Hi there, I'm lovin' this kit. I've been playing around with avrdude to try and reprogram the chip to do only 5 led's instead of nine. I can't say I'm the greatest coder in the world so I'm obviously missing something in parts of the code. I changed what I thought should be changed but I must be doing something wrong because it doesn't work after the changes. Would it be possible to assist me with which lines I should change in the larson_14 code to utilize 5 leds? I know there was a previous version that used less leds. Even if I could compare that code, I could probably figure it out. Thanks very much for your help...

Chris

We have not made a version of the code for just five LEDs. Depending on what you need to do, you might consider just building it with the central five LEDs-- would that work OK?

Thanks. If I'm understanding, you mean just using the five inner leds and removing the outer ones? What I was trying to do was to reprogram the chip to take them out of the loop. I think if I take the outer ones out, it would create a big delay when it goes back and forth so I thought I needed to remove the code for those ones. I thought I had removed/changed the correct lines in the code but it didn't seem to work... o well...

Also, I think I saw somewhere where there was a version that used less led's. Is that code somewhere in an archive so I can look at it?

Also, I think I saw somewhere where there was a version that used less led's. Is that code somewhere in an archive so I can look at it?

Again, we have not made anything like this.


To modify the code:

First, notice that it's designed to sweep past through 9 LEDs, where the "eye" position is given by a variable. It check to see when it's made it far enough using this line of code:

Try changing that to a lower value; try 72 for starters, and play with it a bit to fine-tune it.

I believe that you'll also need to change where it says:

to use (say) 71 - position, instead, according to how you change the turn-around point above.


Those two changes should restrict the Larson Scanner to use the first five LEDs, not the full nine. Then, to map those onto the *middle* five, find this part:

Change it to:

Thanks so much! I was totally looking at the wrong section. It looks like I need to brush up on my skills a bit more....

Thanks for the advice. I can't seem to get the center light to turn off completely when it's moving in one direction. Oh well. I guess it's time to give up...

Thanks again for your help.... Chris

I made a compromise... I basically left the code intact except that I made the speed level 3. Then I removed every other led from the board. I think the effect is exactly what I'm looking for. Sorry for being such a pain and thanks for your help....