Arduino Chromatic Clock, with Steampunk  style

Candle with remote control and Arduino Pro Mini

Kaleidoscope with Arduino and RGB LED strips

I present a new Arduino project: a Kaleidoscope (or something similar), with a list of the simplest materials.
You can see the result in the video. It can be used as decoration in a living room or as decoration for the baby's crib. The baby will be surprised ... Very relaxing if it accompanied  with Chill out music .
Thanks to the advent of addressable LED strips,  is extremely simple (and cheap) to create projects with multiple RGB LEDs.
These strips contain small RGB leds. Each led is accompanied by a WS2812 circuit capable of controlling an RGB LED with 256 levels for each color.
In the previous post (Christmas Tree shield for Arduino) I talk about the benefits of these chips
The strips have three connections +5 V, GND and data input (DI). Be careful because in the strips is indicated the data flow, the data must enter through DI and exit through DO (on the opposite side). To connect a strip piece with another, connect the DO of the first with the second DI.
The strips can be cut with simple scissors through the mark

Christmas comes, and nothing more typical than riding a Christmas tree to give a bit of atmosphere. They come in many types, but this is intended for the most geeks, based on state of de art RGB LEDs and thought to 'planting' directly on an Arduino.

The SD structure

In this post I'll try to explain a little the code of  our 'Jukebox' Arduino hearted .
The main problem I found for this project, was the limitation SD library, with reduced FAT which only allowed the names in 8.3 format.
The solution was to create a small catalog in a text file from which to read the entries.

The directory structure on the SD has the following format:

This means there are three levels: artist, album and track. Each level has a text file with the catalog entries (a line of text for each artist, album or song).
The names of the folders and files must be such as are in the scheme (you can always change the code).
It's a bit cumbersome to create the card, but ... worthwhile. I used a program that makes it much easier MP3Tag, enabling export to text tracks of a directory and rename mp3.

I present this new Arduino project: A full MP3 player based on Arduino.
As you can see in the photo, the idea was to build a standalone player, in the style of antique radios or 'tapes', in the age of Iphones ....
The player uses a small module based on the VS1002d chip (now discontinued, but who had a drawer). The module in question I bought at  Futurlec . Currently you can get similar modules on ebay for a bit more than 10$, although the chip is the VS1003 o VS1053. You can also use a SparkFun MP3 shield, but significantly more expensive (this shield already includes an SD slot).
The three chips are quite compatible in terms of programming, and indeed almost all initialization the I have taken from the library to the SparkFun MP3 Shield ;-)

<< Arduino light organ (II)- The circuit

WARNING: In this part is used mains voltage, which can carry risks. If you do not have enough experience or not you think trained, best uses few leds low voltage and evitate a scare. The author is not responsible for any damage caused by not taking proper security measures.

For the power stage I used  triacs of type BT137 controlled by optocouplers MOC3041. Depending on the power you need to control, you can change the type of TRIAC less powerful one (or more ...).

The optocouplers MOC3041 internally contain a control circuit for triggering the zero crossing, the triac is always close to zero voltage pass avoiding interference.
You can use other types of optocouplers respecting the circuit recommended by the manufacturer.


The scheme:


And this appearance when mounted (in my case the stage is 4 channels)


Note that a box is mounted on suitably isolated. The heatsinks are Triacs for high continuous loads (in this case support 8A, allowing about 1500W per channel).

The result:


Have fun ....