RGB LED lights

[monteshaffer]

There are strings of LED lights that can be programmed individual with RGB. You can buy a long string and then cut them to your need. It would be nice to have such an option with Phidgets.

I noticed some lengths of single color LED lights: https://www.phidgets.com/?tier=3&catid= ... prodid=457

Would it be possible to have a strip of LED RGB lights (each light is programmable as off, or some R,G,B color). For me, I need internal (not exterior) lights. Buying 5 meters that can be cut to specific lengths would be ideal.

[mparadis]

There's currently no simple way for Phidgets to interface with the typical WS2812 or Neopixel RGB addressable strips.

The single-color strips we sell can still be cut in the same way as the addressable ones, we just don't sell custom lengths.

[monteshaffer]

Thanks for the reply. I understand your 5M single color can be cut to length and utilized. The meat of the suggested "New Phidget Idea" was for controllable RGB lights for every light in the sequence.

There's currently no simple way for Phidgets to interface with the typical WS2812 or Neopixel RGB addressable strips.

By "simple" I assume you mean with current phidgets readily available (a simple modification).

It appears WS2812 is pretty well documented [https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812.pdf] with pin layouts and the like (referencing WS2811 control IC), so if it was a priority "phidget idea" it would be doable?

From my understanding the "mission of Phidget" is to standardize inputs into a USB format. So IC -> USB? Am I missing something?

Or are you saying it is not likely very doable? If not, why not?

Please clarify.

I suggested this "New Phidget Idea" because for the applications I am developing it would be useful to control individual colors of a sequence of lights as part of the larger system.

[mparadis]

Sorry, I didn't see that this was posted in the New Phidget Ideas forum (I always just browse the active topics).

It is possible that we could have a device that could control addressable LEDs at some point in the future. If we did, it would probably be a general purpose device that sends out serial signals, and the LED communication would just be one of many functions programmed into the library.

[monteshaffer]

@mparadis,

Thanks for the updated response. I am new to this platform and what to see if this is the best solution to get EE devices to communicate effectively via USB. So far, I am liking what I see.

Please let me know the protocols associated with roadmaps and priorities for future "New Phidget Ideas".

Can external partners encourage a certain priority with resources to cover the R&D?

[mparadis]

Typically our new products are driven by wide demand; we don't design new devices for individual customers, because it creates vulnerability if only one large customer is interested in a product. Generally speaking, for the kind of quantities that would make it worth it for us, it would be more cost effective for you to contact a PCB manufacturer directly.

[monteshaffer]

For signage, LEDs are very popular. To be able to custom control each RGB light would be useful. In general, arduino has opened a pathway to a lot of hobbyist projects that could use phidget components. This is a growing market. Maybe your current customer base is iot-internal engineer types. It is hard to say. I search for "phidget" on youtube and get a few results; I search for "arduino" and get unlimited results.

To me the original intent of the phidget, from the first published paper is to give normal sensors a way to tie-in to USB protocols. I am not a hobbyist, but trying to design a system with multiple external sensors, so this seems like an ideal option. However, there are "arduino projects" out there for every one of the sensors I need, and very few phidgets. I am going to have a miniPC (Intel NUC) run the show, so I am trying to go down the phidget path, but it will be essential that I can expand the sensor offerings in the next few years.

We are developing a system for Parkinson's patients that requires the use of many different sensors. We want to have one platform to manage the data and ideally that would be phidgets. So if I get a few PCB boards built that follow certain protocols, are they attachable to the phidget system?

On the second option, if I got a PCB designed, are there ways to make it phidget-compatible?

[mparadis]

Any sensor with a standard output (e.g. 5V, 4-20mA, NPN, PNP, 10V, etc) will always have a way to interface with Phidgets, so I don't think you have to worry about the breadth of sensor options. LEDs are one place where Phidgets is behind the curve, and rest assured, we are aware of this- but I can't make any promises about when that will change.

While the Phidget library source code is available via our linux downloads, you'd have to do a lot of reverse engineering to write the firmware for a custom-made device (I don't think anyone has ever done this). It would almost certainly be less work to have the LEDs controlled by Arduino and have Phidgets trigger it with digital outputs or something.