Hi, I'm pretty new to arduino and the forums so forgive me if this has already been asked. I'm trying to construct an LED system for a refrigerator with a glass front where the lights would only activate when a motion sensor is tripped. It's sort of a small scale prototype for a commercial bottled beer refrigerator because one of the greatest enemies to beer is light and specifically the blue wavelengths of it. It would use string LEDs, I'm thinking of using the ones featured in a recent article in make sparkfun COM-12027, and would probably be powered and controlled with an arduino nano. What would be the most practical means of approaching this? I did a bit of research for motion sensors and I came across one on sparkfun (PIR Motion Sensor SEN-08630 ) and one from parallax (555-28027 PIR Motion Sensor). If I could get this to run on the refrigerator's power supply, even better, thanks.
A good place to start PIR is with a decent tutorial:
Adafruit or Sparkfun sensor are similar technically, check the sample code for each.
Ray
Hi faradayrage,
What kind of power supply does the fridge have? Low voltage?
Also why individually addressable rgb leds? The 'b' stands for blue, the deadliest of beer's enemies! Do you need an eye catching multicolour display to sell the beer, or just light the contents of the fridge for convenience?
Also, what length of strip will be needed, how much current and what voltage?
Paul
+1 on the PIR.
Have you thought about how you would run a cable from the PIR to the lights on the inside if the cooler?
If that is a problem you could set up the PIR as a remote unit which sends an activation signal to the inside of the cooler via RF or IR.