"Help!" for: Electronics

[thatdecade]

Also, where could I get some cheap LED lights online?

The forum admins don't like me advertising, but my store has a cheap price on small led orders. I just updated the store to offer free shipping on small kits, like led lights.

making a lightsaber soon,(prop)

So you are just making the light saber hilt? Is a cramped working space, so be sure to use small and flexible wires. The easiest method is to use a micro controller to blink all those LEDs and give you a battery indicator, can also do the push button press on, press off. You would program the microcontroller to go into low power sleep when off to save battery.

Check out this one. Easy to learn and small enough to fit in a light saber.
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/244

Edit: some notes from the saber smiths
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...hlight=Arduino

[SpartanT117]

Check out this one. Easy to learn and small enough to fit in a light saber.
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/244

Edit: some notes from the saber smiths
http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...hlight=Arduino

Thanks! glad to have experts like you here on the forum!

[SpartanT117]

so, it was kinda confusing, would you mind giving me an outline of how it works/you set it up?

[thatdecade]

What part has you confused? The hardware or software part?

For the hardware I can draw you a picture of how to wire the arduino to the switches and LEDs.

For the software, you are more on your own. I can give you a rough outline of the software functions and flow, but is up to you to write the code. Is simple enough, but will take some trial and error to get working the way you want.

[SpartanT117]

kind of an all around outline, what basic code I could write and how to wire it to different leds and a battery indicator and such. It would be awesome if you could suggest a good microcontroller to begin my quest with.

[thatdecade]

Combined with an arduino beginners guide, this should get you the lightsaber hilt lighting you want. For now, the best thing to do is get the arduino, the USB cable, and some LEDs / switches. Just play around with it following a guide, you'll be surprised how easy it is to use.

[SpartanT117]

ah, so with a simple starters' guide, I could get a little more in depth with the wiring, but the code is quite simple looks like. power on, animation, button switchoff=false, loop until button switchoff=true, then power off, low sleep level=true. fairly simple!

[thatdecade]

Right, it's not so bad when you break it down into blocks. Then you can learn how to do each block and put it all together.

[SpartanT117]

thanks alot man! you know where I could find a battery indicator?

[thatdecade]

Use this part connected to your arduino, also comes in red yellow and blue
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9938

Start a post on the sparkfun or arduino.cc forums, they'll be able to get you more help. I like arduinos a lot, but don't use them enough to give specific examples.
http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24701
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/...m=1199738420/8

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