED strip to work?
Hello,
I am using a blinkm maxm with an arduino board using usb (3.3v). I noticed in a picture found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/todbot/2... the led strip. I purchased one of these as well but it fails to llight when plugged into the blinkm maxm master. Any thoughts? Is there a different program I need to run?
Thanks,
M
I am using a blinkm maxm with an arduino board using usb (3.3v). I noticed in a picture found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/todbot/2... the led strip. I purchased one of these as well but it fails to llight when plugged into the blinkm maxm master. Any thoughts? Is there a different program I need to run?
Thanks,
M
I’m hoping for an answer
1
person has this question
I have this question, too!
Tell me when someone answers.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who ask this question, the more it gets noticed.
Create a customer community for your own organization
Plans starting at $19/month
-
Inappropriate?Hi Matthew,
That strip should be able to plug right into MaxM and work straight away. Be sure to power the MaxM from an external power supply as in the photo, and switch the "pwrsel" jumper to "ext".
One thing you may note in the above photo is that I swizzled the wires in the cable that comes with the strip so that the ordering is "V+, R, G, B" instead of its default "V+, G, R, B".
For an unknown LED strip, you should first get the strip working with just a power source, to figure out its wiring. Most LED strips expect 9-12 VDC, so find a DC wall wart adapter and start experimenting. On the LED strip, one wire is hooked to the positive power (e.g. 12VDC) and the three other wires will control the Red, Green, or Blue LEDs when they are connected to the ground (negative) part of your adapter.
Once you have the wiring figured out, hook the wire that goes to the positive power to the "V+" connection on MaxM, then hook the other 3 wires to the "R", "G" and "B" connections right underneath "V+". Then to power both the LED strip and MaxM, move the "pwrsel" jumper to "ext" and plug your wall wart (center-positive) into MaxM.1 Comment
Add a comment
This answers the question
-
Thank you!
Your suggestion of adding an external power source and rewiring the LED strip did the trick.
Now I'm running into issues with color reproduction that I don't grasp yet. In one example r:0xff, g:0xff, b:0x00 is said to be orange (in the source comments) but it looks more sickly green-yellow. I have an orange color on my monitor I am trying to reproduce #BE6C16 with the blinkm maxm but I don't get anything remotely close to that color. Any thoughts? -
Inappropriate?Matthew,
r:0xff, g:0xff, b:0x00 is the definition for yellow. I've noticed that this value produced on the BlinkM (haven't tried the MaxM) is indeed a sickly green-yellow rather than true yellow. For an orange, try something along the lines of r:0xff, g:0x7F, b:0x00 (or even less green). I'm not too heavy on color theory, but reproducing web colors with BlinkMs is a black art at best and an exercise in futility at worst. (Sorry, I'm not slamming them--I love these things).
Are you diffusing the light from the LEDs? That may help some. I saw a great suggestion from Tod that I use for my BlinkMs--a non-melted piece of glue gun glue on the LED makes a perfect diffuser. For the MaxM, maybe a ping pong ball with the bottom cut out?
By the way, where did you pick up your LED strips?1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
-
zombieCat,
The LED strips came from SparkFun.com.
Here is the actual product link http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/prod... -
Inappropriate?Yes zombieCat, reproducing web colors between a BlinkM and a CRT or LCD video screen is pretty futile. Even going between CRT's can be a pain unless both monitors are color calibrated.
Just for, say, red alone -- the phosphor that produces the red color produces a different wavelength of red than that of an LED. Both rely on their chemical make up to produce a given "color" of RED and both are of completely different chemicals. The same goes for green and blue.
Then there's the linearity -- how much RED/BLUE/GREEN is output for a given value and whether it's uniform from 0 to 0xff. Oh... it's gets ugly quickly! -
Inappropriate?Thank you both for the quick responses. I was worried it would be the case that accurate reproduction of colors from an LCD would be difficult if not impossible. I was hoping to reasonably accurately reproduce the 256 "web safe" colors. I am trying to inexpensively build something like the Ambilight technology used by Philips in some of their tvs. See example youtube. I have image analysis software written to return the average color from a given edge of an image but if I can't produce that color with the blinkm maxm I guess it's a bust. I'm willing to try calibration but how much variation could I expect between blinkm's? A black art indeed.
I’m frustrated
-
Inappropriate?i have LED strips, RGB, or single color to sell.
Please check our website www.twinkle-opto.com
or contact me by email: twinkle@twinkle-opto.com
I’m Nice
-
Inappropriate?The problem with color reproduction is due to LED dimming curves. I have a rudimentary solution here, but the ultimate fix is for the BlinkM and MaxM to provide a logarithmic or inverse power dimming curve.
See here: http://getsatisfaction.com/thingm/top...
EMPLOYEE
