External Power

So I did some reading and some internet searching, and think I have at least part of the power issue figured out. I purchased a 7805 +5VDC Voltage Regulator, wired up my 1/2 size breadboard as my external power supply and added an led to that board and to 3 others down the line as a visual to see if power is being routed properly. Now with just the ground from the Arduino going into the circuit I can get everything operating properly. So the next test will be to get a Voltage Regulator with a higher current rating and a heat sink to get up to the current I need to drive all of the leds. 2 internet posts that helped a bunch. *ITP Physical Computing & *http://pixelriot.com/pmatp/node/285

Also http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/psu_5v.html

2 New Vids

Ok First we got the Red/Green function working for the 8x8 Matrix.

Secondly, we added a blue row to our LEDs and now show the open/closed/groomed status for 16 trails. I tried to make it a little easier to see the different rows by putting the cardboard on top. Here's a quick guide, Red = Closed, Green = Open, Blue = Groomed. Only one light will illuminate for each trail. Next step would be to do this with a single RGB LED. Also to note what it is doing, I create a quick startup sequence that runs when I reset the Arduino. Then I click 2 buttons I created in the flash program to turn on trails 1-8 & 9-16.

Today, I was able to hook-up an 8x8 R/G led matrix and display X,O and G in red. Still need to get Green going and then re-write the code in Flash so I can connect it to the internet.

RGB LED Matrix