Physical computing LED lighting – COB LED with joystick colour temperature control

Joystick colour temperature and dimming control

You’ll learn how to control all aspects of light with a single user interface element. Warm. Cold. Bright. Dark. Memory function. How to drive two high-CRI COB LEDs and dim/mix their different CCTs with a joystick interface and Arduino.

This tutorial explains the basic set-up for mixing the CCT (correlated colour temperature) of two (or more) LEDs (CRI 90) with a joystick (or four-way rocker switch or touchpad) via PWM. Any selected colour balance can be dimmed without changing the LED’s brightness ratio that sets that chosen colour balance.

While the electronic circuit is usually very straightforward, the “magic” in physical computing projects happens always in the code. So, please see the GitHub link to the BOM, the schematic, and extensively commented code that you can easily adapt and recycle in your own projects. Often, there’s a useful code concept or code snippet that you can use for an entirely different design, because it’s a fundamental principle.

If you want to learn about good soldering, this seven minute vintage video is still the best of them all.