Hi folks. So I currently have an RGB LED Controller that i hooked up to my RGB LED and tested it the concept it was made for works great. But it does what i dont want it to do.
This RGB controller was desgined for LED strips so it has 2 input wires (pos. and neg.) it is rated from 5-24V. an example here : sames exact unit as i bought http://www.ledoraled.com/product/mini-3-key-rgb-led-controller.html

I am using a 12V source and i will be using a 12v source. My setup is quite different as I only have 1 control and that is a potentiometer style control where i can turn it up full blast (12V) or turn it down) around 2.5V and the LED's are dim. (at least thats how it worked on my Regular LEDs)

The RGB Leds have 4 leads (1 common, and the R G B leads) I have a total of 2 LEDs but for this purpose of requesting Help. I would like to know how to make this system with only 1 LED.

What i would like this unit to be is solely a 1 button unit that I can press the button and it will ONLY change the color of the RGB LED. If i turn this power source off i would like to be able to turn it back on and still have that last color that was on it (if this means adding some sort of 3v battery or any battery to retain the memory, so be it)

So here is the unit I currently purchased looks like closer up

I cut back the Heat Shrink tubing, to reveal the PCB, I will post a picture of the PCB when i get home.
But it has 2 small chips on there, one of them is an EEPROM chip from looking it up the other one is unnamed. but there are resistors and a zener diode and some transistors.

I bought plenty of these so i could experiment and they were cheap...
Just hooking them up to my RGB LED and testing the 3 functions they worked fine...
The only thing is i do not want the extra "Speed/Bright" option and "mode" option. I just want the color option.

So what i did was desolder all of the components off the PCB to get an idea of the layout of the board and the tracks so i could reverse engineer it... I will finish my drawing layout of it and post it on here later today.

I hope none of this is confusing. If someone has a more simpler controller please let me know. I tried looking in the search for forums but nothing came up that looked like what i needed.

So is it possible to get assistance how to make this RGB LED Controller go from different pulse modes, brightnesses and speeds to just a color control? that way i can hook the 4 pins up to the LED module and the 2 power pins to my source potentiometer and i will be able to control brightness via my current setup and use the single button to switch between colors.

 

What i would like this unit to be is solely a 1 button unit that I can press the button and it will ONLY change the color of the RGB LED. If i turn this power source off i would like to be able to turn it back on and still have that last color that was on it (if this means adding some sort of 3v battery or any battery to retain the memory, so be it)

I believe the controllers you bought have a micro-controller inside. If so, the only way to modify the operation is to change the programming on the uC, which is essentially impossible. In my opinion, it would be easier to build your own driver from scratch. Just out of curiosity, why can't you just use the controller as-is, and, if you only want the color to change, only press the color button?

 

Thank you for asking. The reason i would like to change the controller is because It is bulky and i know there is extra stuff in the controller as it sits. I would like to integrate the controller into my custom pcb that i made (i have been experimenting with printing pcbs, i was sucessful with my regular LED pcb) but would like to change the profile of this controller simplify it.

More than that thought I am really excited by electronics and every day i learn something new. I love the learning aspect of all of this and this is my main goal is to understand everything that goes on in my circuit. No better way than to reconstruct it myself. That is why i am not just asking for a simple solution but a way that i can understand what is happening. I do understand that most of this would probably be done with a microcontroller but if someone could point one out to me than i coudl start to read up on it and play around with it on a breadboard. I have been looking at one the NCP5623 .

So i guess I would have to build my own driver from scratch. which sounds like a lot of fun to me

 

I did find this link which looks like a good start to learning and realizing what happens... http://www.pyroelectro.com/tutorials/rgb_led_controller/

 

I did find this link which looks like a good start to learning and realizing what happens... http://www.pyroelectro.com/tutorials/rgb_led_controller/

That particular controller uses a PIC micro-controller, and PICs can be difficult, especially for beginners. A much easier start with uCs can be had with PICAXE chips. Google PICAXE RGB Controller, and have a look.

 

ok thank for giving me some direction tracecom!

 

HAHA! Boom first video and this is exactly what i have been looking for! Thanks Tracecom!! thanks alot
My research just got more exciting!

 

As long as you're interested in learning as much as possible and exploring variations, why not try a discrete solution from scratch as well?

I think it would be pretty straightforward to do this with a decade (or octal?) counter. I'm picturing:
momentary switch->
RC filter and/or schmitt trigger to debounce->
Into input of counter, with the appropriate output (2 or 3? not sure, kind of winging it here) tied to the counter's reset so it loops back around through 3 colors, not 8 or 10.
Then the first three counter outputs would each tie to a different color led, with the common led leg connected to your pot for brightness control.

I'm probably missing something here, but I think it would be a pretty simple circuit that would get the job done.

 

Yeah that's what I am hoping it will be simple. I am currently brushing up on my basic programming. But that video I posted is exactly what I need only problem is the chap who made the video has not publicly released the code so I'm reading about picaxe and it seems rather simple basic lik . Code. If anyone her knows that code if they can throw it at me I could plug it into my picaxe simulator and test it I love online and computerized simulators u can Figure out what u need before actually spending money on it!!! I remember back k in the day u would buy a bunch of parts only to find out in the middle of soldering it didn't work . Thank you for your input