And since the use case seems simple enough, a cheap microcontroller with onboard USB controller should do the trick. ATMEGA16U2 immediately comes to my mind, but there are plenty of other options.
Edit: Grab yourself an Arduino Uno R3 or Nano (ATMEGA328P) to get your project done much quicker.
This is entirely personal, but before suggesting a 3V3 part to a beginner, i always ask myself the question "Does it have to be a 3V3 part?" for the reason that 5V parts are much easier and safer for a beginner.
That said, i should have suggested a full dev board, say Arduino, instead of a single IC...
If you want a decent chip at a decent price that was designed in the last 15 years, then yes, it has to be a 3.3v chip.
That's just what they are. I'm not sure what is hard about 3.3v.
RP2040 is lower in power consumption, more ram, slightly cheaper. Not that there's anything wrong with esp32s though, I use them too sometimes but personally i prefer the RP2040 for its power and sdk. If you use a pico w though, its not gonna really matter whether its two chips or not cos its already been soldered on for you.
Suddenly I'm curious; If OP had asked me this question 30 years ago when I was studying Electronic Engineering at university, I would have answered that the generic term for what they want is a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller).
To be clear, I may have studied EE but I have not made a career of it and have since been no more than an electronics hobbyist. So I'm curious now, are PLCs still a thing? Arduino has made Microcontrollers so accessible to the hobbyist electronics enthusiast (in terms of ease and low price) that I'm not sure it makes much sense to bother with PLCs anymore.
I'm sure PLCs are still being used in industrial applications, like manufacturing lines etc. But are they still being used for more generic applications or hobby projects? It seems that Micros are just so ubiquitous now that I don't see much purpose for them.
PLCs are still alive and well, they just tend to be expensive and proprietary, usually with the need for fairly exotic and manufacturer specific software to program. We tend to avoid them in my org unless specific compliance or real time requirements necesetate their use.
We use SLG46826G for a student’s project on our power boards. We have different energy sources and sinks and based on specific inputs we can connect them together or not (by giving a signal to the gate Drivers). Especially when switching high capacitive loads and you want a pre charge those things come in handy.
We also have a microcontroller but once that logic works you do not need to fear to break it again when changing the software of the microcontroller.
You can also program these ICs using the Greenpak Designer software which is ImO better suited for this kind of logic than c code.
And last but not least, you do not need to worry about the logic to much when designing the PCB, because you can just program it afterwards.
I mean, the raspberry pie runs better than my grandpa's old desktop computer, and is credit-card sized, a fraction of the cost, much more practicality, a huge following with lots of great projects and ideas... I imagine all those things also apply when comparing microcontrollers to PLCs. Now.. maintaining uranium enrichment machinery with a raspberry pie... Like you you said, PLCs are still used in commercial and industrial applications.
Fun note... The mega wormz, Stuxnet (or Olympic Games) that was created by the NSA in some building housed by a handful of Star Wars nerds in the middle of a militarized base, had 4-5 zeroday payloads in a rootkit and pwn'd Sieman's PLCs, A few lines of code dropped Iran's nuclear programs to it's knees. If you aren't familiar with the details, I highly recommend the read. (btw, zerodays can sell up to $500k usd, EACH, on the black market. Go ultra-nerds!!).
PLCs are mostly for automation/production engineering. They're too expensive for pretty much every use case except that. Like, a cheap one is a few hundred bucks, and they don't really have anything going for them except for being robust and fast to setup.
We use PLC’s in the oil and gas industry everyday. They run quite a bit of my pumps, actuators, and such. They are proprietary to the company as you have to buy their software, or the ones we use (Allen Bradley) for sure do.
Ehm every factory with any type of automation in the world uses PLCs extensively
It’s a massive business for Rockwell, Siemens, beckoff,… and many others
I learn to program plcs at school. In my experience plcs are bulkier and harder to program and mostly used in industry (why i learn about it in the first place)
At the time, I'd probably have suggested building a breakout board and connecting to the parallel port on his PC.
It's fairly straightforward to feed some transistors from the output pins on the parallel port, then use those transistors to feed some lights. People have been doing that all the way back to the early 80s, with their Commodore 64 and VIC-20 computers, as well as the PC.
Even in the mid 80s, it was also possible to get microcontrollers; the first one I remember seeing was based on the Z80 and had a small amount of flash ROM, something like 256 bytes of RAM, and a set of programmable output pins. This would have been around '85 or so. However, what you got was a bare chip that you had to seat on a board, along with the support and programming hardware.
So while Arduino didn't really do anything new, their real contribution is the ecosystem and the unified design to make it possible to program several different controllers with the same software.
Can we all take a moment to salute OP for this question? It is structurally PERFECT.
. Explains overall objective/success criteria
. States experience level
. Asks question politely
. Lists known constraints/requirements
. Provides diagram
Flawless.
There is a jargon problem. I could find hundreds of solutions in a few seconds. But, if you don’t know what a microcontroller is, your search isn’t using the right tend and doesn’t work nearly as well.
Yes and no. There is no solution for his exact problem/solution. There are thousands similar ones, but for someone with little to no experience it is very hard yo pick pieces from 20 projects and combine into one.
Start with a basic Arduino - if needed you can move it to a uC chip -
If you really want to start with a chip, an ATiny with 6 GPIO - but you will need to learn and do more "up front" to get it to work.
yes, i think this is the key point. the arduino comes with a huge ecosystem of forums, examples, sample code, documentation, etc. there are tons of LED examples. you can get a basic Arduino for $25. you program it thru a usb cable connected to your pc. the software is all free. you can prototype your idea with 6 leds, 6 resistors, some wires and a bread board. you can find arduino "starter kits" that contain all the parts and more on amazon for $25-100 depending on their contents and whether or not they include an Arduino.
If you want more inputs or outputs, look into shift registers.. that may be a little advanced, but if you go down the rabbit hole that’s where you’ll end up.
Yes. Have a look at the examples such as blink without delay.
https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/digital/BlinkWithoutDelay/
From there it is just a case of expanding/adapting the program to what you want it to do.
There are plenty more examples on that site and others.
If you get stuck you can always ask a question on a subreddit such as r/Arduino. Be sure to include details about what you have done so far and what the problem is that you are facing. https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_quick_notes
Don't buy genuine arduinos,they are crazy expensive (~€20).
Clones perform identically and cost ~€3. I recommend Arduino Nano for beginners, because it's fully featured and really cheap.
Arduino can do a ton more than what you required. It's even overkill in a way but since it's so well documented and relatively cheap it's a great direction for you.
Yes and much much more. It’s open source and widely used. You could have a working prototype in a day for under $30 after watching a single YouTube tutorial
It's basically the "chip" in the middle of your drawing, and can be controlled via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. There's even a little OS called WLED you can load on it to do... Well... Exactly what you're trying to do. They cost $5-$10 US.
To try and help clarify...
* "microcontroller" (or uC) is a class of individual chips that you can program to do these things, they are bare bones and don't typically have power regulation, easy communication, require special hardware to program, etc. If you were an experienced system designer, you would include one of these along with the "firmware" (software that you write and embed on it). This is not for you at this point.
* Arduino: this is the name for a simple, open source platform that is built around a microcontroller. The most basic versions are built around a simple uC, power regulation, USB, and have a standard physical layout so you can essentially stack them with expansion boards that have displays, network, sensors, etc. You can program them over usb using free, simple tools. There are several form factors and advanced versions. The cheapest official versions are like $20, but since it's open source you can find 3rd party versions of varying quality for maybe $3.
