Category Archives: LEDS

Raspberry Pi Lights up an RGB LED Matrix Panel

Colorful LED screens are a joy to watch. Bright LEDs making up a 16×32 display are not only easy-to-use, but also low cost – you may have seen such displays in the Times Square. Controlling such a display is simple if you use the low-cost, versatile, credit card sized single board computer, the Raspberry Pi or RBPi. Although the wiring is simple, the display is quite demanding of power when displaying.

The items you need for this project are a 16×32 RGB LED Matrix Panel, Female-to-Female jumper wires, Male-to-Male jumper wires, a 2.1mm to Screw Jack Adapter, an RBPi board and a 5V 2A power supply. Use the Female-to-Female jumper wires to connect the display to the GPIO connector pins of the RBPi. Although this connection is display specific, following a generic pattern is helpful:

GND on display to GND on the RBPi (blue or black)
OE on display to GPIO 2 on the RBPi (brown)
CLK on display to GPIO 3 on the RBPi (orange)
LAT on display to GPIO 4 on the RBPi (yellow)
A on display to GPIO 7 on the RBPi (yellow or white)
B on display to GPIO 8 on the RBPi (yellow or white)
C on display to GPIO 9 on the RBPi (yellow or white)
R1 on display to GPIO 17 on the RBPi (red)
G1 on display to GPIO 18 on the RBPi (green)
B1 on display to GPIO 22 on the RBPi (blue)
R2 on display to GPIO 23 on the RBPi (red)
G2 on display to GPIO 24 on the RBPi (green)
B2 on display to GPIO 25 on the RBPi (blue)

When connecting the wires, ensure that both the display and the RBPi are powered off, as the display is able to pull some power from the GPIO pins. Once all the data pins are connected as above, it is time for the power supply to be connected. The panel has a power supply header and a cable that has two red wires for the positive supply and two black wires for the negative. While connecting these wires to the screw jack adapter, make sure of maintaining proper polarity. Additionally, double check that the power supply you are using is rated for 5V, as any other higher voltage is likely to fry the display. The sequence for powering up must be the display first and the RBPi last.

To display an image or a message, you must convert it to a ppm or portable pixel format. Image editors can do this for you and you can very well use the free open source application GIMP. Once the image is in the required format and placed in the specific directory, the display program picks it up and it appears on the display. Shift registers on the back of the display module help with the shifting or scrolling of the image on the display. Of course, the RBPi has also to do a lot of work in bit-banging the pixels onto the screen.

You may use the code as it is in C, or you may prefer to use Python. Currently, the program displays only eight colors; for reference, see here.

The Eavesdropping LED Street Lights of Las Vegas

LEDs have come into our daily lives almost without our noticing them and suddenly they are everywhere. People visiting Las Vegas may notice that streetlights there are LED based. That in itself may not be very surprising, except that the LED streetlights in Las Vegas are able to not only entertain with videos and music, they care about what you say. Furthermore, LED lights even watch while you speak your thoughts. That gives credence to the inevitable quip: “What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.”

Las Vegas streetlights are acquiring modules named Intellistreets from a company in Michigan – Illuminating Concepts. The modules will deliver music and news for the entertainment of the passers-by. However, they can also eavesdrop.

LED streetlights are nothing new – New York has a retrofit project. Las Vegas, along with some other cities, made the switch several years ago. However, adding the power of vision and hearing to streetlights is something entirely out of the ordinary. A fascinated San Francisco is also mulling over something similar for its streetlights.

Depending on whether the application is a retrofit or entirely new, Intellistreets has a number of configurations. For Las Vegas, it is a retrofit application, where post-top modules are added to the existing streetlights. The audio and video from the streetlight is transmitted wirelessly to the public works department.

Lights that double up for watching have been around for a while. The oldest patent for such an activity was issued in 1973, for a 360-degree infrared surveillance along with a panoramic display. Others have offered designs of a fake surveillance camera, attempting to create the illusion of tracking with a flashing LED.

