RGB LED Starduino

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RGB Flashlight, wearable sound art, rainbow lamp.

The Starduino kit is a wavy sun-shaped PCB that lights up rainbow colors. Totally interactive, the star kit can respond to touch, light and sound varying its rainbow symphony in sync with its surroundings. Totally Hackable, we release the source code and design files below. The sun kit is written on top of arduino and can be re-programmed to suit your needs. Want your own sun kit? Check out the product page! This Arduino-clone can power more RGB lights, check out our RGB breakout board tutorial.

Images

Rainbow Light From you Sun-shaped PCB

Rainbow Light From you Sun-shaped PCB

RGB Rainbows from a DIY Smart light. Build it yourself! Use it as full-spectrum handheld photography lighting solution, or as a smart nightlight, or as a programable LED grow lamp, or just a fun flash light.
Sunkit Dramatic

The back of the sunkit. See the NPN transistors, the atmega chip, and its umbilical power cord. Don't worry, your sunkit can be powered by AAA, or lithium batteries or a standard USB type B cord.
Main Diagram

This is how the PCB looks when its assembled, soldered, and lighting up your life.
Naked PCB

The PCB as shipped from the fab house (OSH Park) totally naked. This unpopulated PCB, with the original silkscreen artwork holds the whole kit together!
Sunkit Backside

Straight on view of the back of the populated PCB. Looking at the sun where the sun don't shine! Note the processor in the middle, the resistors and the crystal oscillator.
Schematic

This is an image of the eagle schematic(.sch) file. SHows the electrical connections. Notice how the 2n3904 transistors insulate the micro0controller (atmega328) from the power hungry RGB LEDs (common cathode).

RGB Rainbows from a DIY Smart light. Build it yourself! Use it as full-spectrum handheld photography lighting solution, or as a smart nightlight, or as a programable LED grow lamp, or just a fun flash light.

Video

The Starduino in Action

Check out the various modes of the Starduino: sound sensitive, rainbow, and hue select.

FFW Soldering Video

Watch the soldering and assembly process in fast forward. In real time putting the sunkit together takes about 45 minutes. In this video you can watch it all go down in 1 minute and change.

Instructions

instructions

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 0 Get the RGB SunLight

Grab the RGB SunLight kit from the LucidTronix store. You will also need a soldering iron, some solder, wire cutters (diagonal cutting pliers), and regular (slip joint or needle nose) pliers.

Step 1 Prepare your smart Light's brain (bend the Atmega pins)

This step is optional, but may make it easier to insert the atmega168 into the PCB. Use a ruler, or a stapler or anything small, flat, and strong to bend the atmega's pins so that the two sets of legs are little closer together. In the picture I'm using a piece of plexiglass (stay lucid!).

Step 2 Insert the Atmega168 in the Correct Orientation

The atmega168 must be inserted so that pin 1 lines up with the pin labelled 1 on the sun-shaped PCB. Pin 1 on the atmega (like on all DIP packages) is the one directly to the left of the U-shaped depression. Make sure you have same orientation as shown in the picture.

Step 3 Insert the LM386 Audio Amplifier in the Correct Orientation

The LM386 is the smaller chip with 8 legs. You may want to bend its legs together before inserting, like you did with the Atmega168. Again be sure to line pin 1 on the LM386 with the silkscreen 1 on the PCB. Use the picture as a guide.

Step 4 Add the Crystal and the 2n3904 NPN Transistors

Now insert the 16MHz oval-shaped, silver, crystal oscillator. The orientation of the crystal does not matter. Also insert the 3 2n3904 NPN transistors. These are the black semi-circular silicon transistors which have 3 legs. The orientation of the transistors DOES matter. Insert them so that their semi-circular bodies follow the white silkscreened outline of their shape on the PCB.

Step 5 Insert the RGB LED

Now after soldering down the chips, transistors and crystal, you are ready to start inserting the RGB LEDs. Again orientation matters, you must insert the RGB LED so that its longest leg (the common cathode pin) is closer to the flat side of the silkscreen led shape on the PCB. Use the image as a guide.

Step 6 RGB LED Correctly Inserted

Make sure your LEDs are in the orientation shown in the picture.

Step 7 Insert All the RGB LEDs

Now insert all the RGB LEDs, with each one being careful to insert it in the correct orientation. Long leg one pin away from the flat edge of the LED outline.

Step 8 Insert the 10K and 10 ohm Resistors

Once you've soldered the LEDs down and chopped off their legs with your cutting pliers, you are ready to start putting in the resistors. First grab the 10K ohm resistors the ones whose color bands go brown-black-orange-gold. Insert them in each of the resistor placeholders labelled 10K. You should also have one 10 ohm resistor with color bands brown-black-black-gold. Insert this one in the slot labelled 10 near the LM386 chip.

