Custom RGBW setup w/ potentiometers

[Jedi_Dragonrider]

Awesome! How smoothly do the pot dim the LED's? I've been experimenting and I can't get a smooth response curve.

The solution, I believe, is a dimmer circuit, either a 555 or LM317 PWM dimmer. The later is just the LM317 chip and a potentiometer. The problem is heat, LM317 chip can handle the voltage but in must have a heat sink. While the 555 does not generate much heat it takes up more room and I would need 4 of them.

I'm putting this project on the back burner for a while. All my parts for customizing my Phantasm V3 have arrived. I'm going to be changing the switches, adding some claws, and etching a design on the hilt. It's gonna be fun on a bun!

[Calith]

It works pretty well with a steady hand. Unfortunatly, my internet has bans disconnected a week before I was told it would be. So dimonstratioun and tutorial will have to wait.

[Darth Obvious]

Awesome! How smoothly do the pot dim the LED's? I've been experimenting and I can't get a smooth response curve.

The solution, I believe, is a dimmer circuit, either a 555 or LM317 PWM dimmer. The later is just the LM317 chip and a potentiometer. The problem is heat, LM317 chip can handle the voltage but in must have a heat sink. While the 555 does not generate much heat it takes up more room and I would need 4 of them.

I'm putting this project on the back burner for a while. All my parts for customizing my Phantasm V3 have arrived. I'm going to be changing the switches, adding some claws, and etching a design on the hilt. It's gonna be fun on a bun!

I don't know a pucking thing about dimmers or heat sinks or anything like that...

But I do know guitars, and you might be interested in the "mini" tone pots used on Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters. They are just like regular pots, only they are significantly smaller for fitting into tighter spaces. I think most of them come with 50K's, but I replaced mine with some 1 megs, and I think that they're linear. Something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/120929301978?lpid=82

They also make what are called "no-load" tone pots, in which the pot is completely removed from the circuit when you turn it all the way up. But you can actually make any tone pot a "no-load" pot... you just open the casing and scrape away the conductive material at the end of the strip (I've modified a lot of pots in my day). Regardless, they do this because even something like a pot with very little resistance can "color" your tone. Perhaps the same holds true with this LED stuff...

In any case, it is an interesting project, and you have piqued my curiosity.

[Calith]

I'm on my phone atm, so i hope this works.
Just finished modifications to the board, and redoing the wires inside the saber.
These are two pictures of the finished product.


All togeather.


And just before i finished.

The two switches on the far left of the dip switch control my two blinking LEDs, that intern control how fast/intense my blade flash is.
The next three are not in use, and wont ever bee until i make a whole new board.
And the last three are the channels for the red, green, and blue dies, so that I can cut power to the pots fully.
And lastly, the blue rectangles are the pots. It all work rather well in my opinion. Good enough at lest.

I will try to get a vid up tomorrow night, but my phone doesn't agree with YouTube so i cant make any promises.

Oh, and the silver looking bar on the board in the top pick is a jewelers screwdriver that i managed to worke space for, it is what i use to turn the pots.

[Calith]

Managed to get a vid up. Hope yall enjoy.
www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=19106.0

[mertkara]

@Jedi_Dragonrider, instead of only using a pot, you can use a simple linear amplifier using an op-amp. It basically depends on what type of LED you’re using, if you’re using an LED that can regulate its power to some extent, then you can use the pot alone but since these LED boards are not commonly used and simple multi-coloured LEDs are used, it is recommended to use a small op-amp to make sure that your LED always gets enough current to run properly. Also, using op-amps for multiple arrays can cut your power losses.