LED Road Test - Unboxing - Blog 1 (2015-11-01)
Who would have thought that electrons passing by some impurities in a semiconductive crystal would convert some of their electrical energy into light? In 1907 Henry Joseph Round discovered electroluminescence, but it wasn't until 1962 that Nick Holonyack invented a visible LED. The invention of the Blue LED in 1992 led to a Nobel prize - I guess the world was waking up to the real potential of LEDs. If we switched all lighting to LEDs, it could save the world 16% of its total energy consumption.
I have been fascinated with LEDs for a long time and am thrilled to be participating in this road test. I hope to highlight a few of the myriad applications where LEDs are useful, particularly some of the applications for the LEDs supplied in the road test kit supplied by Texas Instruments, Wurth Elektronik and element14.
This road test has an interesting mix of parts- there are rumoured to be over $600 of parts in this kit. There is also an additional $200 voucher for parts from element14 and additionally, components from Wurth Elektronik are free.
Here is a short video showing what arrived in the awesome road test kit:
One item I neglected to show was the USB cable that comes with the MSP430 Launchpad. Also the BLE LED modules have 4 LEDs - red, green, blue and white.
I then did a quick power test of the BLE LEDs and the MSP430 Launchpad to show what happens when power is applied to these products right out of the box.
Here is a short video of one of the BLE LED (CC2540TDK-Light) modules:
The schematic for these modules is here. These modules are painfully bright and look like they can be utilized for many unique applications. One major problem for me is right now the only method of interfacing to these modules is with Apple products via BLE. I have not found any information on BLE protocols or command structure to be able to allow other devices to exert control, the control structure is only embedded in an app from itunes. Everyone I know uses android, so it will be a struggle to come up with a solution.
Here is a short video demonstrating the MSP430 Launchpad and its associated factory firmware :
The welcome mode shows the LCD scrolling text, cycling through all LCD segments and providing mode switching instructions.
The stopwatch mode demonstrates a full featured stopwatch.
The temperature sensor mode can display temperature of the CPU in celcius or fahrenheit.
I also wanted to show some high resolution images of the kit components because I could have used them myself in planning my project – maybe they will help others.
BLE LEDs from various angles to get an idea of all 3 dimensions:
MSP430 Launchpad images:
TPS92512EVM-001 current regulator images:
This module has a current adjustment pin (IADJ) that allows the constant current to be set to any value up to 1.5 amps. The following chart indicates what voltage to apply on this pin to acheive a desired current:
I plan on trying to clamp this pin to 0.7 volts using a diode – hopefully setting the current to about 600 mA.
The LED Road Test page is here:
http://www.element14.com/community/roadTests/1481
The Lighting Group page is here:
Here are links to my other blog entries for this road test:
LED Road Test - Proposal - Blog 0 Jan 1, 2016
Light Emitting Diodes Road Test - Blog 1 Nov 1
LED Road Test - 3D Printed Housings - blog 2 Nov 10
LED Road Test - Dodecahedron Light Fixture Blog 3 Nov12
LED Road Test - Wearable Interactive Lights - Blog 4 - Nov 13
LED Road Test - Interactive Trophy - Blog 5 Nov 16
LED Road Test - Making Household Objects Interactive - Blog 6 Nov 22
LED Road Test - Power LEDs - Up & Running - Blog 7 Nov 24
LED Road Test - Star Wars - The Force Awakens - Blog 8 Nov 28
LED Road Test - Selfie Phenomenon - Blog 9 Nov 29
LED Road Test - MSP EXP430FR4133 Launchpad IDE - Blog 10 Dec 6
LED Road Test - Vehicle Situational Awareness System Blog 11 Dec 14
LED Road Test - Vehicle Situational Awareness System Indoor Demo - Blog 12 Dec 20
LED Road Test - Maple Leaf Christmas Decoration - Blog 13 Dec 24
LED Road Test - Reflow Soldering Power LEDs - Blog 15 Jan 10
LED Road Test - Induction Heating Reflow Soldering - Blog 16 Jan12
LED Road Test - Summary - Blog 17 Jan 15
Associated Video Links
Creating a Light Fixture using 123D Design
Wearable Interactive Arc Reactor
Interactive Illuminated Household Objects
Star Wars - Let The Force Be With The Light
Vehicle Situational Awareness System in Operation
Vehicle Situational Awareness System Operating at Night
Induction Heating Reflow Soldering
Top Comments