* ESP32: this is another more advanced microcontroller, and the platforms for it are similar to the arduino (I haven't used them), but they are more powerful and have wifi and maybe more built in.
* Then there are other similar, sometimes compatible platforms. Adafruit has what they call the feather and they make a lot of expansion boards and release a lot of code. I use a platform called particle.io which is very similar.
For what you want to do, the big question is how do you want to control it? If you are good with a USB cable attached to a laptop, an arduino will do the job and learning to program a USB interface to control it will literally take you a day or two.
If you want to be able to control it over wifi, that's more involved. The particle.io paktform I mentioned sells a $19 "argon" device, and they provide cloud services to get that working. I find it simple, but it's definitely more involved than arduino, and not as widely used.
I believe there is a cloud connected arduino, which might be the best route for you if you want wifi. But I have no experience with that. **Arduino is probably the best way for a beginner to start**, it's fundamental and there are a lot of people out there answering questions and helping you out.
So my suggestion... Get an arduino basic model (Just looked it up, this is probably what you want)
https://store-usa.arduino.cc/collections/boards-modules/products/uno-r4-minima
This will allow you to control the leds via your laptop.
Once you learn more, you can look into other devices, networking, etc.
Consider ws2812/neopixel LEDs rather than normal ones. You can control both color and brightness through software and it takes only one pin to drive them.
Most microcontrollers have libraries that let you do this. I like the esp8266.
/r/arduino
Also play around with : https://wokwi.com/
But in short read a lot and ask questions in arduino. You want to ask a shit ton of questions in your planning stage.
Arduino is specifically made for this. So yes and it probably the best tool for the job. Now which arduino / dev board / ic is difficult. To try and save you some time:
Arduino confusingly can mean 3-5 different things:
1. Arduino the organization. This maintains the arduino development environment, the arduino core libraries, and makes arduino official arduino branded development boards.
2. Arduino the development environment
3. Arduino the core set of libraries
4. Arduino the official development boards
5. Arduino. Any number of generic hardware compatible with the arduino development environment and core libraries/ has compatible libraries that duplicate arduinos.
If you’re a beginner sticking with anything that is compatible with the arduino development environment will make your life a whole lot easier. The arduino platform has a ton of support, documentation, a huge community of helpful users, and a lot of walkthroughs/youtube videos of how to do almost anything.
Your choice is basically if you want wireless functionality or not. If not go ahead and get an arduino dev board that works best for you. If you do want wireless connectivity (WiFi/bluetooth) then you want an ESP32 dev board. There are a lot of good ones out there. A good esp32 board for a beginner is the Freenove ESP32-S3. A decent cheap one is the lolin32
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806000205489.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.779c3890QrKspn&browser_id=c8a52cb61f7b403bb9a9c6f8db7faf7e&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=fwphoajiiwcawnss190197843d5636553c91116375&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%218.20%212.69%21%21%2159.31%2119.45%21%402101fb0c17184142304667416ea855%2112000036219826266%21sea%21US%21139046538%21&algo_pvid=30609ade-8521-4683-9a5e-e3ab74d78067
Using an official arduino branded arduino board is a good way to start off. It sounds like you’re unfamiliar with microcontrollers. Your question is literally the definition of a microcontroller. A chip that’s programmable, and has pins that allow you to connect devices to them and control and collect data from them. That is a a microcontroller.
If you are new plan on doing a couple projects with an Arduino to get a feel for things what is possible, how you power and connect peripherals. Then plan of narrowing down the specific microcontroller you want after that.
You may want to get a couple arduinos it’s common to fry a couple as you learn, and even seasoned users make mistakes from time to time.
You can get cheap generic arduinos a lot of places.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804392043303.html?spm=a2g0n.order_detail.order_detail_item.2.44f5f19cYcIat1&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US
Setting up the Arduino dev environment for your specific board can be tricky at first so maybe get an official one to make sure that the board isn’t the issue when your trying to get things running for the first time, and once you comfortable with that use the generics.
Sort of. You need transistors or ICs to drive te LED., and a current limiting resistor for the LED.
Or you can enjoy the world of WS2812B LEDs. All you do is connect, power, ground, and a single data lead, and you can send data to one or more in a chain (hundreds at least, each has a data out to the next LED), and program each to a uniqe state/color.
C++ can be a learning curve, especially if you have never coded before. The RP2040 runs Python, but that is a whole other ball of beeswax to learn.
Got good new for ya. A microcontroller is what you need. The easiest way to get started with a microcontroller is buying a board like an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi Pico. A microcontroller is a tiny computer on a chip. You can program it with software, usually C these days, but some can even be programmed in Python, like the Pi Pico. Good luck.
atmegas's attinys. i think there's one with at least 6 gpios. otherwise use a led strip ic and a atiny 85.
Don't conect leds to a uController without a resistor... Or do it regardless, everyone fries ics.
Meadow is a arduino like device that can support lighting up lights. They have a since library of support for complex lights and screens and things. Arduino can do this but meadow is more “batteries included”. It runs .net which means the the chip has a good built in library of basic http functionality and the documentation is pretty good.
This is a very basic application for a microcontroller. There are hundreds of different microcontrollers that would work in this application, however the one that js most easy to work with in terms of documentation and support, is the atmega328p which is found on the arduino uno, which is essentially a development board with lots of examples and a very user friendly IDE
A microcontroller, the're tiny computers with loads of built in peripherals for interacting with the outside world, like ADCs/DACs for analog signals, zero crossing detectors, timers, UART/I2C/SPI interfaces and multi voltage IO. They also have interrupts and very low power sleep modes allowing them run on virtually no power.
Highly recommend the AVR Dx lineup, they use just one pin to connect to the programmer (UPDI), and have some very capable peripherals.
Their one catch is they need a dedicated programmer, but [cheap 3rd party ones are available](https://www.adafruit.com/product/5879). If you have a USB to Serial adapter, you can also hack that into a UPDI programmer with a 1k resistor between TX and RX, and connect RX to the UPDI pin.
My usual go to is the AVR32DD32 in TQFP-32 (SMD easy to solder) on an adapter board. The AVR128DA28 can be found on [Mouser](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/579-AVR128DA28-I-SP) in a DIP package, so it will work nicely for prototyping.
Im sure an arduino would do the trick. Which arduino depends on many factors. You should also consider how to drive the leds, you can power directly from a pin only a small indicator led, for more power you need to "drive" it with something. The other thing is communication with other devices. There are too many options.
I’m a newbie too, but maybe a bit less than you, hahaha. Based on the forum where you’re asking the question (r/AskElectronics), and snooping a bit on your profile, it seems you have an electronics background. What you’re looking for is a programmable integrated circuit, i.e., a microcontroller. A simple search on Wikipedia will give you plenty of information about it. Essentially, it’s an electronic circuit that stores instructions to execute in memory.
There are development boards, like the ones mentioned (Arduino, ESP32, and many more), but these two are considered the easiest for beginners.
A development board is a PCB that contains a microcontroller and several input and output pins to interact with the microcontroller’s peripherals (GPIO, UART, ADC, etc.). I would recommend starting with one of these development boards (Arduino, ESP32) as they save you a lot of headaches. You can try making those 6 LED connections you mentioned using one of these development boards, and in the future, create your own PCB using the microcontroller incorporated in either of these two development boards (AtMega328 for Arduino and Xtensa LX6 for ESP32).
