Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

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FriedOnion
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Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

Post by FriedOnion »

Hi, so I have been toying with the idea of an open source set of headphones that anyone can hack into and mess around with to customise it to their own preference. I got some preliminary mock up designs made, but I now need to work out the feasibility of the core part of the plan - having a grid of 70 (7 columns 10 rows) RGB LED's. basically, I want to have a bluetooth serial interface so people can make custom apps that will allow them to change the patterns and colours of the led's. I was thinking of using an ATMEGA_1280 so that people can use Arduino code, but the question is how can I have enough outputs so that it can control the roughly 70 leds on the equaliser plus a couple more on the outside of the earcup, for each earcup, so it would need 450 outputs for the led's allowing for indicator led's and such. Any ideas?

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Kilrah
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Re: Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

Post by Kilrah »

Do a matrix. A 16x14 matrix uses 30 lines and allows you 224 LEDs. A second set of 30 outputs for another 224, and there you go.
Strobing 14 lines will of course reduce the max possible brightness, but you need to have relatively low brightness anyway with that many leds or it would be impossible to look at and would drain the battery in 10 minutes.

Another solution that seems more practical in terms of wiring is to use 2 or 3 processors, i.e. 2 identical sets of led drivers for both sides, and a master that handles BT, sequencing etc and just tells the others what to do through an SPI interface or similar. That way you only have 6 wires or so that go between the 2 sides of the headset, not 30+.
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rperkins
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Re: Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

Post by rperkins »

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Kilrah
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Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

Post by Kilrah »

I was thinking about more "common" multiplexing... Charlieplex uses fewer lines but is usually quite a bit more complex both in programming and circuitry as it needs tristate buffers.

http://www.electroons.com/electroons/im ... venseg.jpg

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FriedOnion
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Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:59 am
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Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Open source headphones with rgb led equalisers

Post by FriedOnion »

Thanks for your reply's :) after your first post Kilrah i did some solid research into multiplexing and it is definitely the way to go - so thanks for the advice. I think I will use charlieplexing as it seems most led matrix chips are based on that, although I am also still looking into other forms of multiplexing. So yeh, really appreciate the replys, got me on the right track.

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