Privacy cultures vary in Europe and the US. While closed-circuit video systems are the norm in say, UK and accepted there, suspicion of the government in the US is more deep-seated and video surveillance is less welcome, whatever may be the type.

Therefore, organizations such as municipalities that intend to deploy video surveillance use equipment with IP networks for collecting video data and communicating with the devices. However, it is not so easy or cheap as it looks offhand. Although optical fibers do provide the highest capacity, installation of fiber-optic cables can be rather expensive. Instead, Intellistreets uses cellular or wired connectivity between collection servers and light poles. They have found that for adding to an existing lighting infrastructure, going wireless is the easiest.

According to reports, the surveillance business of Illuminating Concepts started with an indirect path. Its CEO Ron Harwood has a passion for music. Majoring in ethnomusicology at Wayne State and managing Sippie Wallace, Ron made his way into lighting systems on the strength of his liaison with the entertainment industry.

Harwood holds two patents. One of them is for the combination of a lighting and a media device, with the device being self-powered based on the movement of air through the unit. Illuminating Concepts carried the idea forward, adding two-way communication. This gave the streetlight the ability to produce a disembodied voice that offered to help lost visitors.

Making City Streetlights Smart with DALI

Big cities are changing over to LED lights for illumination of their streets. They find this to be a smart solution in terms of cost-reduction and efficiency. STMicroelectronics is taking an important next step by adopting LEDs for street illumination. They are doing this in conjunction with smart power supplies that turn the LED street lamps into intelligent devices. For example, the streetlamps reduce their brightness as the sun rises while gradually increasing their brightness with failing daylight. They also communicate with the smart grid in their effort to reduce the power consumption.

To avoid losses and manage electricity consumption smartly, STMicroelectronics is using LEDs that are dimmable and connected to smart grid systems. Microcontrollers drive the LEDs, and the system avoids the power losses commonly associated with non-optimized management of power such as with the use of incandescent bulbs and other forms of commonly utilized lights.

STMicroelectronics present their new solution in the form of a demo board based on STLUX385A, a digital power controller. Using a proprietary power conversion protocol, the controller drives a row of LEDs for the smart-lighting applications. DALI forms the core of the new STsystem for smartly driving the LED row.

DALI or the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface, is also standardized as IEC 929, and is a new interface for controlling lighting as defined by the lighting industry. The DCM or the DALI Communication Module generally implements DALI protocol. DCM is a serial communication circuit designed especially for controllable electronic ballasts – the device or circuit that provides the required starting voltage and operating current for the LEDs.

LEDs are different from CFLs and incandescent bulbs. LEDs require a supply of constant current. They start emitting light as soon as their forward electric threshold voltage is reached. Effectiveness of the illumination provided by a string of LEDs depends on the product of the current and the voltage applied to the string, and this must be stable in time.

HF fluorescent ballasts use the DSI protocol, and DALI is a step further. Unlike DSI and other 1-10V devices that address and control devices in a group, DALI can address each device separately on a segment of a data cable. Therefore, for achieving similar control functionality, DALI requires a simpler wiring topology as compared with DSI or 1-10V devices.

Devices that DALI can control include, apart from LEDs, wall switches, gateways to other protocols, motion detectors, PE cells, low-voltage transformers and HF ballasts for Fluorescent tubes. A single DALI network can address up to 64 DALI devices. When sites require more than 64, multiple separate DALI networks are established, each limited to 64 devices. DALI gateways then link these separate networks together, forming a data backbone running a high-level protocol, typically, DyNet from Dynalite.

Implementation of DALI facilitates equipment from different vendors to the integrated easily. This reduces the installation costs drastically, offering a finer granularity of control for a given price. However, DALI still does not totally remove the need for a data cable connect to fixtures. It also does not reduce the time required for programming and commissioning the lights. Additionally, unless extra equipment is used, DALI does not help to save the maximum possible amount of energy.