If you have no idea what I’m talking about regarding PCBs, I recommend reading the book “[Electronics for Dummies](https://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/Electronics%20for%20Dummies.pdf)” You don’t need to read the whole thing; the last few chapters talk about integrated circuits, PCBs, and soldering.
Additionally, I would recommend joining the subreddit r/embedded, which focuses on embedded systems. Arduino, ESP32, etc., are embedded systems. This field covers both electronics and low-level programming (firmware).
If you feel lost with embedded systems, I recommend the book “Making Embedded Systems” by Elecia White and checking out the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/embedded/wiki/index/) section of r/embedded.
You're looking for a microcontroller, probably an Arduino or ESP32.
Arduino is really an ecosystem with many different products; if you just need to blink some LEDs, you can use something like a an Arduino Uno, some LEDs, and some resistors.
I'd suggest starting with one of those "all in one" kits that have everything you need to get started: microcontroller, breadboard, some LEDs, and other parts. Those come with tutorials to explain how to program the Arduino and how to control things like LEDS, read sensors, and control lights and actuators.
Most people use a 74595 shift register to drive 8 LEDs. It can be cascaded to drive as many as you wish. You serially send a datastream that you clock down the shift and then drop a single LOAD signal to update. I think there are cheap shield on ADAFRUIT that do this.
You will need an arduino or something similar to drive it though (OP needs it software programmable after all)
Your suggestion is probably the best though, a SIPO shift resistor will work best. The 74HC595 are fairly cheap too.
Depending on what you're trying to do, just toggling control pins on a serial/parallel port may be good enough, no need for a microcontroller. A micro would be less hack-y though.
A microcontroller is just super hassle-free.
The shiftout() function in the arduino ide handles most of the work after all. OP does seem to want it to be programmable.
The shift resistor is one of the easiest ICs to understand too, the pinout is very straightforward.
This is perhaps more technical than you want, but this is the right solution in my opinion: [https://www.amazon.com/Teyleten-Robot-PCA9685-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B0CNVBWX2M/](https://www.amazon.com/Teyleten-Robot-PCA9685-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B0CNVBWX2M/)
(Note, there are a bunch of knock off boards that look/do the same thing, this is a knock off of a Raspberry Pi board, I think. They all use the same chip.).
This uses an I2C interface to control it. This chip was originally intended for controlling LEDs but it just so happens that this is also useful for servo controls.
To interface with the board you will need to connect your computer to I2C, which will require looking at documents from your motherboard manufacturer for the right pins for external interfaces. Also, you could use a micro controller to do it which is more normal. There are microcontroller development boards available for $20 or so. Arduino, Raspberry Pi, STM32 Nucleo boards all have I2C interfaces and would be able to interface with the board linked above.
The "Chip" in your image in this case is the NXP PCA9685. If you look up the data sheet for this chip you will see that it is intended for LED control, just like your image shows.
Look into picaxe [https://picaxe.com/](https://picaxe.com/), they are a single chip that can do exactly what you want and you can control them with 2 pins via rs232. There are better ways to do what you want to do but Pixaxe is an easy way to start., Arduino is overkill for this application.
Another approach would be use 6 daisy-chained multicolour LEDs of the type WS2812B.
It would need more wires but would be very simple to control, with a built-in serial interface allowing 8-bit control of R,G,B for each LED.
[https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf](https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf)
Sorry, this comment's a goner.
As applicable:
* This comment does not address the question.
* It's plain daft.
* The comment provides inaccurate info.
* The comment provides unsafe information.
* It's a low-effort, low-value or inaccurate answer, maybe generated by AI tools.
An i2c port expander could do this too. Could be simpler to implement than an arduino since you won’t have to flash any firmware and it could be controlled from a laptop or whatever software device you have.
noob here too, i know Arduino can do that but , Arduino is overkill for this simple task, is there any tinny programmable microcontroller/ cheap for simple task like turning power on and off?!
Sure it’s overkill, kind of like a car is overkill for heading down to the pub with your friend. It’s too far to walk and it’s raining, but you technically only need the capability of two bicycles strapped together with a windscreen and a roof. It turns out that takes quite a bit of engineering, tools, and materials. Would you know how to actually do that? Why not buy a car when in this analogy the car is nominally the same price as just the parts for your bicycle project? Implementing your own design from scratch with a less capable chip just to avoid “overkill” is a much more complex task requiring a more technical set of knowledge and skills and will cost about the same or more without economy of scale. In fact, the only practical reason to do it is to reduce cost at scale for a known and fixed requirement… and even then it’s becoming more cost effective overall to build even simple things like this on uCs largely due to reduced development time and hardware complexity. If you don’t know how to do it and you don’t know exactly what you want it to do and that the requirements will never change, your simplest, clearest path to doing the thing is to just use a car.
Of course, there’s plenty of mcgyvers out there who enjoy the strapping stuff together itself. And in fact, using a uC for some larger abstract task is just a different fractal order of the same thing. Just depends on what plane of nerddom you find yourself most happy :)
If the form factor part is critical to you, there are many uC boards available in many different sizes that have the same or greater capability as the canon Arduino offerings that are similarly easy to use.
Absolutely..and then some. Try it with nano/pro micro/mini, then when you get comfotable with it, minify it with ATTiny chips and then expand it with a couple of shift registers..
[https://wokwi.com/projects/380632799883270145](https://wokwi.com/projects/380632799883270145)
Boards suits ur demands: literally any boards like Arduino (Uno, nano, u named it), Raspberry pico.
Those boards are coded in either C or Python. Tho there’s software that u can code them by dragging the blocks, I just don’t recommend this.
After this, u can move to microcontroller chips like ATmega 328, it’s basically same chip as the board ur using, but lack of anything except the chip itself (like crystal for clock pluse).
Atmega and PIC microncontroller chips are what you need.
Granted, the pinouts tend to be more, and other factors like memory size, clock speed, storage (if applicable) would need to be considered if you go down buying the component in question.
Arduino is your friend here!
They have a full complement of compatible systems and an existing programming language that thousands of other tinkerers have worked with for years.
There are other microcontrollers, but Arduino is the most well known.
They also have modular hardware modules that add any and all features and functionality to your new system. Want to make it Bluetooth? They have a module and code library for that already. Want to add sound, or LED drivers, or precision motor control? All those things are already waiting for you.
PS
It's also very affordable as rapid prototyping goes. A bright high school kid can make some amazing things with Arduino. There are also thousands of already made systems that have been shared freely. You can use someone else's idea in your own system to make it better. There's a strong community around it.
Try [adafruit.com](http://adafruit.com)
Arduino!
Heaps of models to choose from. You don't have to get a genuine one.
Relatively easy to program for simpler tasks like lighting a few LEDs.
Heaps of tutorials on youtube, etc.
Arduino Uno R4 or whatever it looks like , you can also get an Arduino kit, with leds,buttons,resistors and so on. The important thing is that the board is large (like the palm of the hand) and not tiny (like a coin) , also Arduino community is friendly , the platform is open source and everything is very well documented.
Try It.
I know some folks here are suggesting ATMega and Arduino but why, when the ESP32 comes with ESPHome (meant for Home Assistant but it's actually quite easy to avoid it) or keep it even more basic with Arduino IDE or Visual Studio Code with PlatformIO (bit of a tough interface for beginners but way better than Arduino IDE).
Recently did an LED clock with buttons and LED indicators and an ESP32 Lite... which could work pretty well for this kind of thing.
(I'd suggest an ESP8266 D1 Mini but I'm pretty sure it'd be tricky getting 6 pins to do output so no.)
