Lighting Advice needed star led collar

[garnier]

Hi,

I did few led grow lights myself.

Now I challenging new project and it is actually my dogs flashing collar.

It might sound silly but yes . Why not make it properly and use some bright LEDs.

These flashing collar that you can buy at pound shop are not good enough.

My plan is to use five red and five blue star LEDs that will be mounted to little aluminium heatsinks.

What would you advice me to use as a power source?

I can drive them to lower current as I don't want to use some heavy heatsinks...

Was thinking to have 2 circuits of five LEDs in each.

Hooked to two relays that would be controlled by Arduino and flashing ( like a police car ish ).


I was thinking about coupling 9V batteries and then run it through little driver ...

Just not sure there

 

[Banjacked]

Would you need a driver when using any sort of DC power to the leds? You're hardly converting AC to DC, are you.

So probably best looking for a constant voltage setup, you can get 9v cobs but I have no idea how good they are or their output or how long a battery or two would last.

 

[Dr.Bubbles]

Damn.....that's awfully complicated for a dog collar with Arduino. KISS. If it was me, I would buy a nice collar, and modify that to have a length of strip LEDs, wired through a 12v automotive flasher and to an appropriate battery pack. Or use the CREE XP-G and solder them or use the 3-UP Stars.

https://www.ledsupply.com/

Never ordered from these guys before, but they have an awesome selection of LEDs for projects besides growing dope. My $.02. Cheerio.

There called KAAHBS Joe

 

[Banjacked]

Problem with a 12v flasher unit is the bit that says 12v, what sort of battery pack will be hanging off the poor dog because of the 12v coil.

So we're looking at lower voltage, and that's where an idea is forming that uses the control unit from a cheap battery powered flashy RGB strip set hooked up to "better" LEDs. Problem then becomes "will the cheap unit be able to handle any extra load above what the strip in the pack uses"...

PS. I'm assuming that using the Arduino is so the flash can be programmed and altered. If not then you can get everything to go off at a regular rate using a simple 555 timer or similar, I'm sure instructions for that circuit could be found online.

 

[garnier]

I'm trying to use what I already got here...

I have quite few Arduino based controllers just laying around ( some really small ones that would do a job I guess ).

Also have few spare LEDs .

I was also thinking about use old drill battery for it...

Don't worry about dog he loves pulling tires so this is not an issue.

Not sure about powering it...
Because having let's say two 9V batteries that will give me 18V then I would need a driver to cut it from 18V to 15V as 5x3V =15V for five LEDs ...
That mean I might need another driver for powering Arduino.....

That's where I'm confused...

I just don't want to make it too complicated...


It then can give me more options....

I could remotely changing behaving of LEDs with my phone )

 

[garnier]

maybe this battery pack would be good to mount on his vest.
But think might need a current limiter or something ? It could just burn it or not?

 

[Banjacked]

Ok, let's keep it simple.

What power is needed for the Arduino? That's your "base", so that's a 9v supply minimum, the Arduino will go from 9v, and will take up to 12, that's your base figure so then we need to know your leds. You'll need to run constant voltage, not the usual constant current used by many in diy grow lamps as your voltage cannot change.

Now, you connect batteries in series, + to - to +, etc, you add the voltage up. You connect in parallel, + to + to + and - to - to -, etc, your voltage stays the same but you can provide more current. That way you're not faffing around reducing voltages, so you could make up a power bank using battery packs like the one you show above, or you could do the same with a few PP3 9v batteries, either way the Arduino will work. So, again, we come to the LEDs.

So what are the LEDs, what do they need? You say 3v so in theory you're laughing as that multiplies perfectly into 9 or 12v. The choice is yours, depending on the LEDs and what they can handle as for 9v you could, in theory, use 2 sets of 3 which would split the 9v across 6 LEDs and not 5, leaving you perfect on the 9v supplying everything and that means you could, again in theory, have turn signals on your dog which would have some people wondering if they were the ones who took drugs.

So get some LEDs out, connect a few in series on a 9v battery and see what happens, as you'll not only prove the principle but also see how long the battery lasts which will give you an idea of how many you would need strapped to poochie for a given amount of time.

PS. Again we come to the LEDs and what they are capable of. It's quite possible get could happily take 4v each, which brings in the 12v supply.