LED High Bay Lighting Produces 23650 Lumens

Hubbell Lighting, the pioneer in lighting innovation, has recently launched LUNABAY. This is an LED high bay lighting for the company’s high output categories, one that maintains an optimum efficiency of 95 Lumens per watt. The LUNABAY range can generate as high as 23,650 Lumens. Three levels of lighting are available in this range: 23,650 Lumens, 18,000 Lumens and 12,300 Lumens. Another aspect is the lights offer a CRI of 68 and is tagged with Uplight components. The LED high bay lighting ranges from 130W to 260W of total the system wattage. The lighting functions in an ambient environment within a temperature range of -40°C to +40°C. The lighting has an assured life of 50,000 hours at L70.

Lighting public places require specific features. It must cover the entire area uniformly as well as it has to present a pleasant ambiance. At the same time, it must also be safe and affordable. LUNABAY from Hubbell Lighting provides efficient lighting with a low-glare light and high level of durability. The places where this LED High bay lighting could be utilized are quite vast. They include multipurpose rooms in educational institutions, retail stores, gyms, light industrial facilities and all other places where it is essential to light the interior locations in an attractive and effective manner. LUNABAY provides lighting that cannot be matched for efficiency and durability by any other product currently available in the market.

The most important aspect of LUNABAY is its low glare feature of the LED light it produces. This feature is specifically patented and it remains an exclusive domain for Hubbell. Typically, conventional downlights in large areas generate glare and create a cave-like effect. The special optical system used in LUNBAY totally removes this discrepancy. It offers smoothly and evenly distributed light, which is consistent, has a low glare and a high CRI.

Another aspect to be noted is that the two refractors, 22” crystal clear and 23” aluminum possess Uplight components of 10% and 20% respectively. The LUNABAY lighting offers five color temperatures. The chimney part at the top can have a choice of seven colors matching the interiors. Apart from custom colors, users may select colors from white, red, black, forest green, dark bronze and platinum silver. LUNBAY offers multiple options, which includes control over on/off, fusing, wire guard, no light or 50% light output – leading to additional saving of energy. In emergency, LUNABAY is also compatible with 250VA Light Gear Inverters.

Hubbell Lighting is one the leading and largest producers of lighting fixtures in the USA. Their range covers the complete category of indoor and outdoor lighting products catering to residential needs, commercial lighting, institutional requirements and industrial markets. One of the special features of Hubbell Lighting is that the company has been consistent in developing new products in lighting, resulting in energy savings while at the same time remaining affordable to customers. The LUNABAY LED High bay Lighting is their latest product and is the only one to produce up to 23,650 Lumens. This new LED lighting is sure to make a significant positive impact on the market.

The portable LED work light has an aluminum frame

Larson Electronics has launched a new portable LED work light rated at 150 Watts. It is mounted within an adjustable aluminum frame. Christened by the company as Explosion Proof, EPL-TFM-150LED-RT-100-2023 LED Light, It is rated for Class 2 Division 1-2 and Class 1 Division 1-2 in Groups C & D. The LED work light can generate light output of 12,000 Lumens for which it needs to draw a power of 150 watts only. The light head is 16 inches by 14 inches, mounted on a tubular frame made of light aluminum and has an easy to use handle provided at the top. The light covers an area of 9000 square feet.

The LED light produces a brilliant pattern and is most suitable for hazardous environments and enclosed areas. The light has a very wide range of application in a number of locations such as where there are ample amounts of dust, flammable gases and vapors prevalent. The LED light fixture is made of a 16 inches square head and there is a provision for 90-degrees adjustment upwards and downwards. The light can be focused and the position can be locked easily by loosening and retightening the two head screws, present on either side of the stand.

One of the main features of this LED light fixture is the provision of LED drivers that help in increasing the operational longevity. This fixture comprises twelve LED boards configured in a series of six banks. Every bank consists of two LED boards each with a specific driver. In case there is a driver failure in a bank, it will stop operating, while all the other banks will continue to function. In the same way, if there is an LED failure, the mating LED continues to function. These features are very helpful to the user in various locations where non-stop working very essential. There is no ballast box for the fixture and consequently there is no need for its replacement as well.

