Asked
— Edited
I have an LED magician and I'd like to be able to control the routine and the speed using ezb. Doable? If so how do i set it up in EZ builder. How do i connect it to the EZB? The manual discusses using a micro controller at the bottom of the manual.
This looks like the manual: Manual
"Installing external controls
You can wire-out external controls by using the through-holes located at the top right corner of the circuit board.
Using a micro-controller;
A "push" of the control buttons are simulated via an "active low" TTL signal from your micro-controller.
The connection should be kept "high" at 5v and a "low" level signal simulates a press of the switch.
Have a question? Find your answers at our "Frequently Asked Questions" page"
This sounds like a digital on/off. Nothing fancy like a serial or i2c interface, just a digital port like you would connect a servo. I do forget what the a digital high outputs are now on the v4 (voltage wise), so check and double check voltages before you connect it up! And don't forget your common ground between your Magician and the v4.
And you would need a digital line for each button on the magician. The one I saw had 4 buttons, which means 4 digital lines.
Ok, signal vs +V are, very different things. (You may know this, but I'd like to explain it anyway) So on the digital ports you have 3 pins Signal, +V and ground. +V and ground are a straight power source, if you have 7.4 volts going into the v4 you'll get that voltage out of your +V - just like a voltage regular or straight from a battery.
The Signal wire is the special wire and important one. It can provide a digital on/off or high/low signal, PWM for servos, etc. It can also receive digital on/off or high/low signals. The signal wire (unlike the +V) should only output a signal voltage at TTL levels or either 5V or 3.3V for high or on. No voltage, means a low of off signal. The 5v vs. 3.3 is what I forgot on the v4 the DataSheet says this:
"Digital I/O TTL Voltage Level (input high) min 1.6 max 5 unit VDC
Digital I/O TTL Voltage Level (input low) min 0 max 1 unit VDC
Digital I/O TTL Voltage Level (output) min - max 3.3 unit VDC"
With that in mind, you can output a 3.3 signal to the LED Magician, just make sure please it is the signal wire!
You should be good to go but technically the LED Magician says it is looking for +5V for the signal high and the v4 will send an output of +3.3v. My guess is it would work fine, but if it does not work you might need a TTL booster to bring the signal from 3.3v to +5v. Does that make sense?
To power the LED Magician board itself the manual had this to say:
"Before you can start using the LED Magician, please select the correct input voltage by shorting the connections labelled "8-28V" or "4.5V".
If you are using an input voltage that is between 4.5Volts to 8Volts, solder the connection labelled "4.5V" (Fig. 1)
If you are using an input voltage that is 8Volts and above, solder the connection labelled "8-28V" (Fig. 2)"
The signal wire output is the only way to have on/off, high/low control that you need for the LED magician.
I would test the LED Magician with a different 5 volt signal (to replicate the TTL signal), just to make sure it is working correctly. By test, I mean you should be able to momentarily feed 5 volts to the TTL input on the magician and it should replicate a button being pressed manually on the magician.
If that works you can either use ttl converts to boost the signal voltage or you could opt to use a micro controller that natively outputs 5 volts for a digital high and connect that micro controller to the EZBv4 via a serial port.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12009?gclid=CjwKEAjwvbGqBRCs3eH4o5C74CYSJAB3TODsEQ5BEj16fpqXHzt2uUaHSSeGvAGURCdEJKkm0-Qd-xoCCYbw_wcB
The connection should be kept "high" at 5v and a "low" level signal simulates a press of the switch.