RGB LED ideas

I've been playing with an RGB LED, basically I can light it up in any colour under the control of a microcontroller.

I'm looking for ideas for things to do with it. I feel like I have some form of writers block, I can make it do just about anything, but I'm lacking imagination at the moment.

how about a colour changing indoor moodlight

Interior RGB lighting is nice, I have some lights too (a red, a cyan, a blue and some RGB (ZLEDs)) and everyone likes the pure color of LED lighting. By the way, I'm interested in the controller you've made. Can you post more information about it? I might be interested in a few controllers, depending on what they can.

It might sound silly, but I would really like a small flashlight or torch that would give me red, blue, green or white beams... The blue would be good for checking on my kids as I go round the house last thing at night (blue seems to disturb them less than red or white), the red or green I could use for preserving night-vision when I'm outdoors at night, while the white could be for everyday (night) jobs. If I could have the colours, plus white, in a small, well made package with variable brightness, I'd pay quite a bit for a flashlight like that! I'd rather pay more for that, than have a white-only light with stick-on filters.

Erasmus said:

Interior RGB lighting is nice, I have some lights too (a red, a cyan, a blue and some RGB (ZLEDs)) and everyone likes the pure color of LED lighting. By the way, I'm interested in the controller you've made. Can you post more information about it? I might be interested in a few controllers, depending on what they can.

Click to expand...

The controller is a PIC12F675 microcontroller. It has 6 I/O lines, 3 of which control the LEDs, leaving 3 analog inputs.

At the moment, I've got one input hooked up to a pot (like a volume knob; I'm not sure the electronics background here), and as I turn the knob it cycles through the rainbow.

I can make it do pretty much anything you can think of within reason.

One thing I think would be cool is build it into a mag with a luxeon RGB LED and have the color set by turning the head. I don't know anything about the mechanical part of flashlight modding though or how that would be done.


Rob M, that would be very easy to do electronically but would take a fair bit of mechanical working on the light. I can picture it but I can't do mechanical work.

Amonra, there are LEDs that do automatic color fading which are cheaper and easier to get than the full control ones.

I was looking for something like this, tied to a flupic interface - first on, red, second on green, third on blue, ect. I wanted one in an ARC AAA head.

just a thought

Josh

trivergata said:

I was looking for something like this, tied to a flupic interface - first on, red, second on green, third on blue, ect. I wanted one in an ARC AAA head.

Click to expand...

Electronically, that would be very easy to do, but fitting it into something so tiny would be very hard in a custom mod.

It's the sort of thing a big manufacturer could easily do if they wanted to.

I've made a few circuits for ARCs - I guess I'm just too detail orented.
This is a 350mA circuit:


Josh

Wow. That is an amazing contstruction job. Is that a normal 3mm led?

What is 350mA about it? if the LED is using 30mA then even from a single AAA you shouldn't be drawing more than 100mA.

I was just looking at Mag C LED mod http://darkgear.com/mrbulk/sn2build.htm. It looks like there's plenty of room beneath the bulb for my RGB driver circuit and I can replace the white LED with a 3W RGB LED.

Edit: Fixed the URL

Sorry - wrong circuit - that is a Dorcy board I modded into an ARC AA when I didn't have another ARC board. I made another board that is tied to a Lux 3 that is running at 350mA - sorry for the error.
This is the thread that gave me the idea to try it:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/94189

Josh

While we're on the subject, I always wanted an inova X1 with slowly color changing led. You have to add the circuit, I guess, to set the speed and color cycling.

Rob M said:

It might sound silly, but I would really like a small flashlight or torch that would give me red, blue, green or white beams... The blue would be good for checking on my kids as I go round the house last thing at night (blue seems to disturb them less than red or white), the red or green I could use for preserving night-vision when I'm outdoors at night, while the white could be for everyday (night) jobs. If I could have the colours, plus white, in a small, well made package with variable brightness, I'd pay quite a bit for a flashlight like that! I'd rather pay more for that, than have a white-only light with stick-on filters.

Click to expand...

try a gerber recon, for your purposes it should be excellent

I did this some time ago:



Here is the thread: http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=105574

And I also used the same PIC microcontroller (or it was a 12F683?)

