Digsy Posted May 18, 2006 Share Posted May 18, 2006 Just over two years ago I read an issue of T3 magazine which featured a house that had not just normal lightbulbs, but each and every lightbulb had been replaced by a cluster of red, green and blue LEDs. Not only that, but each colour channel was linked to a separate controller so each room could be illuminated in whatever colour of the rainbow you wanted. In short, it looked really cool I was so impressed that I got in touch with the company that did it only to find out that such an install in even just one room would run into £K. Unfortunately, I decided that with even my (at the time) meagre knowledge of electronics I could make something almost as good, and a lot cheaper. Simple. Well, suffice to say that it turned into a bit of a labour of love. Two years on, a lot of learning and three complete redesigns later I've finally finished two of my very own light controllers, and installed the first in my kitchen to power under-unit lighting made from 96 individual LEDs. The second unit will go in my lounge/home cinema room just as soon as I've made the lights (using twice as many LEDs). I must say that I bloody love the effect. In fact I was sufficiently moved to make a short video so I could share my efforts with you all. Gadget freaks should sympathise with me. ...and before a smart-arse points out that since I started work on this people have actually started making affordable off the shelf systems that do pretty much the same thing - I know about them already. Thankfully, one that I priced up for my lounge would still weight in at four figures, though, so I think I'm still quids in sticking to the DIY approach. Here's the vid. Right click>save target as might be a good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted May 18, 2006 Share Posted May 18, 2006 That is AMAZING. Good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamanC Posted May 18, 2006 Share Posted May 18, 2006 now that is impressieve sir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted May 18, 2006 Share Posted May 18, 2006 Nice! Great work. Is that a Panini maker to lhs of the window? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted May 18, 2006 Share Posted May 18, 2006 Looks great, good work! There may be some TV potential here... "Pimp my kitchen" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted May 19, 2006 Author Share Posted May 19, 2006 Nice! Great work. Is that a Panini maker to lhs of the window? It certainly is. The observant among you will have noticed it matches my kettle and toaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supragal Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 Wow, yet again another unique addition to your house. Where the vid of teh stairs? They ROCK. I like the credits too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supragal Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 I was gonna say- your kitchen always makes me chuckle, it's gadget city. I especially like the lights how they show around the extractor ie the stainless steel hangy things higher up and unaffected but the surfaces below all preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeety. When I get my BIG house I am commisioning you to do the lighting BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymanuk Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 Nice:Pling: Good work fella:thumbs: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 That's pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supra dan Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 looks amazing. you must have a lot of spare time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 "Should get out more often" Need I say more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun. Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 Very good mate .. how about a "behind the scenes" video of the workings etc for us sad techies ? Shaun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted May 19, 2006 Author Share Posted May 19, 2006 Spare time? I think I had some of that once Actually, that's partially why its taken so long. I had the final design specced out for about a month before lifted a finger to actually make it. Making the boxes and front panel took bloody ages, too. In the time since I first thought "hey - I could make one of those" I have also been to work in Malaysia, been to work in China, got divorced, got a new girlfriend, been to LeMans, been to New York and also created the ciruits for two alternative designs that never made it to hardware, and loads of other stuff I've forgotten about I've been a busy boy. For the techies amongst you, the circuit I ended up with is quite simple. It's based around a PIC16F684 microcontroller chip. The LEDs are driven via four logic-level MOSFETs whereas the front panel LEDs are driven straight off the chip outputs. The brightness control is done by pulse-width modulation, running at around 100Hz. The chip has on board non-volatile EEPROM memory that stores what the controller is doing and what the brightness and fader settings are so that in the event of a power cut it will pick ip right where it left off. There's also a "maximum brightness" mode where you can temporarily turn all the colour channels up to full with one touch if you actually want to use the lights to do something, rather than just show off. The total amount of code on the chip is just short of 2kbytes, and was written using the BASIC compiler in Oshonsoft's PIC Simulator IDE package, which I can't recommend highly enough for anyone thinking of getting into PIC programming. The chip was programmed using PICKIT2 from Microchip.com. I have some stills of the innards of the strip lights and the controller that I'll post up later. If anyone is sufficiently interested to make their own, I also have the stripboard layout and parts list. It is probably worth noting that this is a 12VDC system, so it wouldn't take too much modification to the on-board power supply to make it work in a car.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKIVDreamer Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 [DUMMYMODE] Cooooool! [/DUMMYMODE] Very impressive - I have been thinking of applications for something like this since seeing the RGB+White cabin lighting used on a Boeing747. Your kitchen setup looks super-sexy. Any thoughts on taking it to market as a DIY kit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted May 19, 2006 Author Share Posted May 19, 2006 [DUMMYMODE] Cooooool! [/DUMMYMODE] Very impressive - I have been thinking of applications for something like this since seeing the RGB+White cabin lighting used on a Boeing747. Your kitchen setup looks super-sexy. Any thoughts on taking it to market as a DIY kit? Cheers I've no aspirations to market it, really, because although I've been as careful as I can over the innards knowing my luck the cirst customer would short circuit one, burn their house down and then sue my ass. Plus I don't really want to spend any more time making more sets up, and like I said before you can buy these kits off the shelf now for a few hundred quid (for a small room, anyway - lighting a lounge this way would still run into four figures). I will happily pass on all the details to anyone who wants to make their own up, though. I'll have to tidy it all into a zip file or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Matt Posted May 19, 2006 Share Posted May 19, 2006 Great effect mate, well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted May 20, 2006 Author Share Posted May 20, 2006 Here's a few pics of the innards of the strip lights (mounted in 3/4" conduit - a bit rough but then again you can't see them), plus the guts of the controller. The vacant socket is for the PIC chip, which hadn't been programmed yet when I took the photos. The two controller boards are laying on my circuit diagram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toyotasuprauk Posted May 20, 2006 Share Posted May 20, 2006 Very impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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