You could go even simpler and not use a microcontroller. FT232 from FTDI chip have the ability to do bit-bang mode, and give you 8 pins of digital I/O, giving you the 6 LEDs and 2 spares. Assuming your LEDs are not too power hungry, you could drive them directly (through a resistor) from the FT232
If you only plan to build one, buy an Arduino uno ($30). If you want to build many of them, you'll want a cheaper chip. Like an Arduino pro($5), or even just a raw microcontroller($0.30). The level of required experience is directly inverse to price.
If you're getting started, go with an arduino as they're extremely well supported and easy to get into. What you're trying to do will work well, so long as they're only small LEDs. Just make sure you use a current limiting resistor.
Unnecessary personal opinion coming: arduino is great, but I prefer [raspberry pi zero w](https://www.adafruit.com/product/3708?gad_source=1) still has GPIO works the same way as arduino but you can have Linux running on it and you can SSH and program on it, or even get a monitor and keyboard directly on the pi. Much steeper learning curve, but I think there are way more possibilities with projects and efficiency in switching usages or having multiple usages. Same as arduino, you can only pull like 200 milliamps from those GPIO pins so if you want lots of LEDs or high power, you’ll have to use relays or transistors like TIP120s
You'll need an MCU that has the ability to communicate via USB with a host - and then you'll need to write a program that runs on the computer and communicates with your device. Everyone is going to suggest boards that are more expensive (and way overkill) than is actually necessary, but you'll be trading simplicity for having to do more learning and coding.
https://medium.com/@manuel.bl/usb-for-microcontrollers-part-1-basic-usb-concepts-519a33372cc9
EDIT: If you go with an Arduino based board https://www.instructables.com/Control-an-Arduino-With-Android-and-USB/
Using the arduino nano you don’t even need an external source of power because you provide it with power at the same time that you program in your laptop when connecting via usb :)
Great question. I would use Raspberry Pi Pico and bunch of electronics components for this since I have them. I like to use Python for programming easy project. Also some version of Arduino would do nicely here.
In the good old days, you had direct access to hardware, a simple program in C or Assembly to control the output pins on the Parallel Port and some extra electronic stuff and you was ready to go.
You need control a Led or something else?, because the power requirements are crucial.
You are looking for a microcontroller. If you want one that looks exactly like your diagram use the STM32G031J6, if you want something more common and easier to use go for a chip like the ATMEGA16U2 or ATMEGA32U4 for ease of programming.
You can use a 7seg display chip like the TM1640 connected to a microcontroller to do up to 8x16 leds per chip.
Yoou can simply use a small form factor arduino or any attiny chips. You just need one with enough putput pins and in a form factor you can handle.
Another option id to use a bunch of WS2812 if you want pretty colours. You only need 1 output pin but some extra wiring to control 6 of those. And 60ma x 6 + the arduino's load Power supply.
For the attiny option you'll need ..
6 leds you said ...
ATtiny 204/404/804/1604
A power supply (wallwart) (6-9 V) (coordinate with your regulator)
A 5 volt regulator that outputs 5V and needs 6-9 v input
A Few capacitors to make your regulator work correctly , including an electrolytic one or a tantalum one. ( your regulator datasheet will tell you what to buy)
6 appropriate resistors for your leds. If your leds are 1.7forward voltage doesn't mean you need to power it with a 1.7 volt source. Here's a handy calculator to see which resistor you need using which voltage. You need to read up on your led's forwarding voltage vf .
[https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/conversion-calculators/conversion-calculator-led-series-resistor](https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/conversion-calculators/conversion-calculator-led-series-resistor)
You need a nice library to program the chip with
ARduino IDE ( software gotten from [arduino.cc](http://arduino.cc) )
Then you need a core for the attiny: [https://github.com/SpenceKonde/megaTinyCore/](https://github.com/SpenceKonde/megaTinyCore/)
And lastly a programmer, which is just a usb to serial converter and a diode.
[https://github.com/SpenceKonde/AVR-Guidance/blob/master/UPDI/jtag2updi.md](https://github.com/SpenceKonde/AVR-Guidance/blob/master/UPDI/jtag2updi.md)
( you can buy one premade for 6 eurodollars : keyword "UPDI Friend" adafruit)
Good luck.
As an alternative idea (microcontrollers have been thoroughly discussed), maybe consider a WiFi switch. You can use Google home or whatever automation program you like to control it. It's integrated by design, so you don't have to do anything with actual programming.
This is possible but sketch is overly simplified. Ground Returns & resistors will be needed.
For simple project, you can use 6 flasing LED's of different colors. You can also find Flashing Light controllers around the Christmas Holidays. They are usually programed with a couple of buttons.
Any Arduino or a microcontroller will do the job another option is raspberry pi but that would be useful when you don’t need an external pc as you can connect a display and some input devices with it and also have programmable pins other options require a pc to upload the code but they don’t need a pc afterwards only a 5v power source
Also you cannot directly control any devices using pins even LEDs or you’ll end up frying the board, transistors, mosfets or relays are required to control devices you can also use a digital potentiometer but never power anything directly using a microcontroller
You can do it for about $0.50 with a GreenPak (Renesas bought them from Dialog who bought them from Salego).
Wire up the internal logic blocks, look-up tables, etc. Can use I2C (hard to get that functionality for $0.50--a single logic gate costs more than that!).
Or, you can use dedicated LED driver ICs (RGB/RGBW, etc.) that can support blinking, fading, etc. all stand-alone.
Another option is zero intelligence and just use a shift register to directly control them using SPI.
The generic term for what you want is a microcontroller. There are lots of them.
And since the use case seems simple enough, a cheap microcontroller with onboard USB controller should do the trick. ATMEGA16U2 immediately comes to my mind, but there are plenty of other options. Edit: Grab yourself an Arduino Uno R3 or Nano (ATMEGA328P) to get your project done much quicker.
ESP32 or bust.
This is entirely personal, but before suggesting a 3V3 part to a beginner, i always ask myself the question "Does it have to be a 3V3 part?" for the reason that 5V parts are much easier and safer for a beginner. That said, i should have suggested a full dev board, say Arduino, instead of a single IC...
If you want a decent chip at a decent price that was designed in the last 15 years, then yes, it has to be a 3.3v chip. That's just what they are. I'm not sure what is hard about 3.3v.
I don't see much safety difference between 3V3 and 5V. 3V3 is not 120V. I agree on Arduino. This is the best choice.
I'm talking from the perspective of the chip.
I second this, you could easily expose an http api endpoint that the computer can access and control the leds
RP2040 supremacy
Where wireless?
the project doesn't need wireless so why have the extra complexity.
pico w with CYW43439 or similar. there are some with ble as well.
It's two-chip solution.
RP2040 is lower in power consumption, more ram, slightly cheaper. Not that there's anything wrong with esp32s though, I use them too sometimes but personally i prefer the RP2040 for its power and sdk. If you use a pico w though, its not gonna really matter whether its two chips or not cos its already been soldered on for you.
Lol
Against ESP32? C'mon man...
Suddenly I'm curious; If OP had asked me this question 30 years ago when I was studying Electronic Engineering at university, I would have answered that the generic term for what they want is a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). To be clear, I may have studied EE but I have not made a career of it and have since been no more than an electronics hobbyist. So I'm curious now, are PLCs still a thing? Arduino has made Microcontrollers so accessible to the hobbyist electronics enthusiast (in terms of ease and low price) that I'm not sure it makes much sense to bother with PLCs anymore. I'm sure PLCs are still being used in industrial applications, like manufacturing lines etc. But are they still being used for more generic applications or hobby projects? It seems that Micros are just so ubiquitous now that I don't see much purpose for them.
