Hi, my name is Jordi. I am currently building the first Glowduino prototype, and would like to gauge the interest level in the community. I guess I should tell you what it is.
Glowduino is an Arduino-compatible LED controller board for use on multicopters. It utilizes a TLC5947 to provide constant-current sinks for 8 separate common anode RGB LED strips. In addition, Glowduino can be programmed to react to different sensor inputs or to information from your Ardupilot. For example, you could use this board to control navigation lights on your quadcopter, or control different status lights, etc.
Now here's where I need your help. There are a few things I need to know before I embark on this project. First, are you interested? Second, how much would you be willing to pay for this? Currently I'm thinking maybe in the $40-50 range. Lastly, do I need a USB vendor ID? This will be published as open-source hardware, and uses the FT232RL FTDI chip. If I do need one, is there any way I can get one for a bit less than $2000?
Thanks for reading, now here are some specs and photos.
- Brains: ATMEGA328 running Arduino bootloader (Arduino compatible)
- FT232RL for communication via USB
- TLC5947 for driving the LEDs
- 12V 3A regulated LED power supply
- 24 constant-current sinks
- 6 analog inputs (A0-A5)
- Header for expansion for more outputs (future)
- Prototypes will be from OSH Park, so purple :p (let me know if you know of a better option)
- RoHS Compliant (I think...)
- 4 status LEDs (TX, RX, ON, and L) and 2 buttons (Reset and Mode)
- Comes preprogrammed with several awesome modes!
- Powered from 2S to 6S Lipo
- Small-ish at 2" x 2"
- No mounting holes, sorry (no space...)
- Yeh!
Comments
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for commenting, you've prompted me to create another post outlining what has happened in the past 8 months :) An Arduino Micro Clone
Jordi
How many matices would you like to control (daisy chain)? The glow wire seems very doable, and the board would come with an inverter. This inverter could easily be powered off a regulated 12V power supply, allowing you to use any size battery. I'm making progress on a first prototype now.
Although it doesn't seem as though I'll be able to fit these features on the glowduino as space is very tight, I am intrigued and have already started developing an EL board. One question I have is what exactly do you mean by:
"2. Outputs from possibly one of many available 7-segment display drivers that can also drive LED matrices and support scrolling text and simple dot-matrix graphics."
If I implemented the TLC5947 and a ULN2803 I would be capable of driving an 8x8 matrix of common-anode RGB LEDs, or 3 8x8 matrices of single color LEDs, and the coding for fancy shmancy stuff could be done in software. Also, how many feet of EL wire do you want to control? I am interested, so there might also be a Glowduino EL board soon :p
Jordi
I think I should be able to use the default VID and PID, thanks!
Thank you!
Very nice to see a muliplexed board that offers signals to the processing chips in coordination.
This is what embedded design means.
Oh sorry I forgot this in my last comment, all 24 pins are PWM.
Good point. This has 24 outputs, as opposed to 6, and a regulated 12v supply, but I do see what you mean. Even if there is no interest, It does what I need it to do, and it's my first attempt at something like this :p Thanks!
I guess my question is, what does this do that the Jdrones IO board does not? It's also Arduino-compatible and is already available for $16.
Hi, thanks! As of now I have yet to write the firmware, but it would be awesome if it was MAVLink compatible. However, I don't know much about MAVLink and how I might do that, so if you or anyone else had any advice it would be much appreciated.
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