Help with Teensy 3.6, WS2812B 144 LEDs/m Strips (Will Compensate for Assistance)
Hey everyone,
I am a completely new user to the field of electronic engineering and all that is involved with it. As someone who has only been a programmer for the most part of my life, I found that this area is of my interest to somewhat try to put together complex coding and use of electronics to be put together to make cool and interesting projects. I am eager to learn and am just looking for guidance and assistance with paths of thinking to help me look for the answers I need.
I am currently interested in creating a project that is related to this project... https://www.pjrc.com/dodecahedron-with-leds-and-infinity-mirrors/ as it is something I find very fascinating, portable (apparently it runs on batteries), and can be brought to shows that I go to.
The materials that I currently possess:
(1) Teensy 3.6 board with pins (and no Octo2812 adapter... should I get one?)
(2) 1 meter of WS2812B 144 LEDs/m strip for prototyping and learning but planning for this project to use up to 5 meters
(3) ELEGOO Upgraded Electronics Fun Kit w/Power Supply Module, Jumper Wire, Precision Potentiometer (Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERPEMAC)
(4) MP1584EN DC-DC Adjustable Power Step-down Voltage Regulator (10pcs) with 3A MAXIMUM output current
Materials I am still considering:
(1) A lithium polymer battery that is safe for consumers and a newbie like me to use. I understand very well the risks that entails at mishandling and awful care-taking of lithium batteries so I will do considerable amount of research in order to make sure I understand how to use this to power my project and learn more about what I can do to ensure when utilizing it to power my stuff, to have some sort of system to regulate when to cut off power when voltage is low.
(2) A plug-in AC->DC power supply that is beefy enough to provide a great amount of power to this project.
What I understand so far:
(1) I am planning for the worst-case scenario for this project in which is primarily all within the power consumption of this project. From my understanding, a typical pixel can draw up to 20mA of power. With the WS2812B 144 LEDs/m strip, with 3 pixels results in a 60mA consumption. With 60mA of power consumption per pixel on a 144 LEDs/m strip, that is approximately (60mA*144 LEDs)/1000 = ~9A. That is a lot of power for one strip and I would be using up to 5 meters so that's ~45A.
This is my one and only issue with this project. As someone who has NO experience in electrical work, to plan for such an awfully high amount of power consumption for this project that I want to make portable to last at least 8 hours (realistically speaking, with the use of more than just 1 battery supply because I HIGHLY doubt one battery can last this long). I would like to also mention that I will be cutting up the strips to only contain approximately 20 LEDs per strip into about 30 strips. Would this make a difference? Is there a way to wire these up separately to reduce such a huge power consumption? Would using a large capacity and voltage power supply help reduce such an intolerable amount of current draw? I would like to also ask that if the only way would be implementing a hard code in my sketch to reduce the maximum brightness and only limiting flashing max brightness but the others would be randomized patterns, would this reduce the stress enough? What other solutions may there be?
I also realize the problem with idle current draw from the LEDs from the batteries from the research I have done and I believe I could simply use power transistors or SCR to ensure that there is no current being drawn when the device is in idle. Is this effective or would using a on/off switch be a better solution?
Another thing is the issue with safety amongst using lithium polymer batteries, it can be explosive if too much heat is ongoing and with such a power hungry project, I find this so difficult to cope and figure a solution. Although I can use other alternatives since weight is not a problem with me but size would be. I would to encase it to be attached to my totem so that it can be passed event security because if it looks suspicious, I would be unable to bring in my awesome totem that I would spend multitude of hours working on and coding. So in short, lithium polymer would work easily. I am unsure of what would be the best case of doing so that will comply with TSA/FAA rules when traveling to out-of-state concerts, maybe I could ship but that's a totally different subject.
I appreciate whoever is reading this and hope to gain some knowledge and assistance! If someone is willing to work personally with me in return compensated for it (not sure if this is against the forum rules but let me know and I'll remove this part).
Hey everyone,
I am a completely new user to the field of electronic engineering and all that is involved with it. As someone who has only been a programmer for the most part of my life, I found that this area is of my interest to somewhat try to put together complex coding and use of electronics to be put together to make cool and interesting projects. I am eager to learn and am just looking for guidance and assistance with paths of thinking to help me look for the answers I need.
I am currently interested in creating a project that is related to this project... https://www.pjrc.com/dodecahedron-with-leds-and-infinity-mirrors/ as it is something I find very fascinating, portable (apparently it runs on batteries), and can be brought to shows that I go to.
The materials that I currently possess:
(1) Teensy 3.6 board with pins (and no Octo2812 adapter... should I get one?)
(2) 1 meter of WS2812B 144 LEDs/m strip for prototyping and learning but planning for this project to use up to 5 meters
(3) ELEGOO Upgraded Electronics Fun Kit w/Power Supply Module, Jumper Wire, Precision Potentiometer (Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERPEMAC)
(4) MP1584EN DC-DC Adjustable Power Step-down Voltage Regulator (10pcs) with 3A MAXIMUM output current
Materials I am still considering:
(1) A lithium polymer battery that is safe for consumers and a newbie like me to use. I understand very well the risks that entails at mishandling and awful care-taking of lithium batteries so I will do considerable amount of research in order to make sure I understand how to use this to power my project and learn more about what I can do to ensure when utilizing it to power my stuff, to have some sort of system to regulate when to cut off power when voltage is low.
(2) A plug-in AC->DC power supply that is beefy enough to provide a great amount of power to this project.
What I understand so far:
(1) I am planning for the worst-case scenario for this project in which is primarily all within the power consumption of this project. From my understanding, a typical pixel can draw up to 20mA of power. With the WS2812B 144 LEDs/m strip, with 3 pixels results in a 60mA consumption. With 60mA of power consumption per pixel on a 144 LEDs/m strip, that is approximately (60mA*144 LEDs)/1000 = ~9A. That is a lot of power for one strip and I would be using up to 5 meters so that's ~45A.
This is my one and only issue with this project. As someone who has NO experience in electrical work, to plan for such an awfully high amount of power consumption for this project that I want to make portable to last at least 8 hours (realistically speaking, with the use of more than just 1 battery supply because I HIGHLY doubt one battery can last this long). I would like to also mention that I will be cutting up the strips to only contain approximately 20 LEDs per strip into about 30 strips. Would this make a difference? Is there a way to wire these up separately to reduce such a huge power consumption? Would using a large capacity and voltage power supply help reduce such an intolerable amount of current draw? I would like to also ask that if the only way would be implementing a hard code in my sketch to reduce the maximum brightness and only limiting flashing max brightness but the others would be randomized patterns, would this reduce the stress enough? What other solutions may there be?
I also realize the problem with idle current draw from the LEDs from the batteries from the research I have done and I believe I could simply use power transistors or SCR to ensure that there is no current being drawn when the device is in idle. Is this effective or would using a on/off switch be a better solution?
Another thing is the issue with safety amongst using lithium polymer batteries, it can be explosive if too much heat is ongoing and with such a power hungry project, I find this so difficult to cope and figure a solution. Although I can use other alternatives since weight is not a problem with me but size would be. I would to encase it to be attached to my totem so that it can be passed event security because if it looks suspicious, I would be unable to bring in my awesome totem that I would spend multitude of hours working on and coding. So in short, lithium polymer would work easily. I am unsure of what would be the best case of doing so that will comply with TSA/FAA rules when traveling to out-of-state concerts, maybe I could ship but that's a totally different subject.
I appreciate whoever is reading this and hope to gain some knowledge and assistance! If someone is willing to work personally with me in return compensated for it (not sure if this is against the forum rules but let me know and I'll remove this part).
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