Simple project for 10-11 year old.

Oooh I like Billabott's idea of using a potentiometer and having it fade the colours - that makes for a much more interesting result for the kids to play with when done. Using an RGB LED would be great for that (and adds a lesson in combining light colours).

Actually, I was thinking that the pot would set the cyclic rate of a heartbeat-like dimming and brightening.

But I guess just letting them play with a "brightness" knob would be fun for them too.

Pat:  It took me a while to realize that 5.08 mm is 0.200 inch on the device's through-hole pin spacing

in order to use a standard breadboard!

So here are parts recommendations to save you some time.

RGB LED:

Manufacturer: FORGE EUROPA

Order Code: 8738661

Manufacturer Part No: FCL-P115R078G03B12WCCI

1 @ £2.11

DIP SWITCH:

DIP SWITCH, 8 POS, SPST, RAISED SLIDE

Manufacturer: MULTICOMP

Order Code: 9471596

Manufacturer Part No: MCDS08

1 @ £0.66

No problem.  You are welcome.

Thank you so so much for all your help guys.

I'm currently building my shopping list based on the ideas from Nico and Billabott, using the dip switch to control an RGB LED.

So I've got this

• Multicomp Nano boards - 1813414

And this in my basket:

• Forge Europa RGB LED - 8738661 - £2.11
• Multicomp DIP Switch - 9471596 - £0.66
  • Thanks Billabott for the links
• Wisher Breadboard - 1472862 - £4.23
• Wisher Jumper Kit - 1472867 - £5.38
• And a ping pong ball - All good sports retailers

Not sure if these will be the cheapest but best I could find after a quick search on Farnell, am I forgetting anything?

if they`re going to be stand-alone boards, then a 9V batt and some clips would be an idea

I also looked at those LEDs and from what I can see, I think you`ll need resistors for them, 330 Ohm or there abouts, and 3 of them per LED.

Pat, 

   I have a grave concern about the Forge Europa RGB LED package fitting onto the bread board properly and can no longer recommend it. 

Since it sounds like maybe you are doing some of this with your own money,  I will share my goto source for parts: taydaelectronics.com.   You can get R,G, & B discrete LEDs for less than $0.05 each.  I would get the Water Clear Ultra Bright ones (just to add some mystery for the kids) in either the 3 or 5 mm.  You need to pay attention to their various current requirements.  I recommend their 220 Ohm 1/2 watt 5% Carbon Film Resistors @ $0.015 each.  For the resistors get 1.3 to 1.5 times the number of LEDs because you can supply more current by adding an additional resistor in parallel causing an increase in lumens output.  And of course you can cut the current by approx. 33% by putting two resistors in series resulting in a decrease in lumens output if needed.  The green leds seem to be much more effiecient at putting out lumens per unit of current.  Check them out for any of the other parts you need.  They did not have the bread boards when I looked.

I wonder if we can get oomlout.com to assist.  I really like their CIRC-xx .pdf layout guides.  I will send them an email with a link to our discussion. 

OBTW, I have heard that you (or the kids) can make great jumper wires out of a retired Cat-5 cable (non-stranded of course).  You can also re-use that stripped insulation to color code the anode/short leg/positive side of the LEDs.

Here is a kit on Amazon.com but you get more colors than you want and the unit cost is 4 times the cost of parts at taydaelectronics.com.

That's fine more than happy to switch to individual LEDs, especially at that price. Yep you guessed right this is a private project, so keeping the costs down is ideal.

oomlout.com is a great site, I'm loving there guides, they are really detailed and it would be amazing if they could help.

Ooh I'd not thought of using Cat-5 cable as jumper wires, I've got some spare at home, I'll have to give it a go.

Well, it's time for the Good News!

Aaron Nielsen of oomlout.com has generously offered to assist in making Pat's arduino project  a truely exciting, well documented, and easy to teach one.

Thank You, Mr. Nielsen!

I second that, a massive thank you to Mr Nielsen, and everyone else who has contributed here I really can't believe the support you have all given on this.

Well, here is my first go at the software.  It compiles and runs as designed using Arduino 1.0 on the MC-Nano hardware; but is not the final version by any means.  To me it seems incredibly simple.

// How Am I Feeling Indicator Light Project

// by billabott

// This code is in the public domain.

// First publication 14 April 2012.

int LedRed = 12;

int LedGrn = 11;

int LedBlu = 10;

int DipSwitch3 = 9;

int DipSwitch2 = 8;

int DipSwitch1 = 7;

int DipSwitch0 = 6; 

void setup() {

pinMode(LedRed, OUTPUT);

pinMode(LedGrn, OUTPUT);

pinMode(LedBlu, OUTPUT);

pinMode(DipSwitch3, INPUT);  

pinMode(DipSwitch2, INPUT);

pinMode(DipSwitch1, INPUT);

pinMode(DipSwitch0, INPUT);

digitalWrite(DipSwitch3, HIGH);  // required to enable the internal pullup resistor

digitalWrite(DipSwitch2, HIGH);   // as discussed previously in this post.

digitalWrite(DipSwitch1, HIGH);   // one side of switchs are wired to ground

digitalWrite(DipSwitch0, HIGH);  // and other side to the input pins.

}

void loop() {

int state0 = digitalRead(DipSwitch0);

if (state0 == HIGH ) {

// Call the function to blink the lights

BlinkLights();

}

/* DipSwitch0 (the right most one) is an enable/go/load indicator for

   the other DipSwitches to take control of which LEDs are on or off. 

   So pull it LOW by pushing it up and the blinking stops.  */

else {              

int state1 = digitalRead(DipSwitch1);

int state2 = digitalRead(DipSwitch2);

int state3 = digitalRead(DipSwitch3);

if (state1 == LOW)

{

  digitalWrite(LedBlu, HIGH);

}

else

{

  digitalWrite(LedBlu, LOW);

}

if (state2 == LOW )

{

  digitalWrite(LedGrn, HIGH);

}

else

{

  digitalWrite(LedGrn, LOW);

}

if (state3 == LOW )

{

  digitalWrite(LedRed, HIGH);

}

else

{

  digitalWrite(LedRed, LOW);

}

}

delay(1000); // wait 1.0 second

}

void BlinkLights() {       //  attract mode ?

digitalWrite(LedBlu, LOW);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

digitalWrite(LedGrn, LOW);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

digitalWrite(LedRed, LOW);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

delay(1000); // wait 1.0 second

digitalWrite(LedRed, HIGH);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

digitalWrite(LedGrn, HIGH);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

digitalWrite(LedBlu, HIGH);

delay(200); // wait 0.2 seconds

delay(1000); // wait 1.0 second

}

Hi Billabot

This is awesome thank you.

I've got my parts on order, they should be with me in a few days fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted

Pat