Hi all, I've got a bit of a project on the go at the moment, and need some help!!
My mother has got a 1971 type II VW camper, and whilst at a show we spotted some LED cluster rear lights which showed a 'VW' logo when the sidelights were on, and then a big block of them lit up red for brake lights, etc. she really wants a set making, but my idea is to give the design a bit of a twist
my idea is to make a big matrix of 5mm LED's controlled by a PIC microcontroller, which (when off the road) displays a moving, rotating VW logo on the LED's, similar to the screensaver on most DVD players (like a DVD logo bouncing off the edges of the screen)
Ive been looking around on the net for a bit and can only find dot matrix controllers which control a matrix of 5x8 LED's... the lights im going to be making are going to need a controller for say.... 20cm x 10cm, which is approx (40x20) 800 LED's... gulp. and thats a LOT of soldering for me as well lol
Do any of you know of any controllers that can do this?
the nearest ive found is on here... http://www.instructables.com/id/OSRA...ay-Module-Ini/
they cant be controlled by a computer, and will need to have 4 inputs for brakelight, sidelight, indicator, and perhaps fog light too.
all the controllers ive stumbled across seem to need to be connected to USB for them to work, which is unsuitable. it needs to be standalone, and runnable off 12v. I dont really know what im searching for at the moment though so perhaps im wrong
If i cant get a microcontroller solution, it looks like its gonna be good old diodes and settle for a static VW logo
using an LCD screen is out of the question because sunlight tends to blind them out, and it would look really gay anyway!
I've got a budget of £120, ($200 ish) and they need to be built in time for VANFEST 2009 which is 11th to 13th of september.
i was even hoping to get RGB LED's and have a craaazy setup... but the prices of the LED's will be about 60 billion quid.
Cheers,
Tom