Hey everyone, new to the forum, thanks for all of the great information here...

Anyway I'm looking at putting together this LED light suit with a buddy, at the same time we'll be getting into Arduino for the first time pretty much: http://shanesalta.com/projects/iphone-controlled-light-up-led-suit/

Before even getting started we have a few questions, like;
- How exactly are so many LEDs individually controlled from an Arduino Pro Mini?
- What is the purpose of the voltage regulator in this project (where does it go)?
- Lantronix seems to have several 802.11 b/g MatchPort wireless "modules" but do we want the "Device Server" or the "AR Embedded Device Server"? http://gridconnect.com/nsearch/?keywords=matchport+lantronix
- We noticed in the Arduino sketch application there are two 3.3V Arduino Pro Mini devices listed, is it possible we need one of these and not the other?

Thanks in advance for any help, obviously we're very new and just getting our hands dirty.

 

Probably is lighting the LEDs via Charileplexing. Search for more details but basically is is using high, low outputs and high impedance inputs to light the LEDs. Use the right combination of high, low and high impudence from your MCU and you can light many more LEDs than you have outputs.

You have a 3.3V MCU and a Lantronix Matchport and a 11V battery. You need to get 3.3v out out 11V somehow. That is the purpose of the regulator. They don't sepecify the type of regulator but I'll bet it is linear. Simple but inefficient for batteries.

It probably would be better to use 2 1.5V rechargeable batteries to power the MCU. But lighting the LEDs might be a challenge.


Or you could use a buck regulator. More complicated but you would get more battery life out of your project.


Have you worked with MCUs before? This really is not a project for beginners. Not to mention expensive. That Lantronix Matchport module is $129 alone.