Arduino-based LED controllers

[gvv]

Few days ago I saw Ecotech Radion LED lights. But the main thing which astonished me is the software that is used to control these lights.
And I decided to check if it is possible to do something like this for DIY LED lights, before I even get into such a DIY project.

I found several projects that are using Arduino micro-controller for such a purpose.

Now here is a question - does anyone tried to make such a LED controller? What language should be used for programming? Or just tell what are you using it for

Regards

[daworldisblack]

I was just thinking of doing the same! I have worked with these microcontrollers before and they are SUPER easy if you have a little background in programming. Setting LEDs on an off is a matter of setting bits to be HIGH or LOW. High is on and Low is off, each bit corresponds to a port and each port will be able to take inputs of different types, like LEDs. You can refer to the programming reference here: http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage .

Hardware wise, typically you wouldn't just slot a LED into a port and fire it up - you'd need a corresponding resistor hooked up to it and I believe there was only one on the Arduino Mega that I worked with, that had the resistor pre-wired. Also regarding Hardware, there are plenty of wireless modules (Shields) that you can mount onto these now so imagine using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc to control your lighting remotely! Sounds pretty sick to me! What about hooking a feeding system to it? Or hooking up sensors? You could check in on temperature on your mobile device anywhere in the world But I am just dreaming dreams that have high propensity of  becoming real given the right knowledge and resources of course

Software wise, the language is pretty close to C/C++.Pretty high-level. You download the IDE free that has the editor, library, compiler and debugger - so install and Start! . Its pretty straight-forward though, as most of the functions have already been written out and its a matter of just using them. These microcontrollers are used by artists, designers etc. and are designed for them as well so you can imagine how not-too-bad it could be.

Planning on getting one this Christmas and starting little projects myself. Cant wait! In the meanwhile, i'd love to see links to those projects you saw online!  

[gvv]

Here is a site with few links in it:
https://sites.google.com/site/caddnima/myreeftank/led_controller

[HomerJ]

I'm in the process of coding something up on the arduino board.  Right now I have a display, keypad, and "time-of-day" based timers working (along with the menu system, etc).  I have played with DS1820 temperature sensors, and they are pretty nice, but I need to find a proper way to package them so they can be used in water.

This is a fun project, and it's mostly a learning experience for me.  In the end, a 120$ reefkeeper lite is hard to beat for what it comes with/what it can do.

[gvv]

This is a fun project, and it's mostly a learning experience for me.  In the end, a 120$ reefkeeper lite is hard to beat for what it comes with/what it can do.

Not quite agree with this:
Only separate ACL unit is to be used for dimming control. Now it has only 2 channels and if I want more, I will have to add the other one - 100+100. Here I also should say as I don't have RKL in my hands it will be additional 120, so 320 for LED controls, yes with possibilty of other functions, but I'm not very interested in them right now.

Besides that, if instead of Mean Well ELN-60-48D I will be using Mean Well ELN-60-48P, the RKL will be useless...

So, still thinking about this...  Don't have the numbers how much the Arduino-based controller will cost. Not counting the programming, but this is fun part.