LEDs Operated by Arduinos: Awesome Cosmetics or Illegal Modifications?

[CAPTIN_CAPSLOCK]

My team is trying out a robot mounted light show this year, with LED strips operated by three Arduinos running along the frame of the robot in order to draw attention to all its majestic aluminum glory. The only problem is that the rules seem to be more or less ambiguous on this specific operation. So, I pose this question to you, Chief Delphi: can we do this legally, or are there limitations on our robot's cosmetic options?

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me if we can run all of our lights on one Arduino.

[droswell]

What kind of LED strips? Addressable, or just a regular old RGB LED strip?

[SteveGarward]

We do this every year. It falls under a custom circuit. So long as you power and control it appropriately from the PD board according to the rules for custom circuits, you are fine.

Depending on the LED strips, you should be able to use a single Arduino to control them all, and not need 3 separate Arduinos.

[Toa Circuit]

And if you custom make your own strips, and use Charlieplexing or shift registers, you can definitely control all the LEDs from one Arduino. Or even a mega, without charlieplexing or shift registers...

You might also be able to use the GPIO of the digital sidecar to run the lights. The DSC has PWM capability, though I don't know if the pullup resistors can be circumvented...

There's a lot of custom circuits you could make. We've got a trim-pot adjusted voltage regulator for our camera light ring, which is custom made of eight 10 degree viewing range LEDs. (Amazing power, no voltage drop even when the battery falls to 8 volts...)

[rben13]

You can use LEDs like these, http://www.adafruit.com/products/306, from Adafruit.com. They are controlled by one wire and Adafruit has already created the libraries you need. Be careful, though. The LED controller chips are very sensitive to static and reversed voltage. If you blow one, all the LEDs after it will be dark.

We plan on using an Arduino Mega 2560 to run our graphics this year, which will include LED strips and perhaps an LED panel.

Pay a lot of attention to how you're going to trigger the graphics. With the cRIO, you can use the RS232 port, I2C, or even dedicated GPIO lines that you raise to tell the Arduino which routine to trigger.

Hope this answer helps.

Ray

[DonRotolo]

Are they legal? Probably. Just avoid interfering with other robots' sensor systems. And don't make them blinding, please.

Hint: Look for a rule prohibiting it. If you don't find one, after a good look, then you are OK.