Good luck


Pablo

Hi,

Just saw this thread, I'm plugging a pre-programmed RGB chip with 5 channels at www.rgbsunset.com if you don't want to do programming yourself.
If you do, download the manual anyway, it's got a section in the back with some ideas on what to do with RGB stuff.

(Incidentally, some people have reported problems with the pdf...if you have any troubles, PM me and I'll see to it)

rgbphil

I saw the Gerber Recon but didn't fancy it, for a start it's too bulky (I'd want just a plain cylinder about the size of a Fenix L1p, rather than that bulky rotating filter head) and I'd want coloured LEDs for their higher efficiency than the white. Red LEDs are the most efficient aren't they? It seems like a waste to use a relatively inefficient white LED then stick a coloured filter in front of it!

I'd like a flashlight like a Fenix L1p but with additional red, green, and blue 3mm LEDs in the head, adjustable brightness would be great too!

Hello. If you were still interested in putting the RBG light in a Maglight and you want to change the color by twisting the head, you should know it can be done. I rigged up a Quad TXOH Luxeon III 2D Maglight that can be dimmed by twisting the head. Since the o-sink may not be easy to use with the way I attached the potentiometer, you can always up the power and use the tri-luxeon heatsink (the PTS or PTS-2) and have three of those RBG Z-LED's. Those Z-LED's are shaped like the Luxeon emitters, right? If so, then it should work, just mount them on some old luxeon star boards (if they aren't already on a hex shaped board). Use 3 SO20XA reflectors and you will just love the output (if the RBG driver can power three of them).

The reason I say to use the tri or quad luxeon heatsink is that there is a center hole that you can use for the potentiometer for changing the colors. You may be able to rig the o-sink, but it would be challenging since it sits in the maglite body. The tri and quad heatsinks sit in the head of the Maglite. Check out the pictures I added. I finally got a server running and I can post pictures of my projects!



See how that works? Now here are the ideas actually applied in my Quad Lux3 maglite mod:













So, there you go. You see how I have the potentiometer mounted to the body of the maglite? You will have to create some sort of holder out of a sheet of steel, brass, or aluminum. You will bend it into a C shape, then drill a hole to mount the pot and the two holes to screw onto the body (use short sheet metal screws). Make sure you drill the holes in the maglite body first, then mark the holes for the potentiometer holder. This will make it much easier and save you the hassle. Make sure you prepare the holes on the maglite body so when the screw is tightened, nothing will stick up past the threads so you can smoothly screw on the head of the flashlight without binding. Use a larger drill bit to do this and use screws with a tapered head.

As a warning, there are still small bugs with my system. You have to make sure that you make that little C-clip in the hole of the heatsink so it allows the D-shaft of the potentiometer to slide in smoothly without too much wiggle room. You may find that grounding the pot to the ground (body of the flashlight) may cause small problems with the driver circuit (as it did with the Fatman driver). In that case, just wrap a little teflon tape around the D-shaft first.

Also, make sure the pot can handle the torque as you turn it fully one way or another. There is a little mechanical stop that can break or wear out with the cheaper pots. This way, when you turn the head, you wont have to worry about over twisting any wires.

If you use this idea with three of those Z-LED's, please leave feedback! I would love to see my idea work out for someone else. I am long over due for posting these pictures on a thread I made that was made for my idea. Check it out here:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/110645&page=1&pp=20

Good luck!

Gryloc said:

Hello. If you were still interested in putting the RBG light in a Maglight and you want to change the color by twisting the head, you should know it can be done. I rigged up a Quad TXOH Luxeon III 2D Maglight that can be dimmed by twisting the head.

Click to expand...

I'd like to do an RGB maglite mod, so I've been reading up on moding maglites in general and so far it looks very doable, but I'm worried about my ability to do the mechanical parts of the mod.

So far I'm done the electronic part. For testing, I used a little 5mm RGB led, but the live build would use either luxeon emitters or a clone (since the only RGB power LED I could find was a clone).

I like the design; each time I press the button it switches through modes:
white, red, green, blue, rainbow fade, red/white/blue blink for July 4th . I can add more modes easily. I think it would look great mounted in a mag.

Driving 3 Luxeons emitters would not be a problem. It will need a transistor and resistor for each emitter, but the mag seems to have plenty of space for those.

I'm thinking of just buying the power RGB emitter and building it into a cheap little plastic latern I got on the clearence table at halloween rather than mess with a maglite.

Excellent post, Gryloc!