Gadget Freak

Here is the circuit schematic as well as build instructions and parts list for an easy to build 7x7 LED matrix.

From our sister publication Made by Monkeys, a tale of what happened when engineer Dave Johnson felt ripped-off by the purchase of a cheap LED night light. He reconfigured the circuit and turned it into a much more expensive one – but at least it works.

It seems the stage is set for world domination from the humble LED.

At the height of her career, Marlene Dietrich – that famous woman in trousers – said, ‘I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.’

In an age where skinny jeans reign, and thousands flock to Top Shop hoping to emulate the style icon Kate Moss, dressing for image is a given. After all, wasn’t former Givenchy svengali Alexander McQueen christened the ‘enfant terrible’ of British fashion?

Given the spirit of Gadget Freak, we present the work of British fashion designer Hussein Chalayan MBE. Born in Cyprus, the Central St Martin alumnus showcased his Spring Summer 2007 collection which featured a vast array of garments that require an electrical engineer to operate them via a specially designed remote control.

Who says you can’t have fun with LEDs?

The fantastic atom expander produces an “exploding atom” effect using 98 LEDs.

Alan Parekh designed a rotating LED display.

This circuit for the white LED driver drives as many as four white LEDs from a 3.3V source and adjusts the total LED current from 1 to 106 mA in 64 steps of 1 dB each.

Partial to things that go bump in the night, Bill built a circuit that slowly illuminates and fades a pair of red LEDs. It consists of two op amps, one producing a slow rising and falling voltage (3 - 6V) and the other functioning as a voltage comparator. In operation, a linear 3V ramping waveform is generated at pin 1 of the LM1458 IC and buffered with an emitter follower transistor stage. Make the rate adjustable by using a 100K potentiometer in place of the 47K resistor at pin 2. Install it in a skull as a Halloween prop or if spooky things aren't your thing, use it as a fancy power indicator for a home appliance.

Click the continue reading link for full build instructions, parts list, and circuit schematic.

Deck the halls with LEDs this Christmas

Tired of bobbing reindeer heads and inflatable snowman displays, Jon decided to add some real flash to his holidays. By combining a digital counter, decoder, drivers, and relays, he built a simple, yet flexible circuit that allows for exciting flashing patterns and sequences for a few or many light strings. Building the "flasher" on a solderless breadboard makes modifications easy.

Looking for cool way of wowing that special someone on Valentines Day? Build her a flashing heart made from LEDs driven by a programmable microcontroller. Les' gadget is simple to build and made from easily-obtainable parts. The unique thing about this design is the LEDs are in an X-Y matrix so each LED is addressable. This allows an unlimited combination of displayed patterns for the heart. Source code and schematics are all available here and if you're not into hand wiring, even the PCB can be had for a small fee. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but gadgets are forever.

Making an ordinary lamp a work of art

Seeing great potential in a normal, off-the-shelf product, Pete Griffiths designed a circuit he popped into the lamp to give it a new lease of life. His design combines a PIC and three constant current buck converters to create the RGB LED controller. This controller drives the high power 350mA LEDs using PWM to control the LED brightness. By driving the red, green and blue LEDs with varying pulse widths the controller can generate up to 16 million colours using fades, strobe and static effects. Who says you can't give the humble lamp a nip and tuck?

From their humble beginnings as little red dots that let the user know if household appliances are switched on, LEDs can now be ultra bright light sources capable of lighting up a room or illuminating the road ahead of a vehicle.

High performance LEDs are now being churned out from many manufacturers around the world like they’re going out of fashion.

Here is a collection of the best LED gadgets that have made themselves home in Gadget Freak.

Check out three new Circuit Design Ideas that have been added to the site - examples to give you inspiration for designing your own circuits. And they have an international flavour...

• White-noise generator has no flicker-noise component, courtesy of Alfredo Saab and Randall White, Maxim Integrated Products, Sunnyvale, California
• Red LEDs function as light sensors, courtesy of Geoff Nicholls, Glinde, Germany
• Precision voltage-controlled current sink tests power supplies, courtesy of Luca Bruno, ITIS Hensemberger Monza, Lissone, Italy

There have been 65 entries so far for the Gadget Freak competition, and we are still counting, so make sure you have a go!

All you have to do is answer a question based on the use of an RGB LED controller in one of our Gadget Freak blog posts.

Enter the competition (see the Terms and Conditions)

Pictured is the prize - a wind-up, solar-powered Freeplay EyeMax Self-Sufficient AM/FM Radio, which also includes a (small) integrated flashlight.

This little gem from gizmodo.com:

“Seekway has put together this spectacular 3D LED display, which is capable of displaying images in full 3D at an amazing 30 fps."

Thanks to Electronics Weekly’s Technology Editor for sending us this gadget.

The super flashlight, from the CandlePower Forums, received rave reviews from visitors to the website. Link includes parts list and build instructions.