LED Lights for the Robot (what do you use??!?!)

[MrRoboSteve]

We use the NFLS-X3 series LED strip from SuperBrightLEDs, connected to the solenoid breakout. It's about $1 a foot. It can be cut into smaller sections. You'll also want one NFLS10-2CPTH solderless pigtail adapter per section. I can't remember whether one comes with a strip -- you'll need to check.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ht-strip/1440/

[faust1706]

Here is a very cool example of what can be done with LEDs on robots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06c-6VXEHrg only pay attention to the first ten seconds XD in 2011, we had the first logo flash on our robot in, if i remember correctly, 40 LEDs. One shape at a time. It really fit the game, and it taught people a simple electronics at the same time. As for power, it was using power from the distributions board.

[alex.lew]

We planned to have a strip of LEDs with an Arduino Uno board, then wire it directly to the PD board. Although we weren't able to mount it to our robot (due to weight limitations) we placed it on the robot cart. We purchased the Arduino at http://www.adafruit.com/products/50
and downloaded the library for the LPD8806 strip
http://www.adafruit.com/products/306

[tuXguy15]

Ok thanks. We might do that in case we cant wire it to the crio.

[apalrd]

We use 8 Shift Brite's.

While it would probably be possible to use the SPI on the cRio to control them, we used an Arduino and spare Relay Out ports with external pull downs for control. We send a 3-bit command nibble to the Arduino which sets the LED states for that state. This gives us 8 possible LED combinations controllable by the cRio with 3 digital lines, but only 1 combination when disabled (relay outputs are disabled).

[tuXguy15]

I was looking at Strip LED's from superbrightleds and saw the Red, Green, Blue and Black wires. I'm pretty sure that the Red, Green, and Blue is the positive for the LED colors and black is the ground. I know wiring enough to wire our robot's components, but I don't know how I would hook 1 ground up to 3 spikes. I'm sure there is a way, I just dont know it.

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by Zer0

I was looking at Strip LED's from superbrightleds and saw the Red, Green, Blue and Black wires. I'm pretty sure that the Red, Green, and Blue is the positive for the LED colors and black is the ground. I know wiring enough to wire our robot's components, but I don't know how I would hook 1 ground up to 3 spikes. I'm sure there is a way, I just dont know it.

One spike gets Ground and one signal.

The other gets two Signals (you only need two Spikes)

The spike with Ground is used in forward-only mode for the signal.

The other spike is used in forward-reverse mode, the forward phase is for one signal and the reverse phase is for the other signal.

You could alternatively run ground back to the PD board and skip the Spikes altogether. There's nothing saying the Spike requires the ground to return through it.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Zer0

I was looking at Strip LED's from superbrightleds and saw the Red, Green, Blue and Black wires. I'm pretty sure that the Red, Green, and Blue is the positive for the LED colors and black is the ground. I know wiring enough to wire our robot's components, but I don't know how I would hook 1 ground up to 3 spikes. I'm sure there is a way, I just dont know it.

Assuming you're correct and the black wire is the power return, you don't need to connect it to a Spike at all. You can wire it directly to a black terminal on the Power Distribution Board. Or you can wire it to one of the V- inputs on one of the Spikes and share the Spike's return connection. Wire the R G B wires to any three Spike outputs you like, on either two or three Spikes, leaving any leftover Spike outputs unconnected.

Or you can wire it to the M- output of one Spike, and never turn that half of the Spike on (restrict the Spike to OFF and FORWARD).

[tuXguy15]

Ok thanks!

[RohiZ]

Does anyone have code for java that I can look at?

[bhsrobotics1671]

Originally Posted by RohiZ

Does anyone have code for java that I can look at?

I am looking for the same thing. Code for Java to strictly use DIO to work with https://www.adafruit.com/products/306 would help a lot.

[Ghost_Pack]

Has anyone tried using the NeoPixel LEDs from Adafruit?
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1376

They are supposed to be simpler to wire and cheaper than the old 32 LED kind, but I haven't seen anyone using them.

[BBray_T1296]

I could see somebody doing some pretty nifty things with a LED board like these

[pribusin]

We are using two types of LED strips on our robot this year: 1. Common Anode RGB strips (same color for the entire strip) and 2. individually addressable LED strips based on the WS2811 LEDs. I'm not sure the cRio could handle the individually addressable ones so we're offloading the code to drive both strip types onto two arduino nanos. They'll get their control information from the cRio in the form of either a digital I/O or a PWM.

[Brian Selle]

Originally Posted by bhsrobotics1671

I am looking for the same thing. Code for Java to strictly use DIO to work with https://www.adafruit.com/products/306 would help a lot.

Attached is the Java code we used last year to run the Adafruit addressable lights directly from the digital side car DIO ports. We used a 5V transformer to supply the power (same unit used to power the D-link radio). Hope it helps.