Step 9 Insert the 300 ohm Resistors

The kit comes with fifteen 300 ohm resistors, these protect the RGB LEDs from too much current. Insert all 15 in the resistor slots labelled 300 on the opposite side of each of the RGB LEDs. Don't worry about the orientation the resistors are symmetric.

Step 10 Insert the Buttons

Now insert the two buttons. They go on two of the sun's flames that don't have LEDs on them.

Step 11 Insert Potentiometer

Now insert the potentiometer (the five legged knob) in its correct place on the sun PCB.

Step 12 Insert the Electret Microphone and the On/Off Switch

Almost Done! Now insert the Electret microphone. The ground pin on the Electret Mic is the pin connected to metal shield this pin should go in the pad labelled with a minus sign on the PCB. If the circle outline fits snugly around the mic then you did it right. Also put in the black three-legged on/off switch.

Step 13 USB Power

Lastly insert the USB connector if you want to power you SunLight from a USB cord otherwise you can attach a battery pack to the pins labelled 5V and GND. Power you're badboy up and get ready for Rainbows!

Code

Simple Rainbow Code

This code controls RGB LEDs using pulse width modulation (PWM). It relies on our arduino color library so we can specify the colors in terms of hue. Showing a rainbow can be achieved by iterating over all hue values. This will take us from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple to magenta and back to red at the start of the next for loop.

Download File

/* LucidTronix Arduino HSB RGB Color library 
 * http://www.lucidtronix.com/tutorials/19
 * Control rgb color by specifying
 * Hue saturation and brightness.
 * This code shows a rainbow
 */

#include <color.h>
// these are the pins connected to
// the RGB LEDs.  They must be PWM capable
int leds[] = {5,6,9}; 
Color cur_color = Color(1,1,1);
float hue = 0;
void setup()  // run once, when the sketch starts                  
{
  for(int i = 0 ; i < 3; i++ ){
    pinMode(leds[i], OUTPUT); 
  }
}

void loop() // run over and over again                   
{
  display_color(cur_color);
  rainbow();
}

void rainbow(){
  hue += 0.06;
  if ( hue >=1 ) hue = 0;
  float sat = 1.0;
  float val = 0.4;
  cur_color.convert_hcl_to_rgb(hue,sat,val);
  display_color(cur_color);
  delay(20);
}

void display_color(Color c){
  analogWrite(leds[0], c.red);
  analogWrite(leds[1], c.green);
  analogWrite(leds[2], c.blue);
  delay(100);
}

Parts

parts

Parts

Title	Description	#	Cost	Link	Picture
RGB SunLight PCB	Printed Circuit Board (PCB) for the RGB SunLight. Has proven through-hole footprints and eletrically tested traces.	1	$15.0	Link
ATMEGA168A-PU	IC MCU AVR 16K FLASH 28PDIP Value: 16KB (8K x 16) 1.8 V ~ 5.5 V	1	$2.54	Link
Battery Holder	Holds 3 AAA Batteries. Has on/off switch. Value: 4.6V	1	$1.95	Link
RGB LED	Clear Common Cathode Value: (800, 4000, 900)mcd	5	$1.95	Link
Electret Condenser Microphone	MIC COND ANALOG OMNI -44DB Value: -44dB ±2dB 20Hz ~ 20kHz	1	$0.96	Link
LM386	IC AMP AUDIO PWR .325W MONO 8DIP Value: 4 V ~ 12 V	1	$0.93	Link
Photocell	Photo resistor Light sensor 16-33KOHM Value: 16 ~ 33 kOhms @ 10 lux	1	$0.8	Link
Potentiometer	POT ROTARY, Linear 10K OHM 9MM SNAPIN Value: 10k	1	$0.76	Link
USB TYPE B R/A BLACK	USB connector type B Right/Angle black inside.	1	$0.54	Link
Capacitor	Ceramic Capacitors CAP CER 0.1UF 50V 20% RADIAL Value: 0.1µF	2	$0.24	Link
Transistors (BJT) - Single	IC TRANS NPN SS GP 200MA TO-92 Value: 40V 300mV @ 5mA, 50mA 100 @ 10mA, 1V	3	$0.18	Link
Button 6mm Through Hole	Tactile Switch Through Hole SPST-NO 0.05A 12V Value: 0.05A @ 12VDC	2	$0.1	Link
Resistor	RES 300 OHM 1/4W 5% CARBON FILM Value: 300	15	$0.08	Link
Resistor	RES 10K OHM 1/4W 5% CF MINI Value: 10k	5	$0.08	Link
Resistor	RES 10 OHM 1/4W 5% CARBON FILM Value: 10	3	$0.08	Link