LED Lighting Update

Bad news,

Last sunday i was playing around with my LED underbody light kit for the car and a multimeter and managed to blow the power transistors for one channel of the controller. Its a pain in the arse because all the pretty patterns are ruined by one set of lights which is now always on. But i was going to design my own controller anyway and this has just kicked me in the pants to get on with it. Pirated some digital logic software and set about making up a circuit model. Got just far enough into it to decide that i should just use a programmable microcontroller instead of a logic circuit because i want too much variety in light patterns. Will have to see what parts i can scrounge because i want it not only to be on/off switching but also fading in and out - so i might have to use analogue outputs - which means an expensive micro. Other option is to try and Rig up RC circuits that i can switch in and out with relays or better with transistors - don't know enough about circuit design to do it yet. Oh well i'm back to uni next semester so i'll learn it then.

Mark