Errr, that makes it tricky. You need to have an understanding of how the microcontroller works, how to wire it up, how to program it., etc., etc. It’s not necessarily difficult, but knowledge in C++ is definitely a plus. At the moment, it’s just a prototype sitting on my desk. Eventually I’ll be making a custom PCB to fit inside the lamps. The 4x3 grid of LEDs you see is something I made a long time ago and decided to just use that for this test. Only the 4 in the lower left are used for this test. The tiny little black square in its upper right corner is the actual chip.
@Ashley_M_Kirchner_No Thanks for the info. I have a small amount of experience with C++ from years back, so I could probably refresh enough to figure out what to do on that end. I guess I’m going to have to do a fair bit of reading to figure these things out, as I’d love to start utilising some different electronic components in some builds/projects in future. Just out of curiosity at this stage, do you program the chips by plugging them into some adaptor that then plugs into the computer & then load them up with a code module somehow? Or is it much more complicated than that?
They are AVR microcontrollers. You need a programmer that connects through USB to you computer and the “In-Circuit Serial Programming” pins on the microcontroller (hence needing to know how they work and what their pins do). Then you can use different programs to write and program. I use Atmel Studio 7 to write code, compile, and write to the chip.
@Ashley_M_Kirchner_No Thanks again. I’ll start my research there & see if I can figure it out (or not).
Actually, start with an Arduino - the simple Uno will do just fine. That’s the base for these AVRs. Once you understand how to program them and how they work, you can start getting more technical with them.
@Ashley_M_Kirchner_No Ah cool. I’ve been meaning to learn how to use an Arduino for a while, so now’s a perfect excuse to have a go.