1. leds are rubbish get some decent hacks on this site for god sake

Posted at 4:21PM on Sep 28th 2007 by steve

2. LED hacks are usually cheap but this one is quite cool. If the circuit manages to compensate for the variations in range and intensity of the different colors to make a smooth blend then I'd call it one of the best RGB LED hacks I've seen.

I made a similar device years ago but it needed so much tweaking to balance out the differences in the colors that I disassembled it and went on to something else.

Posted at 4:57PM on Sep 28th 2007 by twistedsymphony

3. Why not just use an Arduino?

Posted at 5:14PM on Sep 28th 2007 by YourNameHere

4. Steve, I happen to find this to be quite the neat hack. You dont like it, then dont post a comment.

Posted at 6:13PM on Sep 28th 2007 by Gh0sTly

5. Lightning hacks are great! Specially if they got FNORD in their names =D

Posted at 9:58PM on Sep 28th 2007 by proteus1935

6. #3: that's a bit like saying "why not just use a pic?" it's personal preference.

Posted at 11:42PM on Sep 28th 2007 by andrew

7. #3: This board uses an atmega8...which is the microcontroller on the arduino. The arduino is great and all, but it's more of a learning/hobby platform. Once you're used to embedded development you skip the fluff and use the bare chip (which is a lot cheaper than using a development board).

Posted at 3:37AM on Sep 29th 2007 by Jotux

8. Oh this is a fine idea. I really like the use of RS-485 because thats so common. There must be like 6 of those ports on the back of my Mac. Oh wait I'm thinking of USB... Why in the world wouldn't they just use USB?

Posted at 5:24AM on Sep 29th 2007 by Bhima

9. So would the flavor RS-485 this uses be DMX-512? This would make this project very exciting for people interested in building RGB mixing lights for theatre purposes. My German is a bit rusty, but good hack!

Posted at 5:32AM on Sep 29th 2007 by Michael

10. as always let's hope something heavy falls on good ol' steve. :|

Posted at 7:19PM on Sep 29th 2007 by strider_mt2k

11. I can't see a good reason for using rs-485 other than DMX-512, so hopefully that's it.

Bhima - rs-485 is used by DMX-512, which is the ubiquitous protocol for controlling lights (and other devices) in theatres, rock concerts, etc. There are cheap USB->rs-485 converters, and every piece of equipment you buy for doing lighting in a theatre (intelligent lights, dimmers, smoke machines) will have a 3 or 5 pin plug designed to carry rs-485-based DMX-512. DMX-512 predates USB, don't ask why it doesn't use rs-232 :)

In other words, if you have a theatre lighting console, you can hopefully just plug these things in and control them like any other theatre light. If not, you may not be the target market.

jai.
.

Posted at 10:43PM on Sep 29th 2007 by tyggerjai

12. Well the RS485 is not yet DMX512 but if possible we will make it DMX512. The fnordlicht can also be controlled by Infrared RC5 Codec. These Infrared signals can be send by the Etherrape -> http://www.lochraster.org/etherrape. It is also planned for the Eterrape to be able to send DMX512 but there is nothing implemented yet.

Posted at 3:28AM on Oct 1st 2007 by Shorty

13. I actually love this project. I am relating the idea to something NASA did regarding greenhouses using only LED lighting systems due to the low power, high intensity and long life of the LED. I would love to expand on this idea to become a larger project. From what I've seen regarding LED lighting systems designed for greenhouses, they can get quite expensive (ex/350$US to effectively light a 4x4 area)...

Thanks for this post!

Posted at 1:08PM on Oct 3rd 2007 by a2ron

14. Mutant">

Posted at 5:52PM on Oct 4th 2007 by .com">Mutant"