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Flash Drive with LED

WickedreamZ

Mar 10, 2016
1
Joined
Mar 10, 2016
Messages
1
Hi Everyone,

New to the forum and fairly new to electronics. Im coming here to see if anyone would be kind enough to help with a project that I have wanting to build for a long time.

I am a big Star Wars fan and I want to build a Holocron which is basically a storage device used by Jedi and Sith.

I want to build a system with a thumb drive that when plugged into a computer, several LEDS will will also light at the same time and maybe have some kind of animation. It may sound simple to some but for me, I have no idea where to start. I know there are thumb drives out there that have a tiny LED that lights up when plugged into a computer but nowhere as bright as I am imagining. Im thiniking Neopixel ring or something along those lines.

There is instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Holocron-Build-a-Star-Wars-Thumb-Drive/
It kinda covers what I want to do but the author was not very direct in his instructions and I'd love to do something similar to what he did.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate very much...thanks everyone
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
4,098
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
4,098
Hi Everyone,

New to the forum and fairly new to electronics. Im coming here to see if anyone would be kind enough to help with a project that I have wanting to build for a long time.

I am a big Star Wars fan and I want to build a Holocron which is basically a storage device used by Jedi and Sith.

I want to build a system with a thumb drive that when plugged into a computer, several LEDS will will also light at the same time and maybe have some kind of animation. It may sound simple to some but for me, I have no idea where to start. I know there are thumb drives out there that have a tiny LED that lights up when plugged into a computer but nowhere as bright as I am imagining. Im thiniking Neopixel ring or something along those lines.

There is instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Holocron-Build-a-Star-Wars-Thumb-Drive/
It kinda covers what I want to do but the author was not very direct in his instructions and I'd love to do something similar to what he did.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate very much...thanks everyone
ew... instructables should be a swear word here... more often than not, they offer no details or the wrong details.
The best way for you to proceed with this project is to get your hands on a microcontroller. Learn a couple basics, then slap a bunch of LEDs on it!
USB provides a regulated 5V source usually up to 500mA standard. The problem you may run into is if the LEDs draw too much current, the computer may shut-down the USB port thinking it's protecting from a short-circuit.

So! Planning stage:
- How big will the finished product be?
- How many LEDs (or how bright) do you want?
- What kind of experience do you have with electronics?
(Use of test equipment is ideal)
- Do you have any programming experience?
- Do you want to learn how to program microcontrollers, or do you just want to quickly program one then forget about it?
 
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