Fancy RGBish lights on robot/cart/etc

[ABreyen]

Hey CD!

Just wondering, do teams have RGB-style strip lights on your robot/cart/elsewhere? (Strip lights like this) And if you do, how do you control it? Raspberry Pi or Arduino may be a good option for us, and it seems simple enough...

Also, is this legal? I'd assume so, so long as it does not communicate wirelessly during the match.

If you would, please let us know at http://www.strawpoll.me/embed_1/11851624! Thanks

[bobbysq]

We have used an Arduino with the FastLED library to control lights.

[Hitchhiker 42]

On our 2014 and 2015 robot, we had an arduino controlling the lights. In 2015 we completely redesigned our pit, working lots and lots of green LEDs that were the cheap, one-color ones. Those, we simply plug into an adapter which goes into an outlet.

[davidaly46]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

On our 2014 and 2015 robot, we had an arduino controlling the lights. In 2015 we completely redesigned our pit, working lots and lots of green LEDs that were the cheap, one-color ones. Those, we simply plug into an adapter which goes into an outlet.

One color LED strips are the easiest to work with. Simple outlet adapters like stated above work well in pits, and if you plan on using them on the robot, you can always use the 5V rail on the PDB and a few resisters. In my opinion, when used for aesthetic and not operational purposes, single color strips that you can just set in minutes is the best way to go. I have seen too many teams run into code, power, and design time issues simply trying to do a little much with LEDs. Yes, it's entirely legal and pretty cool when used correctly.

[euhlmann]

On the robot, LEDs are legal as long as they conform to the other electronics rules. Last season, we used an Adafruit light strip connected to a Teensy LC (Arduino) communicating with the roboRIO over I2C. The LEDs would change color based on the alliance color, during autonomous, and when the robot took a shot.

[dradel]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

On our 2014 and 2015 robot, we had an arduino controlling the lights. In 2015 we completely redesigned our pit, working lots and lots of green LEDs that were the cheap, one-color ones. Those, we simply plug into an adapter which goes into an outlet.

Actually they are rgb leds that can flash and fade and all that, but I hid the remote so you guys couldn't mess with it.

[NShep98]

My team used these LEDs on our 2015 robot. All the lights stay one color at a time. You can get a few basic effects, but we normally just kept them either red or blue each match. The inspectors were okay with it as long as the remote stayed in the pit, and you pretty much have to be standing next to the robot to change the colors anyway.

[Hitchhiker 42]

Originally Posted by dradel

Actually they are rgb leds that can flash and fade and all that, but I hid the remote so you guys couldn't mess with it.

They could change color, but the entire strip had to be one color at a given time, and we set it to green the whole time because that is one of our team colors.

[GeeTwo]

We have not used any programmable/addressable LED strips on our robots, though we have used them on mascots and other projects. If you do want to use addressable LEDs on the robot, I absolutely recommend a secondary processor so that the roboRIO is not spending time switching individual LEDs. Barring a significant change in the controls rules, LED controls CAN be outsourced to an external processor; the rules have been written to require that signals to actuators come from the roboRIO; lighting, sensors, and computing/processing have traditionally been available for offloading to a coprocessor.

[GreyingJay]

We were going to use these IKEA DIODER LEDs for underglow lighting on our chassis. There's a little dial to select the color (not a remote control) and we would have powered it off a VRM or PCM relay control. We were going to dial in either red or blue for our alliance, or purple (our team color).

Unfortunately we just didn't have enough time to install it.

[Tom Line]

If you intend to put these on your cart, please make sure you can easily turn them off. I've repeatedly had to ask other teams to turn off their blinking lights when we are in que desperately trying to fix something and they are shining in our eyes.

Think very hard about how to make them look cool but NOT be obnoxious. Every team around thank you for it.