BLINKM, THE SMART LED

On Sale from Little Bird Electronics (Australia), Cool Components (UK), RobotItaly (IT), FunGizmos (US), NKC Electronics (US), Sparkfun Electronics (US), Maker Shed (US), HVWTech (Canada), Spikenzie Labs (Canada),Lextronic (FR), SKPang Electronics (UK), Adafruit Industries (US)oomlout(UK), Watterott(Germany), Hot Solder (UK)

AVAILABILITY: ON SALE. Check your local distributor.

Have you wanted an LED that can fade from deep red to bright purple? Flash like a police light? "Breathe" softly? Glow like a firefly? Turn on with the subtle fade of an incandescent bulb? Flicker like a candle?

That's BlinkM, a smart LED that lets you do all of that without having to know any electronics engineering or programming.

We attached an ultra bright wide-angle RGB LED to a microcontroller with onboard memory and our software that makes creating arbitrary light colors and smooth color patterns very easy. BlinkM Sequencer--our free Open Source sequencing software runs on most operating systems--makes it easy to select any RGB color or pattern and instantly upload it to BlinkM (we also provide Java, C, and Processing libraries and programming examples for using it).

Once programmed, the BlinkM can be detached from its programming interface and work standalone. It will then glow the programmed color or play the programmed pattern whenever 5 volts is applied, just like a regular LED, but with much more flexibility. It can be reprogrammed thousands of times, or stay tethered and be controlled using simple software commands, changing colors in real time.

All for under $15.

Quick Start requirements:

Quick Start requirements:

• No programming experience!
• No electronics experience!
• LinkM USB Programmer or Arduino I/O board
  
• ThingM Sequencer software for Arduino or Multitrack Sequencer for LinkM

Software requirements:

• OSX 10.3.9, Windows XP/7, Linux
• Java 1.5 or later (included with Windows installation)

Features

• Full-color RGB LED w/ 24-bit color control
• Can plug directly into Arduino or LinkM, no wiring or other components needed!
• Specify colors using 24-bit RGB or HSB
• Fade between colors with variable timing and fade speeds
• Randomized color selection, with ranges and based on previous color
• 18 built-in light scripts (sequences)
• Create and save light scripts of up to 49 commands long
• Stand-alone operation: No microcontroller needed for light script playback
• Up to 127 BlinkM channels on a single two-wire network
• Low power consumption

Advanced features

• Controllable with any microcontroller (BASIC Stamp, MAKE Controller, etc.)
• Reconfigurable network address

Specifications

• 8000 mcd (millicandelas) of light intensity
• 140-degree viewing angle
• 3.6-5v operating voltage, 60mA max
• 1g weight
• Fade duration: 1/30 second to 8.5 seconds
• Two-wire (aka "I2C") control
• 5-volt standard TTL inputs
• 4-pin 0.1" spacing BlinkM I2C connector

Questions? Please contact us.

On Sale from Little Bird Electronics (Australia), Cool Components (UK), RobotItaly (IT), FunGizmos (US), NKC Electronics (US), Sparkfun Electronics (US), Maker Shed (US), HVWTech (Canada), Spikenzie Labs (Canada),Lextronic (FR), SKPang Electronics (UK), Adafruit Industries (US)oomlout(UK), Watterott(Germany), Hot Solder (UK)

Downloads

DATASHEET (2MB PDF)

COMMUNICATOR (3kB ZIP)

SEQUENCER for Mac OS X  (416kB ZIP)

SEQUENCER for Windows (15MB ZIP) 

SEQUENCER SOURCE (86kB ZIP)

EXAMPLE CODE (15kB ZIP)

(for Arduino, Processing, Basic Stamp, Max/MSP)

 

SEQUENCER LICENSE (4KB TEXT)

FIRMWARE LICENSE (4KB TEXT)

SUPPORT

High resolution images from Flickr