Control brightness, color, and modes from your smartphone, making smart home lighting, commercial mood settings, and outdoor applications more dynamic and efficient.
LED lighting has become a highly versatile technology due to its ability to be controlled and customized for various applications. One of the most significant innovations in this field is the integration of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which allows users to control LED brightness and color using their smartphones. This functionality is achieved by utilizing the RL78/G1D BLE microcontroller from Renesas, which facilitates communication between the LED lighting system and a smartphone application. The integration of BLE technology not only enhances the user experience but also opens up new possibilities for smart lighting in homes, offices, and other environments. This reference design outlines the key components and architecture required to implement such a system. At the core of this LED reference design by Renesas is the RL78/G1D BLE microcontroller, which serves as the main control board. The RL78/G1D features a Flash ROM size of 256KB and a RAM size of 20KB, providing sufficient memory for handling Bluetooth communications and controlling the lighting system.
The microcontroller establishes a connection with the user’s smartphone, allowing the LED lighting to be controlled wirelessly. This control can include adjusting the brightness, selecting different colors, and setting lighting modes, all via a simple application interface on the smartphone. The peripheral board of the system is where the power supply circuit and the RGB LED driver circuit are located. The RGB LED driver circuit is crucial for adjusting the lighting colors and intensity. It is designed using a 3-channel transistor setup, with four sets of RGB LEDs connected in parallel. This parallel connection allows for increased brightness while maintaining power efficiency. Each of the three transistors controls one of the RGB color channels (red, green, and blue), enabling the system to mix these colors to produce a wide range of lighting effects. By combining the RL78/G1D BLE microcontroller and the RGB LED driver circuit, the LED lighting system can be controlled remotely with precision.
The Bluetooth connectivity ensures a low-energy, stable, and reliable communication link between the system and the smartphone. This design is ideal for applications such as smart home lighting, mood lighting in commercial spaces, and customizable outdoor lighting systems. The company provides this reference design to assist customers in developing their products. Still, users should be aware that external factors like component variations, temperature changes, and PCB layout can influence the system’s performance. Therefore, users must verify the actual circuit performance in their specific application thoroughly.
Renesas has tested this reference design. It comes with a bill of materials (BOM), schematics, assembly drawing, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, and more. The company’s website has additional data about the reference design. To read more about this reference design, click here.
