Programmable LED Based on PIC Microcontroller

An AVR chip is used to design a great programmable LED which provides fun and a good building block for playing with collective behaviors.

In this project, an LED is being used as an output and the idea is to make a programmable LED blinking sequence while being controlled by a microcontroller. A light dependent resistor (LDR) is used as input which changes its resistance as it receives more or less light. This resistor will serve as analog input to the analog to digital converter (ADC) of the microprocessor.

There are two modes of operation for the microcontroller including one for recording a sequence and the other for playing back the recorded sequence. The controller switches to recording mode once it detects two changes of brightness within half of a second. The input of LDR is measured multiple times a second in recording mode and stored on the chip. The controller switches back to playback mode if the memory is exhausted and starts to play the recorded sequence.

The version of the controller is the ATtiny13 which can run at 1.8V, making it possible to operate the circuit with very small battery.

Rest of the project