Blog 24

Working with RGB leds on the WS2812

For Linux/Raspberry:

apt-get install ckermit

If you use and other device, or want to know more:

C-Kermit

For Windows users it's optional to use:

PuTTY 

RGB lighted paper Tree

Making the construction

Paper tree: The paper tree is made by folding a green paper. On the folded green paper I put my RGB led connection. Around the RGB led I draw a Christmas tree. At the point every single RGB led were laying I put a dot with a pencil. After that I cut the tree and put holes only on paper with the pencil dots. After that I used some scotch tape to bring it all together. The final result:

You can of course go all crazy with the tree by adding glitters and stuff like that.

The code

The c-program RGBTree.c can be downloaded: here.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define WHITE  0xffffff
#define YELLOW 0xffff00
#define RED    0x800000
#define GREEN  0x008000
#define BLUE   0x0000ff
#define BLACK  0x000000 

int nfadesteps = 30;
int delayms = 30; 

int interpolate (int c1, int c2, int shift, int pos, int end)
{
  c1 >>= shift;
  c2 >>= shift;
  c1 &= 0xff;
  c2 &= 0xff;

  return c1 * (end-pos) / end + c2 * pos / end;
}

void fadeto (int pixnum, int col1, int col2)
{
   int i; 
   int r, g, b; 

   for (i=0;i <= nfadesteps;i++) {
      r = interpolate (col1, col2, 16, i, nfadesteps);
      g = interpolate (col1, col2,  8, i, nfadesteps);
      b = interpolate (col1, col2,  0, i, nfadesteps);
      printf ("pix %d %06x\n", pixnum, 
	 (r << 16) | (g << 8) | (b << 0)); 

      usleep (delayms*1000);
   }
}

int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
  int nleds = 10;
  int *pixels;
  int pixnum, newcolor;
  int i;
  
  if (argc > 1) 
    nleds = atoi (argv[1]);

  pixels = calloc (nleds, sizeof(int));
  
  printf ("pix %d %06x\n", nleds, WHITE);  

  for (i=0;i < nleds;i++){  
    if (random () % 2 == 0)
       pixels[i] = RED;
    else
       pixels[i] = GREEN;
    printf ("pix %d %06x\n", i, pixels[i]);  
  }

  while (1) {
     pixnum = random () % nleds; 
     if (pixels[pixnum] == RED) 
	newcolor = GREEN;
     else 
       newcolor = RED; 
     fadeto (pixnum, pixels[pixnum], newcolor);
     pixels[pixnum] = newcolor;
  }
  exit (0);

}

Useful links

• usb ws2812
• PuTTY
• C-Kermit
• C-Kermit tutorial
• C-Kermit manual page and tutorial