CharlesTucker

Hi guys, thanks for the positive response. As I predicted, I did not get to spend much time on the project. So far there is no visual progress, so no new movie. Yesterday I did some rethinking on the "architecture" of the software, and made some significant changes. Originally I had planned routines that would "fade in" upwards, "fade out" upwards, fade in downwards and fade out downwards. This idea was flawed, as it would complicate things a lot when several people would be accessing the stairs while a routine would be running already, especially if they would come from different directions. So I replaced this idea with one "update" routine, which can have several states. I believe this will make it much easier to deal with such situations. So far the "going up" routine, as shown in the movie, is working again in this new architecture. I also included a timer, to trigger switching off again after a certain period of inactivity. After a discussion with a colleague, I acquired 2 ULN2803A Darlington transistor arrays, which should be able to drive the ledstrips under the stairs. Each chip contains 8 npn Darlington pairs, so the two chips is exactly enough to drive the stips for 16 steps. Best regards, Peter

I think what he wants to be able to do is to display a text, sent to the Netduino Plus via the internet. He wants to do that with LED's. I think he mentions the LCD because he started to think it is not feasible with LEDS. Correct me if I am wrong. To the original poster, if I am correct, the thing you are looking for is LED matrix technology. A couple of links to check out if this is indeed the case are:

• http://weblogs.asp.n...-right-way.aspx
• http://www.appelsiin...led-matrix-work

Small 5x8 or 8x8 LED matrices can be found everywhere, and you can combine to create larger displays. Obviously you can also create your own display from a large number of single LED's. Depending on the budget, you might be interested in something like http://www.adafruit.com/products/420

Hopefully the links provide enough information to get you started in the right direction. If you decide to go for a relative large display, be aware that the current the Netduino pins can deliver is limited, and you might need some xtra hardware (transistors).

Hi Chuck, yes, this helps a lot, I now have a clear answer to my question, as well as a good explanation of how I could have found it myself, thanks a lot

Hello, thanks for the great explanation. It leaves me with one question (actually I found your answer when trying to find an answer to my question). You mention that if powering the Netduino from an external 12V source, it is not a good idea to try and take lots of current from the 5V output. I can imagine that, but the question I had, and could not find the answer (I guess I did not search good enough), is what is considered "a lot of current". Just to be sure, I am talking about the 5V output only. Best regards, Peter

I am not sure if this is what you mean, but there is an "all-in-one" ISO available on the microsoft website. It says you can use it for free for 30 days, after that you need to register for a free key. I am not familiar with the express versions, so my apologies if this is wrong. The download is available at http://www.microsoft...#d-2010-express, 6th item from the top.