This DIY RGB Value Interpreter Will Help You Dial in Your LED Colors
Thomas Burns' device takes the guesswork out of determining which 0-255 RGB value corresponds to the color you want in your project.
Adafruit NeoPixels, and other WS2812B individually addressable RGB LEDs, are very popular because you can set the exact color of any LED in the strip or grid using a microcontroller and just three wires. You usually set an individual LED’s color by changing the RGB value, which is the intensity of red, green, and blue portions of the light. They’re usually set between 0 and 255. For instance, if you wanted a pure purple, you would set red to 255, green to 0, and blue to 255. The problem is that it can be tricky to find the color you actually want. That’s why you may want to build Thomas Burns' DIY LED Color Value Interpreter.
You can obviously use a color picker on your computer to find the RGB values for a specific color. Unfortunately, the color you see on your computer monitor almost certainly won’t exactly match the real world color coming from the LED. This device solves that problem. You simply adjust the three potentiometers on top to set the red, green, and blue values. Dial in the color you actually want, and those values are then shown on the display so you can use them in your project’s code.
The LED Color Value Interpreter is built using an Arduino Nano microcontroller development board. It monitors the three potentiometers to set the color of a few Adafruit NeoPixels on a strip. The RGB values are shown on a small 16x2 character LCD screen. The only downside of this unit is that it doesn’t account for the color change that can be a result of the voltage drop if you’re using a long strip of LEDs, but that shouldn’t be an issue if you make sure to distribute power evenly throughout your LED strip. If you’re looking for a way to dial in your LED colors, this is a great option.