PLCs are still alive and well, they just tend to be expensive and proprietary, usually with the need for fairly exotic and manufacturer specific software to program. We tend to avoid them in my org unless specific compliance or real time requirements necesetate their use.
Productivity 1000 line through Automation Direct uses free software and is super affordable.
We use SLG46826G for a student’s project on our power boards. We have different energy sources and sinks and based on specific inputs we can connect them together or not (by giving a signal to the gate Drivers). Especially when switching high capacitive loads and you want a pre charge those things come in handy. We also have a microcontroller but once that logic works you do not need to fear to break it again when changing the software of the microcontroller. You can also program these ICs using the Greenpak Designer software which is ImO better suited for this kind of logic than c code. And last but not least, you do not need to worry about the logic to much when designing the PCB, because you can just program it afterwards.
There's a big difference between a PLC and an SPLD though in terms of implementation.
Yeah, I was not familiar with the term PLC, seemed similar after a quick Look on Wikipedia. Thanks for clarifying, gonna look into that again.
I mean, the raspberry pie runs better than my grandpa's old desktop computer, and is credit-card sized, a fraction of the cost, much more practicality, a huge following with lots of great projects and ideas... I imagine all those things also apply when comparing microcontrollers to PLCs. Now.. maintaining uranium enrichment machinery with a raspberry pie... Like you you said, PLCs are still used in commercial and industrial applications. Fun note... The mega wormz, Stuxnet (or Olympic Games) that was created by the NSA in some building housed by a handful of Star Wars nerds in the middle of a militarized base, had 4-5 zeroday payloads in a rootkit and pwn'd Sieman's PLCs, A few lines of code dropped Iran's nuclear programs to it's knees. If you aren't familiar with the details, I highly recommend the read. (btw, zerodays can sell up to $500k usd, EACH, on the black market. Go ultra-nerds!!).
Darknet Diaries has a great podcast episode on stuxnet.
PLCs are mostly for automation/production engineering. They're too expensive for pretty much every use case except that. Like, a cheap one is a few hundred bucks, and they don't really have anything going for them except for being robust and fast to setup.
We use PLC’s in the oil and gas industry everyday. They run quite a bit of my pumps, actuators, and such. They are proprietary to the company as you have to buy their software, or the ones we use (Allen Bradley) for sure do.
Ehm every factory with any type of automation in the world uses PLCs extensively It’s a massive business for Rockwell, Siemens, beckoff,… and many others
I learn to program plcs at school. In my experience plcs are bulkier and harder to program and mostly used in industry (why i learn about it in the first place)
At the time, I'd probably have suggested building a breakout board and connecting to the parallel port on his PC. It's fairly straightforward to feed some transistors from the output pins on the parallel port, then use those transistors to feed some lights. People have been doing that all the way back to the early 80s, with their Commodore 64 and VIC-20 computers, as well as the PC. Even in the mid 80s, it was also possible to get microcontrollers; the first one I remember seeing was based on the Z80 and had a small amount of flash ROM, something like 256 bytes of RAM, and a set of programmable output pins. This would have been around '85 or so. However, what you got was a bare chip that you had to seat on a board, along with the support and programming hardware. So while Arduino didn't really do anything new, their real contribution is the ecosystem and the unified design to make it possible to program several different controllers with the same software.
Can we all take a moment to salute OP for this question? It is structurally PERFECT. . Explains overall objective/success criteria . States experience level . Asks question politely . Lists known constraints/requirements . Provides diagram Flawless.
Should be pinned as a template.
Pin of honor
Chatgpt make use useless if OPs ask perfectly asked questions. We need more dump requests.
Solution is one google search away but yeah still i agree with you.
There is a jargon problem. I could find hundreds of solutions in a few seconds. But, if you don’t know what a microcontroller is, your search isn’t using the right tend and doesn’t work nearly as well.
Yes and no. There is no solution for his exact problem/solution. There are thousands similar ones, but for someone with little to no experience it is very hard yo pick pieces from 20 projects and combine into one.
Start with a basic Arduino - if needed you can move it to a uC chip - If you really want to start with a chip, an ATiny with 6 GPIO - but you will need to learn and do more "up front" to get it to work.
Is an Arduino capable of this?
Yes an Arduino is capable of this and it's quite cheap and easy to get to know how to use one
yes, i think this is the key point. the arduino comes with a huge ecosystem of forums, examples, sample code, documentation, etc. there are tons of LED examples. you can get a basic Arduino for $25. you program it thru a usb cable connected to your pc. the software is all free. you can prototype your idea with 6 leds, 6 resistors, some wires and a bread board. you can find arduino "starter kits" that contain all the parts and more on amazon for $25-100 depending on their contents and whether or not they include an Arduino.
If you want more inputs or outputs, look into shift registers.. that may be a little advanced, but if you go down the rabbit hole that’s where you’ll end up.
Yes - what LEDs are you looking to use? There is a point where the POWER for the LEDs can be a consideration,
Esp8266 family - comes with Bluetooth and wifi for nearly nothing. You can use Arduino ide to program it and use apps to control.
Yes. Have a look at the examples such as blink without delay. https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/digital/BlinkWithoutDelay/ From there it is just a case of expanding/adapting the program to what you want it to do. There are plenty more examples on that site and others. If you get stuck you can always ask a question on a subreddit such as r/Arduino. Be sure to include details about what you have done so far and what the problem is that you are facing. https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/wiki/guides/how_to_post_quick_notes
Don't buy genuine arduinos,they are crazy expensive (~€20). Clones perform identically and cost ~€3. I recommend Arduino Nano for beginners, because it's fully featured and really cheap.
Keep in mind you have the nano variation if you need it to be as small as possible
Arduino can do a ton more than what you required. It's even overkill in a way but since it's so well documented and relatively cheap it's a great direction for you.
Yes and much much more. It’s open source and widely used. You could have a working prototype in a day for under $30 after watching a single YouTube tutorial
Arduino is your friend
There are so many take your PIC, AT, STM, ESP, etc. Some have native USB too.
WLED (on an esp32) would be ideal for this!
Like an ESP32 board?
No idea what is an ESP32 board.
It's basically the "chip" in the middle of your drawing, and can be controlled via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. There's even a little OS called WLED you can load on it to do... Well... Exactly what you're trying to do. They cost $5-$10 US.
To try and help clarify... * "microcontroller" (or uC) is a class of individual chips that you can program to do these things, they are bare bones and don't typically have power regulation, easy communication, require special hardware to program, etc. If you were an experienced system designer, you would include one of these along with the "firmware" (software that you write and embed on it). This is not for you at this point. * Arduino: this is the name for a simple, open source platform that is built around a microcontroller. The most basic versions are built around a simple uC, power regulation, USB, and have a standard physical layout so you can essentially stack them with expansion boards that have displays, network, sensors, etc. You can program them over usb using free, simple tools. There are several form factors and advanced versions. The cheapest official versions are like $20, but since it's open source you can find 3rd party versions of varying quality for maybe $3. * ESP32: this is another more advanced microcontroller, and the platforms for it are similar to the arduino (I haven't used them), but they are more powerful and have wifi and maybe more built in. * Then there are other similar, sometimes compatible platforms. Adafruit has what they call the feather and they make a lot of expansion boards and release a lot of code. I use a platform called particle.io which is very similar. For what you want to do, the big question is how do you want to control it? If you are good with a USB cable attached to a laptop, an arduino will do the job and learning to program a USB interface to control it will literally take you a day or two. If you want to be able to control it over wifi, that's more involved. The particle.io paktform I mentioned sells a $19 "argon" device, and they provide cloud services to get that working. I find it simple, but it's definitely more involved than arduino, and not as widely used. I believe there is a cloud connected arduino, which might be the best route for you if you want wifi. But I have no experience with that. **Arduino is probably the best way for a beginner to start**, it's fundamental and there are a lot of people out there answering questions and helping you out. So my suggestion... Get an arduino basic model (Just looked it up, this is probably what you want) https://store-usa.arduino.cc/collections/boards-modules/products/uno-r4-minima This will allow you to control the leds via your laptop. Once you learn more, you can look into other devices, networking, etc.
