RGB wiring, take 2

[Kayin]

So my experimentation from last time got me only so far, and I've got a new set of questions...

I have 16 pieces of 3-LED RGB strip to wire up for a... certain project. The strips are simply three RGB LEDs, common anode, without a controller chip. That means without an individual chip, they can't display on a per-LED basis, but each strip if properly controlled can display a color, as I understand.

So, in that line of questioning, I picked up this http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/rgb-led-shield-v14-kit-p-430.html?cPath=132_134 for its three PWM driver chips. Can I simply wire the LED strips to it and run it that way? Each 3-LED strip would correspond to one of the LED outputs pretty neatly, as it's wired for common anode as well. The only issue I see is power. Anyone got any criticisms or ideas for it? I'll be running it off a Seeeduino Stalker V2 (as it's running Dallas one-wire temp sensors, an ambient sensor, and a serial LCD with inputs as well) with an XBee (I hope) for wireless control after it's all programmed. Everything but the XBee and my AVR programmer are here, so I can set down to work as soon as I get confirmation this will or will not work.

Will it run what I want to run? And do I need more input than USB power?

[SXRguyinMA]

I can't say yes or no on that shield, it may to more than what you want, and I have no experience with it. When I first started with the Arduin and RGB LEDs, I used this tutorial:

http://www.instructables.com/id/RGB-LED-Tutorial-using-an-Arduino-RGBL/

And that shows you how to do 3 separate RGB LEDs (or strips in your case)

I don't see any reason for that Seeed shield not to work, you can just connect a strip to each LED, as lon as it will let each output get up to 12v, as IIRC that's what most strips take. If it will only let you output a max of ~5v on each output, I don't think that shield will work with your strips. USB would be fine for running a few LEDs, but it only does 5v, so I don't think your stips will work with that either.

The RGB controllers I've been using were PIC-based, and used 12v input to run everything, including the LEDs, as it was designed for the strips.

[Kayin]

Thanks for the explanation.

Picked up a 5050 controller for 5 bucks on Ebay. Should be able to interface it with the PSU as well.

[HelenKolling]

I want to replace the 4 blue LEDs(led strip blue (http://www.ledstrips8.com/flexible-led-strip-lighting-c-32.html)
) with 4 green led strip 12v (http://www.ledstrips8.com/led-light-bars-c-38.html)
, but not sure where to get the green led strip 12v (http://www.ledstrips8.com/led-light-bars-c-38.html)
from, or how I can hook them up. Any suggestions? This runs on 3 AG13 batteries.:banana:

[TLHarrell]

If your board outputs only 5v, or it doesn't have enough mA to run the strips, use it to switch a transistor that is rated for the power you need to go through it.