The LED lamp produces light output that has a 6000K color temperature rating. The color-rendering index is 70 and the details are very accurate when this LED light is compared to mercury vapor or high-pressure sodium lamps. Larson Electronics has provided the light with 100 feet long cord (SOOW) terminated in an explosion-proof, 20 A twist-lock plug that can work at either 125V or 250V, according to the needs of the customer. The lamp is T5 rated and is approved by the Design Lights Consortium. Even after it has been used for more than 60,000 hours, the LED light retains 80% of its Lumen capacity, which is much more than any incandescent or fluorescent lamp. With no UV, infrared or CO2 emissions, the light is very safe and is suitable for offshore applications, tank cleaning, oil field maintenance and repairs.

The Explosion Proof, EPL-TFM-150LED-RT-100-2023 LED Light from Larson Electronics is highly efficient and customer friendly. The company provides customer support and warranty for the lamp fixture. As the company is a leader in the LED lamp fixture, the new launch is expected to be a boon for the industry.

Ultra-dimmable first retrofit premium 850 lumens LED lamps

Ledzworld, the Netherlands Company based in Amsterdam, has launched the world’s first ultra-dimmable retrofit LED lamp producing 850 Lumens from a single source. The product AR-111 LED lamp has been developed with several notable features incorporated with the user in mind. Ledzworld is a world-renowned company that has been a pioneer in harnessing LED technology and it is no surprise that they have come out with these LED lamps to be used in various places. This innovation is considered as an ideal replacement for the halogen lamps that has been in use for a long time now. The AR-111 LED lamp is well tested, cost effective, highly efficient and the design is perfect for the user, makers, designers and installers.

AR-111 is a single source LED lamp that comes with a CRI of 80. It is also offered with a CRI of >90. It also has the company’s special Chameleon Driver, which is a technological breakthrough that has the self-adjusting feature to make it a perfect fit. It can be used with a variety of combination of drivers and dimmers. The Chameleon Driver detects the transformer type initially and then it goes on to analyze the waveforms to suitably change or transform itself into a perfect fit.

Jan Kemeling is the founder and the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Ledzworld. He says, “A large number of current luminaires on the market with integrated LED light engines look bulky, but Ledzworld’s unique AR-111 Platinum Ultra Dimmable LED has the appearance and characteristics of a sophisticated track-luminaire while efficiently delivering 850 Lumens.” The looks are aesthetic and match perfectly with the ambience of museums, lounges, hospitals, hotel, residential, retail displays and restaurants. Kemeling also opines, “This innovative Chameleon Driver makes our AR-111 Platinum LED lamp a true ‘plug and play’ solution that can be trusted with no surprises or disappointments.”

The AR-111 has the intelligence to monitor the temperature within its driver compartment. The beam angle can be adjusted to 25 degrees or to 40 degrees, with the help of Reduced Glare Optical Technology developed by the company. The lamp comes with three-color temperatures of 2700K, 3000K, and 4000K. It has an overall dimension of 62×111 mm with light of single focus. When compared with halogen lamps, AR-111 allows a saving of 80% of the energy consumed. The removable outer ring is patented for the product and it allows the option of matching the color to the application or fixture. Ledzworld offers a three-year warranty for continued usage of this LED lamp.

Given the company’s global reputation in manufacturing LED lamps, this ultra-dimmable AR-111 LED lamp is bound to play a path-breaking role in its use. It offers several benefits by way of energy saving, operational efficiency, convenience in use along with its robust features. The most important aspect of the product is that it is a replacement for halogen lamps that are still used very widely. This effectively means that users gain cost wise as well in its operational efficiency.

How do battery powered pico-projectors work?

