XPS Ground Effects

[rendermandan]

Tonight I've been working on learning a litle C# programming. Here is the windows interface I came up with to control the lights.

I'd like to get the color pallet to appear in the main window, rather than having to hit the "Color" button and have it open in a seperate window.

[rendermandan]

well, To be honest, Yes that has crossed our minds. But We would make it more user friendly. Such as having led's prewired and be able to plug them into headers in a plastic box as the user needed. It would be designed to just sit inside a computer case somewhere and the wire management would be up to you. And obviously we woud give it a different name. We still have to figure out alot of stuff, such as cost of supplies, or Manufacturing cost. packaging etc.

[rendermandan]

If you really would like one, we can build you one, but we would have to figure out a price and how long it would take to make. -after all, we are still building the prototype.


-Update on the project.
Sorry I don't have any pics for you of this work, I forgot my camera at home.
I'll try and take some pics tomorrow and update this post with the images.

I frosted all 10 led's with a file to help diffuse the light. They look much better!

Gediminas also finished wiring all the led's to the board. and They look kick ass, and very bright!

I did some more work on the interface too.

here is what it looks like now.

You can see that I added an Icon for the program at the top left. I also removed the minimize and maximize buttons. and I added a color box to show what color was selected.
The right side shows the color selector box that pops up when you click the color button. I set the Effect speed slider to be greyed out when Constant on or Off is checked for the Lighting effect.
I also configured it to run as an Icon in the lower right and not as an open program in the task bar. That way its always running, but somewhat in the background. Lastly I made the Large XPS Image a link to a "Info" window that says what version, date, and thanks to my friends that have helped me figure all this out.

Tonight I had to modify a usb to serial controller since the one I bought did not work. I'll have to rma that baby back as it was $20.

Again, I'll take some pics tomorrow at work and get some uploaded, I'll also get some video done too.

Later,

[SgtM]

Is there any way to control it without the software? Like with a different micro controller on the board? That way, all the user has to do is supply power. Maybe have a switch to change between different functions (think flashy Christmas lights). I would LOVE to implement this setup in my truck... to replace my dome light of course.

[custom_electronics_man]

Oh yes that's completely possible. In our case we will need computer software just to change a setting. It will be enough just to supply the power and it will remember what was the last setting selected before shutting off and will keep doing that until the user launches the software and changes the setting. It's actually a lot easier to have a button which changes the modes. Also there could be 3 sliders which adjust the color. Piece of cake. Then you would need no external software and everything would be done by the same chip.

[rendermandan]

Today I got some more pics of the board and led's.

This is a shot of the frosted led's.

and some of the wiring on the led's.

Here is the circuit board with some of the components and led's wired up.

[rendermandan]

Here is the video of the color changing effect.

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[custom_electronics_man]

I'm done with my part of the mod. Everything works great. Windows interface is also done. We had it nicely working during the day. I also mounted everything into the tiny box and everything is awesome!! I love how it turned out. Dan is playing bowling tonight so expect a long worklog with lots of pictures and videos posted tomorrow.

[rendermandan]

I'm done with my part of the mod. Everything works great. Windows interface is also done. We had it nicely working during the day. I also mounted everything into the tiny box and everything is awesome!! I love how it turned out. Dan is playing bowling tonight so expect a long worklog with lots of pictures and videos posted tomorrow.

Well, sorry guys, Gediminas is mistaken. Its not done yet. The modified usb connector must have a developed a short because it keeps dropping in and out. So now I have to make another.
The module does work but only with a standard usb connector. I can post some pictures and some video later tonight.

[rendermandan]

Well everyone, Its basically finished. Here is the final shot of it assembled.

And now for some color shots!

Then I mounted it to the bottom of my laptop. -you can see the custom windows program running on the desktop.

And lastly. a video showing some of the lighting effects.
I start by changing the color, then going through the pulsating, strobing and color change effects. If you look close, you can see the mouse icon moving on the screen.

The camera had a hard time picking up the brightness in video mode. -I need a better camear!


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Thanks again goes to custom_electronics_man and Michael Kane for their help on this.

Well thats it for this work log. -Untill next time.

Rendermandan -OUT!


Link To Original Worklog