2 LED on single GPIO
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@crispyoz You really like the Full-Color Notification LED of Omega2 Pro anyway.
Why don't you use a ledchain?
Only one GPIO (GPIO18 or GPIO19) and four WS2812B LEDs needed and you could switch On/Off any LED and you could also set the brightness and the color of any LED.For example:
5Pcs One Bit WS2812B Serial 5050 Full Color LED Module US$ 5.39
10Pcs Geekcreit
DC 5V 3MM x 10MM WS2812B SMD LED Board US$1.87
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@György-Farkas err for info the item you pointed to is a 5v device - this is a 3.3v system. Would it work on 3.3v?
The protocol is messy for driving those "clever LEDs" - might be more trouble that it is worth for the task required.
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@Neil-Manuel I think only a "bare bone" Omega2 is a 3.3V powered device / "system".
I think @luz's p44-ledchain package works fairly well and it's part of any (?) Omega2 OpenWrt 18.06 based firmware.
Try it please.
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Hahaha @György-Farkas yes i do love the LED on the Pro it's so bright and beautiful
but the Pro is too big for my purpose. I decided to bite the bullet and have my own board designed and stick all my LED on individual GPIO. My software is much easier for me to change.
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@crispyoz I wrote only 1 (one) GPIO (GPIO18 ie. PWM0 or GPIO19 ie. PWM1) and 4 (four) WS2812B LEDs as a ledchain.
It doesn't depend on any Omega2 version.
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@Neil-Manuel
Tying up loose ends
I used the standard calculation for LED resistors using your guesstimate of 1.8V drop on the LEDs together with @crispyoz value of 200R for the resistors:(Vsupply - Vled)/R = (3.3 - 1.8)/200 = 7.5mA per LED x 2 = 15mA.
I agree @crispyoz could probably get away with higher value resistors (lower current per LED) and still get reasonable light levels. Alternatively, the GPIO might be able to safely handle 15mA, I just ran out of patience trying to find the spec
.
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@Neil-Manuel
Sorry, I just realised your comment was aimed @crispyoz not me.Apologies.
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@Chris-H Regarding biasing LED, making a guess on voltage drop is not a bad deal as you can get to a solution fast....or slow....depending on the guess. On the other hand a more design-forward approach would certainly get you to a solution on first try. Here's what I would do.....
Find the data sheet on the LED. Among all of the tech data you will find a V-I curve (at voltage x you expect current y). Now guess (yes - guess!) at a sensible voltage to turn on the display. Better yet, if you have a variable voltage supply, apply it to the diode at near zero volts and increase until you have the brightness you desire (or until it explodes). Now with your guess from whichever path you chose, the remainder of the voltage drop must be across the resistor. With the measured or graph derived current you can select a ballpark resistance value. Find the nearest off-the-shelf resistance value you have and you'll be good to go.
--Bill
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@Chris-H thanks for looking into that, I realised I have one of my IoT devices (O2+) running two LED on a single GPIO for about 5 weeks now. So far no smoke. Nothing seems to be getting even warm as my software is very light on the CPU. I'm going to let it run for as long as it takes to finally release the smoke.
Not exactly scientific, hence my original question, because as a computer scientist I prefer to work with calculable facts. I appreciate your advice.
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@György-Farkas yes I started experimenting with a LED strip I have which uses the WS2812B LED. Dimming these things smoothly is my current challenge.