Once upon a time, very long ago, the projector world was ruled by the intense light of arcs. As they were rather unwieldy, xenon lamps took their place. With the unrelenting march of innovation, the era of OHPs or overhead projectors that could project images of transparencies, came into existence. These soon became obsolete as computers evolved and could be directly connected to projectors with LCD screens. The latest in line is the Pico-projector, which uses tiny batteries and the light from LEDs to project large displays.

Although Pico-projectors are small – as small as mobile phones, and sometimes even smaller – they can project large displays, sometimes up to 100 inches. Even though their brightness and resolution is not up to the mark of their bigger brethren, Pico-projectors are relatively new in the innovation chain, and as the market expands, they are expected to develop further.

Several companies have developed their own methods of producing battery-powered Pico-projectors. Of them, the three major technologies are DLP or Digital Light Processing, LCoS or Liquid Crystal on Silicon and LBS or Light Beam Steering. DLP and LCoS use a white light source and a system of filtering techniques to create different color and brightness of each pixel. On the other hand, LBS uses a small liquid crystal display to control the amount of light going to each pixel.

Digital Light Processing or DLP is pioneered by Texas Instruments (TI). Their idea is to use tiny mirrors on a chip to direct the light. Each mirror controls how much light goes onto each pixel of the display. The mirror can be turned on or turned off on command many times a second, and the on to off time ratio defines the brightness of the pixel. For color, there is a color wheel in front of the light source, splitting the beam into red, green and blue. Each mirror controls all the three light beams.

Liquid Crystal on Silicon or LCoS, as the name suggests, uses an LCD to control the amount of light reaching the pixel of the display. For color, two techniques are used. One is the Color Filter where three sub pixels are used, and they each have their own color, Red, Green and Blue. The other is the FSC or Field Sequential Color that requires a fast LCD and a color filter to split the image into RGB, the three main colors sequentially. The LCD is refreshed three times, once for each color. For LCoS, the light source could be an LED or a diffused Laser.

Laser Beam Steering or LBS creates the image one pixel at a time. The technique uses three directed laser beams, red, green and blue. The three beams are combined using optics and are guided using mirrors. So that the eye does not notice the pixel-by-pixel design, the image is scanned at over 60Hz.

LBS has some advantages over the other two techniques. The size is small and power consumption lowest, as the darker pixels require less energy, while the black pixel does not require any energy at all. The image from an LBS system is always focused, even on curved surfaces. On the other hand, lasers are expensive, cause random intensity patterns and are a concern for eye safety.

Are OLEDS better than LEDS?

Chances are, you still own a TV that is bulky, has a picture tube and is kept on a table. Well, with advancing technology, TVs have become slimmer and lighter, can hang on the wall and do not have a bulky picture tube.

The new TVs have an LCD or a Liquid Crystal Display in place of the earlier picture tube. Now, unlike the picture tube, LCDs have no light of their own, and have to be lit with a backlight. Until recently, most LCD TVs were backlit with plasma discharge tubes or CCFL lamps.

The CCFL lamps are placed directly behind the LCD panel and this adds to the overall thickness of the TV. Another newer method of lighting up the LCD panel is with LEDs and these are placed all around the panel, just beneath the bezel of the screen. Some models, especially the larger sized TVs place the LEDs behind the panel.

According to the TV manufacturers, LED models provide a better contrast (difference between black and white parts of the picture). This is because LEDs can be turned off completely to render a complete black portion. With CCFLs, there was no turning off, and the blacks produced were not so deep.

With further advancement of technology, there is a new kid on the block, called OLED or Organic Light Emitting Diode. This is a thin layer of film made from an organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. Unlike an LCD, an OLED screen needs no backlighting, making it the thinnest of all the screens for a TV; a screen, which can be rolled up.

Other advantage of OLEDs is its very high switching speed, which produces practically no blur when there is fast movement in the picture. Moreover, OLEDs can be switched off to produce black color, and there is no leakage of light from the neighboring OLEDs. This allows OLEDs produce the highest dynamic contrast among all the displays. Does that mean OLEDs are better than LEDs?

