LED projects are a popular topic these days. This talk covers some microcontroller LED projects Alden has done ranging from at-home projects to manufactured units. Alden will have a variety of projects that should perhaps not have been attempted - such as Balls on Sticks and The Low Rider Christmas, Silent Music Box, and 10mi2 Lucites.

The talk will cover practical lessons that resulted, including:

• Color theory, transformation and perception as related to LEDs
• LED driving and dimming techniques, multiplexing - and some workarounds to common problems
• PIC16F917 assembly programming, optimization, and tricks. Open sourcing the control stack from these projects.
• How can this all be done as cheaply as possible?

Time permitting we may also get into some of the more arcane details about circuit board design, manufacture, and assembly; surface mount at home, mechanical considerations, and other topics.

Alden is a hardware and software engineer who started doing gate-level design in the late '70s and has been working his way up the stack ever since...Only to fall down again a few years ago with a renewed interest in microcontrollers and electronics. His company Ten Mile Square is a small group of technology practitioners who specialize in the disciplines surrounding media and web systems.

If you—or someone you know—has an interesting announcement or something to share (5 minutes or less), we'll make time to fit you in.

After the presentations, the exchange continues over food and drink at a nearby eatery.