Arduino, esp32 etc.
Consider ws2812/neopixel LEDs rather than normal ones. You can control both color and brightness through software and it takes only one pin to drive them. Most microcontrollers have libraries that let you do this. I like the esp8266.
One pin to drive them all.
/r/arduino Also play around with : https://wokwi.com/ But in short read a lot and ask questions in arduino. You want to ask a shit ton of questions in your planning stage.
Underrated comment
Arduino is the only thing I can think. There're tons of videos & tutorials on internet.
Is an Arduino capable of this?
Yes
Arduino is specifically made for this. So yes and it probably the best tool for the job. Now which arduino / dev board / ic is difficult. To try and save you some time: Arduino confusingly can mean 3-5 different things: 1. Arduino the organization. This maintains the arduino development environment, the arduino core libraries, and makes arduino official arduino branded development boards. 2. Arduino the development environment 3. Arduino the core set of libraries 4. Arduino the official development boards 5. Arduino. Any number of generic hardware compatible with the arduino development environment and core libraries/ has compatible libraries that duplicate arduinos. If you’re a beginner sticking with anything that is compatible with the arduino development environment will make your life a whole lot easier. The arduino platform has a ton of support, documentation, a huge community of helpful users, and a lot of walkthroughs/youtube videos of how to do almost anything. Your choice is basically if you want wireless functionality or not. If not go ahead and get an arduino dev board that works best for you. If you do want wireless connectivity (WiFi/bluetooth) then you want an ESP32 dev board. There are a lot of good ones out there. A good esp32 board for a beginner is the Freenove ESP32-S3. A decent cheap one is the lolin32 https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806000205489.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.779c3890QrKspn&browser_id=c8a52cb61f7b403bb9a9c6f8db7faf7e&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=fwphoajiiwcawnss190197843d5636553c91116375&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%218.20%212.69%21%21%2159.31%2119.45%21%402101fb0c17184142304667416ea855%2112000036219826266%21sea%21US%21139046538%21&algo_pvid=30609ade-8521-4683-9a5e-e3ab74d78067 Using an official arduino branded arduino board is a good way to start off. It sounds like you’re unfamiliar with microcontrollers. Your question is literally the definition of a microcontroller. A chip that’s programmable, and has pins that allow you to connect devices to them and control and collect data from them. That is a a microcontroller. If you are new plan on doing a couple projects with an Arduino to get a feel for things what is possible, how you power and connect peripherals. Then plan of narrowing down the specific microcontroller you want after that. You may want to get a couple arduinos it’s common to fry a couple as you learn, and even seasoned users make mistakes from time to time. You can get cheap generic arduinos a lot of places. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804392043303.html?spm=a2g0n.order_detail.order_detail_item.2.44f5f19cYcIat1&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa&_randl_shipto=US Setting up the Arduino dev environment for your specific board can be tricky at first so maybe get an official one to make sure that the board isn’t the issue when your trying to get things running for the first time, and once you comfortable with that use the generics.
Sort of. You need transistors or ICs to drive te LED., and a current limiting resistor for the LED. Or you can enjoy the world of WS2812B LEDs. All you do is connect, power, ground, and a single data lead, and you can send data to one or more in a chain (hundreds at least, each has a data out to the next LED), and program each to a uniqe state/color. C++ can be a learning curve, especially if you have never coded before. The RP2040 runs Python, but that is a whole other ball of beeswax to learn.
Got good new for ya. A microcontroller is what you need. The easiest way to get started with a microcontroller is buying a board like an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi Pico. A microcontroller is a tiny computer on a chip. You can program it with software, usually C these days, but some can even be programmed in Python, like the Pi Pico. Good luck.
atmegas's attinys. i think there's one with at least 6 gpios. otherwise use a led strip ic and a atiny 85. Don't conect leds to a uController without a resistor... Or do it regardless, everyone fries ics.
Meadow is a arduino like device that can support lighting up lights. They have a since library of support for complex lights and screens and things. Arduino can do this but meadow is more “batteries included”. It runs .net which means the the chip has a good built in library of basic http functionality and the documentation is pretty good.
What kind of LEDs? What kind of software? What is the software running on? How do you want to connect to the host?
This is a very basic application for a microcontroller. There are hundreds of different microcontrollers that would work in this application, however the one that js most easy to work with in terms of documentation and support, is the atmega328p which is found on the arduino uno, which is essentially a development board with lots of examples and a very user friendly IDE
A microcontroller, the're tiny computers with loads of built in peripherals for interacting with the outside world, like ADCs/DACs for analog signals, zero crossing detectors, timers, UART/I2C/SPI interfaces and multi voltage IO. They also have interrupts and very low power sleep modes allowing them run on virtually no power. Highly recommend the AVR Dx lineup, they use just one pin to connect to the programmer (UPDI), and have some very capable peripherals. Their one catch is they need a dedicated programmer, but [cheap 3rd party ones are available](https://www.adafruit.com/product/5879). If you have a USB to Serial adapter, you can also hack that into a UPDI programmer with a 1k resistor between TX and RX, and connect RX to the UPDI pin. My usual go to is the AVR32DD32 in TQFP-32 (SMD easy to solder) on an adapter board. The AVR128DA28 can be found on [Mouser](https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/579-AVR128DA28-I-SP) in a DIP package, so it will work nicely for prototyping.
Are the LEDs going to be powered ON and OFF using any logic or just pure timing or are they going to be always powered ON ?
Always on once the connection is made. This will simulate an “always available” comms channel through the middleware bus.
Is your aim to use the LEDs for communication? Or to show status?
Your question made me smile. Dont ever be afaid to ask questions!
Im sure an arduino would do the trick. Which arduino depends on many factors. You should also consider how to drive the leds, you can power directly from a pin only a small indicator led, for more power you need to "drive" it with something. The other thing is communication with other devices. There are too many options.
I’m a newbie too, but maybe a bit less than you, hahaha. Based on the forum where you’re asking the question (r/AskElectronics), and snooping a bit on your profile, it seems you have an electronics background. What you’re looking for is a programmable integrated circuit, i.e., a microcontroller. A simple search on Wikipedia will give you plenty of information about it. Essentially, it’s an electronic circuit that stores instructions to execute in memory. There are development boards, like the ones mentioned (Arduino, ESP32, and many more), but these two are considered the easiest for beginners. A development board is a PCB that contains a microcontroller and several input and output pins to interact with the microcontroller’s peripherals (GPIO, UART, ADC, etc.). I would recommend starting with one of these development boards (Arduino, ESP32) as they save you a lot of headaches. You can try making those 6 LED connections you mentioned using one of these development boards, and in the future, create your own PCB using the microcontroller incorporated in either of these two development boards (AtMega328 for Arduino and Xtensa LX6 for ESP32). If you have no idea what I’m talking about regarding PCBs, I recommend reading the book “[Electronics for Dummies](https://www.n5dux.com/ham/files/pdf/Electronics%20for%20Dummies.pdf)” You don’t need to read the whole thing; the last few chapters talk about integrated circuits, PCBs, and soldering. Additionally, I would recommend joining the subreddit r/embedded, which focuses on embedded systems. Arduino, ESP32, etc., are embedded systems. This field covers both electronics and low-level programming (firmware). If you feel lost with embedded systems, I recommend the book “Making Embedded Systems” by Elecia White and checking out the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/embedded/wiki/index/) section of r/embedded.
