thoughts and direction on this LED circuit idea

[shapeshifter]

all,

my skills with digital ciruits are quite limited, or more acurately
nonexistent , so am seeking your thoughts on the viability of the following
circuit idea and possibly a pointer to someone who can help me build it.

the goal is to create something of a starfield. im thinking N number of led
clusters each containing M leds. for immediate practicality, probably 4 or 5
clusters with 10-20 leds per. each cluster will pulsate, slowly turning on
and off (ideally with adjustable pulse rate) either all-at-once or perhaps
randomly within the cluster and after some time (variable?) will stop
firing and trigger the firing of the next cluster (the next cluster chosen
either in some predetermined sequence or perhaps randomly chosen). all leds
will be a single color, probably blue or violet. power is from a portable,
ie, battery, source.

if i had a schematic i could build it and im wondering if there is something
already out there or if not if you can point me to someone who could custom
design this. btw, this is for a non-commerical art project, so resources are
limited.

any thoughts? is this too complex for a beginner?


thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Rich Grise]

"shapeshifter" <ds_gottago@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:_DRuc.32828

all,

my skills with digital ciruits are quite limited, or more acurately
nonexistent , so am seeking your thoughts on the viability of the
following
circuit idea and possibly a pointer to someone who can help me build it.

the goal is to create something of a starfield. im thinking N number of
led
clusters each containing M leds. for immediate practicality, probably 4 or
5
clusters with 10-20 leds per. each cluster will pulsate, slowly turning on
and off (ideally with adjustable pulse rate) either all-at-once or perhaps
randomly within the cluster and after some time (variable?) will stop
firing and trigger the firing of the next cluster (the next cluster
chosen
either in some predetermined sequence or perhaps randomly chosen). all
leds
will be a single color, probably blue or violet. power is from a portable,
ie, battery, source.

if i had a schematic i could build it and im wondering if there is
something
already out there or if not if you can point me to someone who could
custom
design this. btw, this is for a non-commerical art project, so resources
are
limited.

any thoughts? is this too complex for a beginner?

Well, yes and no. If you want it to look like the sky, shouldn't they
be twinkling? Or is this what you're describing already? If so, I'd
do 10-20 clusters with 4 or 5 LESs per. That thing about randomly within
the cluster, that's kind of a tall order - but you could do it the way
they do twinkling Xmas lights. I'm sure someone's got a 2-transistor LED
flasher out there! You could use a flashing LED in series with each
string, but I don't know if they come in the colors you're looking for.

To have each one individually controlled, you'd use a matrix, and multiplex
them, of course.

Good Luck!
Rich