Led Meter

mmcshmi11 · Jan 8, 2003

Here is a really cool mod that i want to attempt http://www.casemodgod.com/ledmeter.htm

Check it out.. it changes the level of the led according to whatever you set it to. I wanna know how they made the program to send the signals to the leds? Has anybody else tried this and do you think it would be possible to do this through a different port?

illwillchill · Jan 8, 2003

i have no idea how the program works but i think it has some relation to the winamp plugins used with lcd screens anyway good luck

i would want to try that also and also change the leds on my digital doc to blue, but after i fried the lcd with my dangerous moddin hand im just stuck with my second digital doc and the orange led's remain, ever mocking me

FireMogle · Jan 8, 2003

I was trying to do somthing simmalar to this, only with my room. Lights all over the freging place.

Veland · Jan 8, 2003

I've got one of those, really, it's a 5 minutes job to solder it together. That was one really looong guide for something that simple. If you want to do it and at the same time use really bright led while preserving your parallell port, get an optocoupler in there as well. As the optocoupler output is like a transistor, you can feed your led's with more amps. It's the way to go for white and blue leds. Low power ones can be used directly, but you do risk blowing the port.

As for software, there is a lot out there. The only problem being most is DOS based. But in VB it should be really easy to send data to the port..

Black_Ops · Jan 8, 2003

yes it would be possible to do it throught serial port but not without a MCU or a shift register and a MAX232...

i could write the MCU code and provide preprogramed mcu's if there is sgnicifant interest.

DaveSauce · Jan 8, 2003

k, so now I wish I took up my friend's offer of VB6 when he offered it to me 3 years ago...rarr.

Wish I had a copy of VB6.....I have my printer on USB now, so I got a parallel port just waiting to be modded...oh yea, and some serial ports free, heh.

EDIT:

Tho I suppose the free edition would suffice for programming programs to use the parallel port? Or wouldn't it? Anyone know where to find it? Will google it, but I recall trying to find it once with no luck...eh.

EDIT AGAIN:

Tried programmersheaven.com, and I am thuroughly confused....is that stuff all just extras? I'm sure there's a free learning edition around somewhere, or is it just my imagination?

mmcshmi11 · Jan 8, 2003

hey Black ops, what would it take to write the the code to send the signal through the serial port? how do you program an MCU or something like that? i know a little about it.. but not really lol

Annoyingrob · Jan 10, 2003

I built one of those led things a few years back, used Qbasic to program it

it had 12 leds on it though. There's the 8 data lines, as well as an additional 4 bidirectional lines that can be used as outputs.

Black_Ops · Jan 10, 2003

would take a good hour or two programming in C and a simple PIC16X8X programmer on lpt1. i could write something for ya if you wanted... it might take a while becuase i got to finish writing the stupid VFD display somtroller so it is compatable with CrystalFontz protocall.

but you could get a minimum of 11 leds with one serial in line if you wanted to go simple. or you could go a bit complicated and run some shift registers and the such.

the fun thing would be you could output anscii to 8 of the leds and controll the others with a different code..... if people were interested id design something like that

mmcshmi11 · Jan 11, 2003

It would be helpful if you could program something to do that

not just for the led meter but i also want to learn how to program too, so if you had the code for the program that you make it would be very useful to me. get back to us and let us know if you could do something like that! Thanks!

DaveSauce · Jan 11, 2003

Hrm......I need to know how to do it in winXP. I'm an ameture programmer...know a little bit of basic and a bit more VB. I would love to do it myself, but I dun have either of those programs.....perhaps some linkage? (isnt there a free version of VB out there somewhere? legal?) And I dont know if basic works in XP, since its dos and all. (I know a TINY bit of C++, very little)

All I know is that I would love to make like a basic LED display to show like temp or something, lol.

mmcshmi11 · Jan 11, 2003

How would you go about writing code to send data through the lpt1 printer port so the led meter could work?

klingens · Jan 12, 2003

for all NT based OSes, you need a driver which allows you to access ports directly. But no fear: there are already a few of these written, so you don´t have to. E.g. MBM does use one such driver to read out the temps. Search for DirectNT or DirectNT.sys

I dunno how you´d access this driver in VB tho, maybe you need C++ or any other real language for this.

Alex

Black_Ops · Jan 12, 2003

i will start programming the the microcontroller wendsday after school. i should be done in a day or two/ i will give full specs, Hex, hookup diagram. oh links for a PIC programmer, and maybe ill attempt (shudders) to write something in basic to test it if you built it..... i'm not very good at programming computer software.

oh i will post pics of my working demo or something like that.

Led Meter

mmcshmi11

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illwillchill

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FireMogle

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Veland

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Black_Ops

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DaveSauce

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mmcshmi11

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Annoyingrob

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Black_Ops

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mmcshmi11

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DaveSauce

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mmcshmi11

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klingens

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Black_Ops

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