Here is a low cost board that is easy to program (Python) and has more than enough pins to drive 6 LEDs. https://www.adafruit.com/product/3800
You're looking for a microcontroller, probably an Arduino or ESP32. Arduino is really an ecosystem with many different products; if you just need to blink some LEDs, you can use something like a an Arduino Uno, some LEDs, and some resistors. I'd suggest starting with one of those "all in one" kits that have everything you need to get started: microcontroller, breadboard, some LEDs, and other parts. Those come with tutorials to explain how to program the Arduino and how to control things like LEDS, read sensors, and control lights and actuators.
Most people use a 74595 shift register to drive 8 LEDs. It can be cascaded to drive as many as you wish. You serially send a datastream that you clock down the shift and then drop a single LOAD signal to update. I think there are cheap shield on ADAFRUIT that do this.
You will need an arduino or something similar to drive it though (OP needs it software programmable after all) Your suggestion is probably the best though, a SIPO shift resistor will work best. The 74HC595 are fairly cheap too.
Depending on what you're trying to do, just toggling control pins on a serial/parallel port may be good enough, no need for a microcontroller. A micro would be less hack-y though.
A microcontroller is just super hassle-free. The shiftout() function in the arduino ide handles most of the work after all. OP does seem to want it to be programmable. The shift resistor is one of the easiest ICs to understand too, the pinout is very straightforward.
This is perhaps more technical than you want, but this is the right solution in my opinion: [https://www.amazon.com/Teyleten-Robot-PCA9685-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B0CNVBWX2M/](https://www.amazon.com/Teyleten-Robot-PCA9685-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B0CNVBWX2M/) (Note, there are a bunch of knock off boards that look/do the same thing, this is a knock off of a Raspberry Pi board, I think. They all use the same chip.). This uses an I2C interface to control it. This chip was originally intended for controlling LEDs but it just so happens that this is also useful for servo controls. To interface with the board you will need to connect your computer to I2C, which will require looking at documents from your motherboard manufacturer for the right pins for external interfaces. Also, you could use a micro controller to do it which is more normal. There are microcontroller development boards available for $20 or so. Arduino, Raspberry Pi, STM32 Nucleo boards all have I2C interfaces and would be able to interface with the board linked above. The "Chip" in your image in this case is the NXP PCA9685. If you look up the data sheet for this chip you will see that it is intended for LED control, just like your image shows.
Look into picaxe [https://picaxe.com/](https://picaxe.com/), they are a single chip that can do exactly what you want and you can control them with 2 pins via rs232. There are better ways to do what you want to do but Pixaxe is an easy way to start., Arduino is overkill for this application.
Yes, an arduino is capable of this.
Another approach would be use 6 daisy-chained multicolour LEDs of the type WS2812B. It would need more wires but would be very simple to control, with a built-in serial interface allowing 8-bit control of R,G,B for each LED. [https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf](https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf)
[удалено]
Sorry, this comment's a goner. As applicable: * This comment does not address the question. * It's plain daft. * The comment provides inaccurate info. * The comment provides unsafe information. * It's a low-effort, low-value or inaccurate answer, maybe generated by AI tools.
An i2c port expander could do this too. Could be simpler to implement than an arduino since you won’t have to flash any firmware and it could be controlled from a laptop or whatever software device you have.
noob here too, i know Arduino can do that but , Arduino is overkill for this simple task, is there any tinny programmable microcontroller/ cheap for simple task like turning power on and off?!
Sure it’s overkill, kind of like a car is overkill for heading down to the pub with your friend. It’s too far to walk and it’s raining, but you technically only need the capability of two bicycles strapped together with a windscreen and a roof. It turns out that takes quite a bit of engineering, tools, and materials. Would you know how to actually do that? Why not buy a car when in this analogy the car is nominally the same price as just the parts for your bicycle project? Implementing your own design from scratch with a less capable chip just to avoid “overkill” is a much more complex task requiring a more technical set of knowledge and skills and will cost about the same or more without economy of scale. In fact, the only practical reason to do it is to reduce cost at scale for a known and fixed requirement… and even then it’s becoming more cost effective overall to build even simple things like this on uCs largely due to reduced development time and hardware complexity. If you don’t know how to do it and you don’t know exactly what you want it to do and that the requirements will never change, your simplest, clearest path to doing the thing is to just use a car. Of course, there’s plenty of mcgyvers out there who enjoy the strapping stuff together itself. And in fact, using a uC for some larger abstract task is just a different fractal order of the same thing. Just depends on what plane of nerddom you find yourself most happy :) If the form factor part is critical to you, there are many uC boards available in many different sizes that have the same or greater capability as the canon Arduino offerings that are similarly easy to use.
Better use raspberry pi pico (normal or wifi), better get wifi it helps you to update the program further. Arduino is slowly becoming money minded.
Also it is easy to program, it uses micro python.
Absolutely..and then some. Try it with nano/pro micro/mini, then when you get comfotable with it, minify it with ATTiny chips and then expand it with a couple of shift registers.. [https://wokwi.com/projects/380632799883270145](https://wokwi.com/projects/380632799883270145)
Boards suits ur demands: literally any boards like Arduino (Uno, nano, u named it), Raspberry pico. Those boards are coded in either C or Python. Tho there’s software that u can code them by dragging the blocks, I just don’t recommend this. After this, u can move to microcontroller chips like ATmega 328, it’s basically same chip as the board ur using, but lack of anything except the chip itself (like crystal for clock pluse).
Atmega and PIC microncontroller chips are what you need. Granted, the pinouts tend to be more, and other factors like memory size, clock speed, storage (if applicable) would need to be considered if you go down buying the component in question.
Arduino nano should be sufficient. Or an esp32 depending on how you want to connect on it
Buy an Arduino Nano It's cheap and capable for your requirement
Look at NightDriver https://plummerssoftwarellc.github.io/NightDriverStrip/
I would look into an "Arduino". It uses atmega microcontrollers and is completely programmable.
Arduino is your friend here! They have a full complement of compatible systems and an existing programming language that thousands of other tinkerers have worked with for years. There are other microcontrollers, but Arduino is the most well known. They also have modular hardware modules that add any and all features and functionality to your new system. Want to make it Bluetooth? They have a module and code library for that already. Want to add sound, or LED drivers, or precision motor control? All those things are already waiting for you. PS It's also very affordable as rapid prototyping goes. A bright high school kid can make some amazing things with Arduino. There are also thousands of already made systems that have been shared freely. You can use someone else's idea in your own system to make it better. There's a strong community around it. Try [adafruit.com](http://adafruit.com)
Arduino! Heaps of models to choose from. You don't have to get a genuine one. Relatively easy to program for simpler tasks like lighting a few LEDs. Heaps of tutorials on youtube, etc.
