{"id":20,"date":"2008-09-06T10:53:51","date_gmt":"2008-09-06T00:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.makesomecode.com\/?p=20"},"modified":"2015-01-15T01:52:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T01:52:38","slug":"rgb-led-processing-firmata-and-arduino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/blog\/rgb-led-processing-firmata-and-arduino\/","title":{"rendered":"RGB LED, Processing, Firmata and Arduino"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife plays in a band and some of us started to get the idea of rigging up an led light system for the stage. I figured this would be the perfect project for the arduino. I bought a RGB led here (for $6 AUD from Jaycar, an absolute ripoff) and decided to have a go controlling it. I’m starting small with just one for now and eventually I want to create a large matrix.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t worked with an RGB led they are a little different that a normal LED. They contain 4 legs, one for each colour and a common anode or cathode. In my case I had a common cathode. I plugged it into my breadboard and wired up a 1K resistor to limit the current.<\/p>\n

I’m using PWM on the arduino to control the brightness of each LED. Here’s a look at the code:<\/p>\n

int ledpinr = 9;\r\nint ledping = 10;\r\nint ledpinb = 11;\r\nint red = 0;\r\nint blue = 0;\r\nint green = 0;\r\n\r\nvoid setup() {\r\n  \/\/Nothing to setup\r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid changeColor(int red, int green, int blue){\r\n  \/\/Set PWM on pins 9 10 and 11\r\n  analogWrite(ledpinr, red);\r\n  analogWrite(ledping, green);\r\n  analogWrite(ledpinb, blue);\r\n  delay(500);\r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid loop() {\r\n  \/\/Red\r\n  changeColor(255, 0, 0);\r\n\r\n  \/\/Green\r\n  changeColor(0, 255, 0);\r\n\r\n  \/\/Blue\r\n  changeColor(0, 0, 255);\r\n\r\n  \/\/White\r\n  changeColor(255, 255, 255);\r\n}<\/pre>\n
I know, pretty basic. We set up our led pins on 9, 10, and 11 and change the PWM value on each one and call a half second delay.<\/p>\n
Processing + Arduino + Firmata = Cool<\/h3>\n
Now lets do something a little more complicated. Lets see how we can control the rgb led using our computer. To do this we’ll need to set up a small program in processing and get it to send serial data to the arduino.<\/p>\n
We’ll be using Firmata, a library for the arduino to communicate with processing with only a few lines of code. You’ll need to download the Firmata library and place place it in your arduino library folder. Instructions to do this can be found on the arduino website<\/a>. After downloading unzip the package and view the README.txt. Once you’ve finished that we’re ready to code.<\/p>\n
We are going to use one of the included examples for Firmata. Here is the Arduino code:<\/p>\n
\/* Supports as many analog inputs and analog PWM outputs as possible.\r\n *\r\n * Written by Hans-Christoph Steiner\r\n *\/\r\n#include\r\n\r\nbyte analogPin;\r\n\r\nvoid analogWriteCallback(byte pin, int value)\r\n{\r\n    pinMode(pin,OUTPUT);\r\n    analogWrite(pin, value);\r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid setup()\r\n{\r\n    Firmata.setFirmwareVersion(0, 1);\r\n    Firmata.attach(ANALOG_MESSAGE, analogWriteCallback);\r\n    Firmata.begin();\r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid loop()\r\n{\r\n    while(Firmata.available()) {\r\n        Firmata.processInput();\r\n    }\r\n    for(analogPin = 0; analogPin < TOTAL_ANALOG_PINS; analogPin++) {\r\n        Firmata.sendAnalog(analogPin, analogRead(analogPin));\r\n    }\r\n}<\/pre>\n
This will receive the serial data sent to us from the processing sketch that we’ll be making next. Most of the hard work is done us by the Firmata library. If you’d like to see more about how their functions look checkout the Firmata.cpp file in the library.<\/p>\n
Now for the processing code. This will draw a 512×200 box. When we move our mouse in this box it will use the coordinates of the mouse to change the color of the background and the rgb led hooked up to the arduino.<\/p>\n
import processing.serial.*;\r\nimport cc.arduino.*;\r\n\r\nArduino arduino;\r\n\r\nint red;\r\nint green;\r\nint blue;\r\n\r\nvoid setup() {\r\n  size(512, 200);\r\n  arduino = new Arduino(this, Arduino.list()[2], 115200);\r\n}\r\n\r\nvoid draw() {\r\n  red = constrain(mouseX\/2, 0, 255);\r\n  green = constrain(255 - mouseY, 0, 255);\r\n  blue = constrain(255 - mouseX\/2, 0, 255);\r\n  background(red, green, blue);\r\n  arduino.analogWrite(9, red);\r\n  arduino.analogWrite(10, green);\r\n  arduino.analogWrite(11, blue);\r\n}<\/pre>\n
There you have it. Controlling an rgb led with processing and firmata using an arduino. Next we’ll be looking at using a TLC5940 to expand our PWM outputs and control more leds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My wife plays in a band and some of us started to get the idea of rigging up an led light system for the stage. I figured this would be the perfect project for the arduino. I bought a RGB led here (for $6 AUD from Jaycar, an absolute ripoff) and decided to have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,14],"tags":[25,29,43,59,84,86,89,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickv.codes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}