Arduino Charliplexed Heart, Just in Time for Valentines Day.

Here is an Arduino controlled Charliplexed LED heart just in time for Valentine’s Day. It uses a total of 6 wires to controll the 27 LEDs. A PIC or AVR could easily be used for this, but I have Arduinos lying around and they are easy to program. Plus I want to be able to have input options later when I have time to write them.

Go here for a great explination of Charliplexing.
I’ve actually made a kit for this, and I’m now taking pre-orders on my website. I also created a flash-based animation programmer. Check them out and let me know what you think. The programmer generates the newest version of the code, so it will still be a useful tool if you make your own heart. You will just need to change out the LED array with one that maps to your own.
I’ve updated the software to v 1.3. I found a function called PROGMEM in the avr/pgmspace.h library (included with Arduino software) that allows you to write directly to the Flash ROM. That now gives about 500+ frames of animation, and is an extremely easy thing to implement. You can check out the new software here.

Two of my friends are currently working on getting a bitmath version that should increase this even further (to around 4,500 frames), but while working, it is not very easy to work with in creating animations. I’ll release that once I have my Processing program up and generating the animation codes.
I’ve put the schematic on step 1. There is a direct link to it on my flickr as well.

Second Animation

Step 1: Required Materials

– 27 LEDs I would suggest red, but these would be cool too.
– 6 resistors to match your LEDs I used 100R, but go here to figure it out yourself.
– 6+ wire cable, I used Cat5 because I had it lying around
– soldering setup
– some type of prototype PCB, I used this one from Radioshack and it fits the heart perfectly.
Here is the schematic as viewed from the top. You will want to review that before, during, and after building. Once it is built, you will need to test thoroughly. Each 2 wire combination to a battery should light up one, and only one, LED. If 2 light up, then something is wrong. There will be 3 combinations that won’t light anything up, so don’t worry, and just make a note. If more than 3 combinations fail to light up, then you probably have a short, or a fried LED.

Step 2: First Layer

Now we begin the soldering. For this step, most of the instructions are in the picture.

Basically, you are going to create 4 sets of two pairs. They will all be aligned in the same way. Then you will connect the middle sections of both the top and bottom.

Step 3: Start the Layering.

Now you will continue to solder and start layering the connections. This is where it starts to get complicated. At least you are going to just mirror your connections so far. Whatever you do on the right, you do the opposite on the left. Just be careful not to create any shorts, and give the bent wires enough room that they won’t short if moved a little.

1. Top right + lead bends over left to the top right – lead.
2. Top right set’s bottom – lead bends to the right to make contact with the + lead.
3. Do the same for the bottom set.
4. Bend the top set’s top left – lead down to the bottom set’s top left – pin.
5. Bend the lower right + lead of the top set down to the lower right + lead of the bottom set.
6. Do the opposite on the other side.

It may look bad, but you are going to end up with something that looks like two C’s facing each other on each side. The top middle sections will be joined, as well as the bottom middle sections.

You then add the two center LEDs in opposite alignment of each other. You want the top one to be in the same alignment of all the others so far, and the bottom one to be the opposite. Then you connect the – of the bottom one to the + of the top one, and then to the top center connection. Then you do the opposite for the other two, and connect them to the bottom center connection.

It will be a total of 2 separate connections on each side, with the 2 in the middle. The start of the 6 total connections. Now we just need to fill in the other possible combinations (a total of 30).

Step 4: Final Layers

Here we start the final layers.

The two side pairs are going to be installed the same way as the middle pair was. But now you connect them to the C shaped connections closest to them. One to the outer, and the other to the inner of their side.

Then you install the next lower middle pair of two in the same fashion of opposite alignment, and connect them to the two middle C connections. However, I wouldn’t advise you to connect the bottom most LED into it’s set yet, as you are about to bend a lead under that connection.

The next two I installed aligned in the same direction on opposite sides of the bottom middle LED. I bent the + lead of the right one between the bottom center LED and it’s mate. Connecting to the – lead of the bottom left LED, and the outer left C shape. You then take the bottom left LED’s + lead, and bend it to the bottom right LED’s – lead, and then to the opposite outer C shape.

The final LED I bent the + lead to the bottom middle’s + lead, and the – lead over to the outer left C shape. You should now clip any stray leads, and make sure there aren’t any shorts.

You will end up with the pairs covering all but 3 of the possible combinations that 6 solid connections will give you. So poke around with a 3v + and – wire and watch the different LEDs light up one by one.

Read more: Arduino Charliplexed Heart, Just in Time for Valentines Day.


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer holding a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan, Pakistan University. With a background spanning various industries, particularly in home automation and engineering, I have honed my skills in crafting clear and concise content. Proficient in leveraging infographics and diagrams, I strive to simplify complex concepts for readers. My strength lies in thorough research and presenting information in a structured and logical format.

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