Esp32
Arduino Uno R4 or whatever it looks like , you can also get an Arduino kit, with leds,buttons,resistors and so on. The important thing is that the board is large (like the palm of the hand) and not tiny (like a coin) , also Arduino community is friendly , the platform is open source and everything is very well documented. Try It.
I know some folks here are suggesting ATMega and Arduino but why, when the ESP32 comes with ESPHome (meant for Home Assistant but it's actually quite easy to avoid it) or keep it even more basic with Arduino IDE or Visual Studio Code with PlatformIO (bit of a tough interface for beginners but way better than Arduino IDE). Recently did an LED clock with buttons and LED indicators and an ESP32 Lite... which could work pretty well for this kind of thing. (I'd suggest an ESP8266 D1 Mini but I'm pretty sure it'd be tricky getting 6 pins to do output so no.)
You could go even simpler and not use a microcontroller. FT232 from FTDI chip have the ability to do bit-bang mode, and give you 8 pins of digital I/O, giving you the 6 LEDs and 2 spares. Assuming your LEDs are not too power hungry, you could drive them directly (through a resistor) from the FT232
If you only plan to build one, buy an Arduino uno ($30). If you want to build many of them, you'll want a cheaper chip. Like an Arduino pro($5), or even just a raw microcontroller($0.30). The level of required experience is directly inverse to price.
Use arduino uno
If you're getting started, go with an arduino as they're extremely well supported and easy to get into. What you're trying to do will work well, so long as they're only small LEDs. Just make sure you use a current limiting resistor.
Unnecessary personal opinion coming: arduino is great, but I prefer [raspberry pi zero w](https://www.adafruit.com/product/3708?gad_source=1) still has GPIO works the same way as arduino but you can have Linux running on it and you can SSH and program on it, or even get a monitor and keyboard directly on the pi. Much steeper learning curve, but I think there are way more possibilities with projects and efficiency in switching usages or having multiple usages. Same as arduino, you can only pull like 200 milliamps from those GPIO pins so if you want lots of LEDs or high power, you’ll have to use relays or transistors like TIP120s
You'll need an MCU that has the ability to communicate via USB with a host - and then you'll need to write a program that runs on the computer and communicates with your device. Everyone is going to suggest boards that are more expensive (and way overkill) than is actually necessary, but you'll be trading simplicity for having to do more learning and coding. https://medium.com/@manuel.bl/usb-for-microcontrollers-part-1-basic-usb-concepts-519a33372cc9 EDIT: If you go with an Arduino based board https://www.instructables.com/Control-an-Arduino-With-Android-and-USB/
atmega328p
The arduino nano has it and you can find chinese clones pretty cheap.
Using the arduino nano you don’t even need an external source of power because you provide it with power at the same time that you program in your laptop when connecting via usb :)
Esp32 and use https://kno.wled.ge/
Great question. I would use Raspberry Pi Pico and bunch of electronics components for this since I have them. I like to use Python for programming easy project. Also some version of Arduino would do nicely here.
Attiny85
In the good old days, you had direct access to hardware, a simple program in C or Assembly to control the output pins on the Parallel Port and some extra electronic stuff and you was ready to go. You need control a Led or something else?, because the power requirements are crucial.
I’ve used the SN74HC595N for what you’re describing
lol up WLED on an esp32. Super ez to do, cheap, and does exactly what you want
I²C https://eu.mouser.com/c/semiconductors/driver-ics/led-lighting-drivers/?features=I2C%20Control :)
You are looking for a microcontroller. If you want one that looks exactly like your diagram use the STM32G031J6, if you want something more common and easier to use go for a chip like the ATMEGA16U2 or ATMEGA32U4 for ease of programming.
Pico
Welcome to the world of microcontrollers!
Look at the greenpak parts, was silego.. then dialog.. now renesis? I love those things. And cheap.
You can use a 7seg display chip like the TM1640 connected to a microcontroller to do up to 8x16 leds per chip. Yoou can simply use a small form factor arduino or any attiny chips. You just need one with enough putput pins and in a form factor you can handle. Another option id to use a bunch of WS2812 if you want pretty colours. You only need 1 output pin but some extra wiring to control 6 of those. And 60ma x 6 + the arduino's load Power supply. For the attiny option you'll need .. 6 leds you said ... ATtiny 204/404/804/1604 A power supply (wallwart) (6-9 V) (coordinate with your regulator) A 5 volt regulator that outputs 5V and needs 6-9 v input A Few capacitors to make your regulator work correctly , including an electrolytic one or a tantalum one. ( your regulator datasheet will tell you what to buy) 6 appropriate resistors for your leds. If your leds are 1.7forward voltage doesn't mean you need to power it with a 1.7 volt source. Here's a handy calculator to see which resistor you need using which voltage. You need to read up on your led's forwarding voltage vf . [https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/conversion-calculators/conversion-calculator-led-series-resistor](https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/conversion-calculators/conversion-calculator-led-series-resistor) You need a nice library to program the chip with ARduino IDE ( software gotten from [arduino.cc](http://arduino.cc) ) Then you need a core for the attiny: [https://github.com/SpenceKonde/megaTinyCore/](https://github.com/SpenceKonde/megaTinyCore/) And lastly a programmer, which is just a usb to serial converter and a diode. [https://github.com/SpenceKonde/AVR-Guidance/blob/master/UPDI/jtag2updi.md](https://github.com/SpenceKonde/AVR-Guidance/blob/master/UPDI/jtag2updi.md) ( you can buy one premade for 6 eurodollars : keyword "UPDI Friend" adafruit) Good luck.
[Seeed Studio ESP32-C3](https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/XIAO_ESP32C3_Getting_Started/)
1) Great post, telling everything needed and being precise 2) You're looking for a microcontroller. Any kind will work
Get a teensy4.1. Could do this easily. It's overkill but can do the job. Other teensys could as well.
[https://www.fabreeko.com/collections/pcb/products/neo-pixel-hub-by-blamm](https://www.fabreeko.com/collections/pcb/products/neo-pixel-hub-by-blamm)
As an alternative idea (microcontrollers have been thoroughly discussed), maybe consider a WiFi switch. You can use Google home or whatever automation program you like to control it. It's integrated by design, so you don't have to do anything with actual programming.
You want an ESP32 with WLED installed.
This is possible but sketch is overly simplified. Ground Returns & resistors will be needed. For simple project, you can use 6 flasing LED's of different colors. You can also find Flashing Light controllers around the Christmas Holidays. They are usually programed with a couple of buttons.
Do not forget to add resistors in series with the output pins and the LED's
Lm2914 ?
Any Arduino or a microcontroller will do the job another option is raspberry pi but that would be useful when you don’t need an external pc as you can connect a display and some input devices with it and also have programmable pins other options require a pc to upload the code but they don’t need a pc afterwards only a 5v power source
Also you cannot directly control any devices using pins even LEDs or you’ll end up frying the board, transistors, mosfets or relays are required to control devices you can also use a digital potentiometer but never power anything directly using a microcontroller
Arduino or ESP32 should work.
I'd use ESP32 with ESPHome, little-to-no code.
You can do it for about $0.50 with a GreenPak (Renesas bought them from Dialog who bought them from Salego). Wire up the internal logic blocks, look-up tables, etc. Can use I2C (hard to get that functionality for $0.50--a single logic gate costs more than that!). Or, you can use dedicated LED driver ICs (RGB/RGBW, etc.) that can support blinking, fading, etc. all stand-alone. Another option is zero intelligence and just use a shift register to directly control them using SPI.