LED strip configuration help?

[nashrulk45]

So I'm part of electrical in my team, and this is our second season.

This year we wanna step it up by pimping our bot up with LED lights for recycling rush.
I did some basic digging and found that maybe adhesive LED strips can be directly wired into the PDB, and also something involving programming Arduino boards for color changing RGB LED strips.
But I couldn't find exactly how to physically configure wires or what materials are needed.
Basic tutorials and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

[cgmv123]

If you're running the LED's straight into the PDB, it's as simple as plugging it in and making sure there's a breaker.

If you're using an Arduino, you need to figure out a way to send commands to the Arduino. There are about 5 or 6 interfaces on the roboRIO you can use to connect an Arduino to the roboRIO.

[nashrulk45]

thank you
that helps
now is just more info on the arduino configuration

[MikLast]

you should be able to find some online, arduino isint exactly the hardest device to use.
We tried to do this last year with an arduino, i was not really a part of that, but they had a huge issue of when they got bumped/hit/smacked/anything shaking the robot it affected the LEDs to the point of some stopped working entirely, so make sure the LEDs are robust.

[dyanoshak]

Originally Posted by nashrulk45

now is just more info on the arduino configuration

REV Robotics has an Arduino-compatible board called the RIOduino that was specifically designed to plug into the roboRIO myRIO Expansion Port (MXP).

There is a place to connect addressable LED strips directly to the RIOduino. All you need to do is provide 5V from an external power source (e.g. the VRM).

There are plenty of example sketches for the various LED strips already out there, and as long as they run on an Arduino Uno, they will run on the RIOduino.

We will also be posting some roboRIO specific examples in the very near future. They will demonstrate how you can communicate between the roboRIO and the RIOduino.

The RIOduino will be available for purchase at AndyMark VERY soon. For now, check out the details at www.revrobotics.com/product/rioduino.

-David

[Pendulum^-1]

Adafruit has a good tutorial on these LED strips.

A vendor on Amazon has a good price, and I've had success buying from them.

[nashrulk45]

thanks everyone, this is all really helpful

[one_each]

Adafruit has a new (to me) product called Dotstars that communicate through SPI. These should (untested at this time) connect directly to the RoboRIO's SPI port without the need for an arduino. They are a little more expensive, but less then an arduino.

I have some on order for a personal project, but will try them on the RoboRIO and report back later this week.

[dyanoshak]

Originally Posted by dyanoshak

The RIOduino will be available for purchase at AndyMark VERY soon.

The RIOduino is now available at AndyMark!

[GeeTwo]

Actually, if all you're looking for is "effects" lighting that isn't linked to what the robot is doing, you can just power the LEDs (and arduino) through a single relay (or half a spike), and turn it on as part of your startup sequence. If you actually want to control it from the driver station or 'Rio via an arduino, you will need one of these comms paths.
As another alternative, you can use a much less expensive relay than the spike to turn on low-current custom circuits, something like this: http://www.miniinthebox.com/4-channe...caAnA u8P8HAQ Since it has a 5V input, you can switch it directly from a DIO port on the 'Rio. If you have enough DIO ports to spare and boards like that one, you can just program all of your LED strings from the roboRio. If you have three PWM ports to spare, you could maybe even do those color-changing strips.