Have you looked in Arzoo's thread
here in the Software sub-forum?
- He's the author of LEDBlinky.
Someone said they can do the same thing with an Arduino board, but I'm not 100% what an Arduino board is or that I still wouldn't need a separate controller..
Arduino makes a variety of small, single-board, open-source computers that can handle a wide range of inputs, outputs, and computing tasks.
The RGB LEDs you're talking about have 3 channels per LED (red, green, and blue), with a current draw of up to 20mA per channel. ==> 60mA per LED.
Multiply that by the number of LEDs on your control panel and you'll quickly either run out of data pins if you use one pin per channel and/or you'll reach the limit of how much current the Arduino can supply.
To overcome those limits without using a dedicated LED controller board, many Arduino LED projects use addressable LEDs that are wired in series.
- For a project with a large number of these LEDs, you can use an external power supply instead of using 5v from the Arduino's USB to power the LEDs. The Arduino would still provide the LED data commands.
Scott