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| Help req to drive led's to backlight panels in simulated cockpit. |
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| v81:
Working with some friends on an A-10C Warthog cockpit. The software/arduino firmware is DCS BIOS for Digital Combat Simulator which spits out integers for backlight brightness levels. I'm pretty inexperienced at driving multiple LED's and captain obvious says the Arduino will not be able to sink or source enough current without external assistance. So we're looking at physically having a bunch of green or green/yellow colour leds either in series, parallel or a combo of both. The cockpit will be made of multiple boards behind panels all connected by a powered USB hub (with attention to combined current of all). One idea, if sourcing all of the power for an entire cockpit over USB hubs gets a bit much is to have a separate 12v supply distributing power around the pit and to each board to do the heavy lifting (lighting, servos(via 5v pre-regulation) LCD's etc..). To get the lighting into the pit i was hoping to have one arduino (Electronic Warfare / countermeasures panel) feed 3-4 different lighting circuits on other sub panels (engine instruments, consoles etc...). I think it might be most efficient to power each panel from a 12v bus and have a PWM signal from the main board over a signal wire hit a mosfet or something on the sub boards to control lights on/off/brightness. So if the above makes sense.. Some questions... Are there any issues sending a PWM signal directly from an Arduino pin over a meter or 2 (3-6ft) distance? Any issues daisy chaining that same signal to multiple related boards (eg all fo the backlights for the left and right consoles will be on one signal). Any idea to vary / calibrate brightness on a per sub panel basis? Goal will be to build them as close as possible match others, but it might not work out that way. Should i have anything on the Arduino end of the wire to protect the Arduino or ensure signal integrity over a few feet? How would one go about actually powering the LEDs? I'm thinking transistor or mosfet, but I'm not real clever with semiconductors. I think strings of 4 or 5 LEDs could be run fairly efficiently I feel like I've left a bunch of questions here, if anyone made it through all that then i very much appreciate it. I'll leave some pics below of the real pit, and of the on screen simulated pit, the lighting panel will also be attached just for context really. |
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