TI Brings Easy RF Control to LEDs

Development boards work with MCU to create an RF lighting network

Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, September 22, 2008

POWER MANAGEMENT & CONTROL
TPS62260LED, REMOTE-CONTROLLED LED BOARD, TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

Using a Texas Instruments' (TI) microcontroller, remote-controlled LED (light-emitting diode) board and a wireless development tool, designers can now easily create a lighting network of radio-controlled LED lamps.

The combination of technologies plays an important role because it enables engineers to make a simpler transition from incandescent to LED and to manage the intensity and color of those lamps with an RF technique.

“This allows designers to create their own lighting communications network by plugging a development tool onto a simple three-LED board,” says Matthew Borne, power marketing manager for TI. “And it saves them time and expense.”

TI's LED design platform includes the company's TPS62260LED remote-controlled LED board, eZ430-RF2500 wireless development tool and the MSP430F2131 microcontroller. The TPS62260LED board controls the color and brightness of lamps and runs an automatic color light animation program. The MSP430F2131 microcontroller manages the brightness of each LED with constant current generated by three drivers. And by plugging the eZ430-RF2500 wireless tool into the LED board, designers can implement RF remote control of the lighting.

The platform is said to be well-suited to lighting innovation, especially in building automation control networks, because the LED board can be remote controlled and the MCU can pulse the current to the LEDs. RF control reportedly also simplifies the upgrading from incandescent to LED because it requires minimal wiring infrastructure changes.

“In order to move to LED systems, some people are actually running extra wires from the wall to the (LED) lamp,” Borne says. “This allows you to take out the incandescent light fixture and replace it with an LED lamp, without having to do that.”

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