As the technology is relatively new, there are some primary difficulties that OLEDs face today. The first is OLEDs are still not as bright as LEDs are, and that makes them harder to see in sunlight or even in broad daylight. Additionally, with the present structure of the OLEDs, producing blue light is harder. This makes the images just passable.
Another issue with the OLEDs is their lifespan. At present, the OLED has the shortest lifespan among LED, LCD and other technologies commonly available on the market. The average lifespan of an OLED is only 14,000 hours, which means if you watch eight hours of TV every day, the OLED screen will last only five years.

Although OLEDs are good at displaying high contrast, they hog quite a bit of power when displaying all whites. Moreover, similar to the old cathode ray tubes or picture tubes, OLEDs are prone to burn-in, meaning if you let the picture remain static for long, a shadow of the picture remains on the screen.

The last disadvantage of OLEDs is their prohibitive cost.

West Florida Components in the community making LED Throwies

West Florida Components was recently invited to participate in a science experiments fair held in conjunction with the USF Education Department.

Each business staffed a booth where elementary school aged kids along with their families could conduct science experiments. The community event was an opportunity for families to enjoy and see the benefits of science in a fun atmosphere. The West Florida Components station was one of about 18 stations at which participants could interact and have fun with science. The event met a significant need identified at the national, state and local levels which is to increase the scientific literacy of students as a way to improve the local, state and global competitive status of our communities and our country.

The staff from West Florida Components made LED Throwies with the fair attendees. Each family member was given an LED, a 3V battery, a magnet and some tape to put their LED Throwie together. Once the Throwies were assembled, they could toss their Throwie at a metal board to earn points. The families learned the science behind the Throwie and were given additional LEDS to take home to so they could rebuild their throwies and experiment further.

If you’d like the instructions to make the LED Throwies, you can visit our web site where we give full instructions with pictures.

Go Invisible: How to protect your privacy on Facebook

There have been a lot of news reports and discussions surrounding Facebook’s privacy policies. Of course, if you are worried about web privacy, canceling your Facebook account is an option, but since many other sites have joined the Facebook Connect network and are utilizing the site’s tools, you will need a Facebook account to be able to use these sites in the future. Plus, not everyone wants to give up their ability to connect with long lost high school buddies or share their latest baby pics with family and friends.

So what to do?

Fortunately, those that have pushed back at Facebook in the past on privacy issues have forced Facebook to provide tools to make you as stealthy as you’d like to be on the site without being completely invisible to those on your ‘friends’ list.

Here’s a guide for making yourself very close to invisible:

While logged into Facebook:

Select the ‘Account’ tab at the top right corner of the screen
Select ‘Privacy Settings’
In the ‘Connecting on Facebook’ section, select ‘View Settings’ – amend these settings to whatever your comfort level is. If you are not interested in letting new people find you on Facebook, then you should change all these settings to ‘Friends Only’. Know that you will not show up in Facebook searches and no one new can add you as a friend.
Be sure that you have chosen the ‘Friends Only’ settings in the ‘Sharing on Facebook’ section – click ‘Apply’
Select ‘Customize Settings’
Be sure that all the drop-downs are ‘Friends Only’
Disable the option for ‘Include me in “People Here Now” after I check in
Back on the main privacy settings page, ‘Choose Your Privacy Settings’, select ‘edit your settings’ in the ‘Apps and Websites’ section in the bottom left corner of the screen
Edit the settings for each of the options (on the ‘Instant Personalization’ page, disable the option to see information)

Many of the options listed above are explained in detail by Facebook. However, their goal is to make their site very accessible for both their users and the advertisers that pay to get your information through applications and widgets so they encourage you to share all information by making the defaults very liberal. By limiting the information that Facebook is eager to provide to other users, the search engines and advertisers, you are gaining greater control over who sees your private data. For a regular everyday user that just wants to connect with family and friends, taking these steps returns Facebook much closer to its original purpose.