2 LEDs and one pin left

[rsocor01]

RED and BLUE = ON

The only way I can think of is to connect them in parallel. (if serial, 3.3V will not go through)

No, that's not what I meant.

If you apply a square wave to this red-green LED, the colors will change so quickly that it will look like it is yellow. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure it will look yellow to your eyes.

Robert

[mackrackit]

Hey Robert,
Can you give some example code for how the square wave method would work?
Say you have something like the sliding door app.
Green = full open
Red = closed
OFF = inbetween
Yellow = moving

[rsocor01]

Hey Robert,
Can you give some example code for how the square wave method would work?
Say you have something like the sliding door app.
Green = full open
Red = closed
OFF = inbetween
Yellow = moving

Mackrackit,

I'm going to order this part and test it to see if it works. The square wave is just a simple 50% duty cycle wave. By using the circuit provided by Scalerobotics, then if the square wave is low the red lights up and if the square wave is high then the green lights up.

A rapid changing of colors red -> green -> red -> green -> .... would appear to be yellow. It is just an optical illusion. Remember that I talking about a red-green LED with both colors in the same LED casing. Still, I would need to test it to see if it works.

Robert

[mackrackit]

Looking forward to see your results, it would be very useful.

[rsocor01]

Looking forward to see your results, it would be very useful.

Mackrackit,

I tested this idea with a red-green 10 LED bargraph and yes it works. The setup is different from what we have been discussing in this thread, but the idea of getting a new color (yellow) is the same.

First, I applied a square wave to the circuit with a period of 1.2 seconds and you can see how the color changes between red and green. Next, I applied a square wave with a period of 2 milliseconds per cycle (50% duty cycle) and all you see is a yellow color. Also, If you change the percentage of the duty cycle you get different tones of yellow. This would be very useful for a project like the sliding doors.

Robert

[mackrackit]

COOOL!!!!!

I can think of several places where that will come in handy.
Looks like it would make a good article for the wiki. Add a bit of code and schematic for basic use....

[muddy0409]

Tried this on my Breadboard, works a treat.
Hmmm....have to work out how to ad a JPG to this...
BRB


Ah, there it is, I hope. I know it means 2 extra LEDs, but that's gotta be cheaper than changing the PIC or messing around with the power supply.
With the pin as an input, the 5 volt rail is not enough to turn on any of the leds, but setting the pin Hi or Lo the voltage is enough to turn on 2 of them. Also no current drawn during the Input stage.

[rsocor01]

Add a bit of code and schematic for basic use....

Ok.

I attached the schematics to this post. The code is pretty simple. It uses only one pin in the PIC to create four states in the red-green LED. You can get Red, Green, Yellow, or the Off state in the LED using only one pin. Of course, for getting the last state (Off) all the credit goes to mackrackit. He figured that one out .

START:

HIGH PORTB.0                 'Turn on red light
PAUSE 2000 

LOW PORTB.0                  'Turn on green light  
PAUSE 2000   

FOR I = 1 TO 2000            'Obtain a yellow light
   TOGGLE PORTB.0
   PAUSE 1
NEXT I

TRISB.0 = 1                  'Turn off LED
PAUSE 2000 
   
GOTO START