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[on:]

Greetings!

Recently i've been trying to figure out a way to produce this live interactive lighting piece that I've built up in my mind, and then I realized that I have an Arduino UNO sitting in my closet, so my hopes are that somehow I can interface it properly with what I need.However I'm going to need a little help.

So heres the deal,

The attached photo is a very basic outline of what I'm trying to accomplish. The bulbous looking objects are poorly drawn 120V halogen bulbs attached in a line(?). I want the bulbs to be almost sequenced with music that I'll be performing. I want to be able to hold a chord on my synth and have all the bulbs light up, and then when I release the chord to have the light trail down to the end of the strand in almost a 'decaying' way. I've done some research, and see that I will most likely need an SSR box, but seeing as I come from a software background I have very little electronics knowledge I have a long way to go. I guess my main question is, can Arduino control multiple 120V halogen bulbs, and if so how?



This video is somewhat of a reference of what I'm looking for however, its going to be controlling way more bulbs, and the audio going into it will be coming from a 1/4 jack on a mixer, not midi.

Thanks in advance!~ and I'm very excited to hopefully start my Arduino journey!

[Reply #1 on:]

I'm a newb myself but I've put a bit of thought into an idea very similar. Your first problem is that each bulb acting independently(trailing to the end) would need it's own relay. Even if you made each strand match eachother that's still a lot if relays. You might want to consider how you could do it with LEDs and make things immensely easier on yourself.

[Reply #2 on:]

Relays will only turn the lamps on/off not fade them. For fading something more complex is needed, like DMX control units or similar.

This is absolutely not a beginners project, especially since it involves potentially deadly mains voltage.

[Reply #3 on:]

You will need programmable halogen dimming modules to control the lights. I found them quite hard to find on Google, but here http://www.edincontrols.com/eDIN-02-08%20V1.2.pdf is an example.

[Reply #4 on:]

Thanks so much for all of the advice, after doing more research would an X10 console maybe be my best bet?

What would it require if the bulbs didn't dim but simply trailed to the end?

[Reply #5 on:]

You might be better off using the MIDI output of the keyboard and then connecting that to a DMX a standard DMX dimmer pack.

Here's MIDI to DMX

Here is a DMX dimmer pack.  I have used this exact model myself [url]http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/32499-dimmer-pack-4-channel-dmx-g018va-soundlab.html]http://www.lightjams.com/midiDMX.html[\url]

Here is a DMX dimmer pack.  I have used this exact model myself [url]http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/32499-dimmer-pack-4-channel-dmx-g018va-soundlab.html

[Reply #6 on:]

My only issue with the MIDI/DMX software is that I'm not going to have a computer on stage...
 
I came across this video too which it fairly close to what I'm trying to accomplish except no patterns are necessary.

[Reply #7 on:]

Yep, that's pretty much what I figured you were going to do.

The MIDI output directly talks to the DMX - there is no PC involved.  There would be a cable from the MIDI to the MIDI>DMX box, a cable from there to the dimmer pack.  Then, of course, you have the power cabling.

The big advantage of this it that you can use any DMX light or the dimmer pack.  When you hit a key on your keyboard, the note (pitch), velocity and duration are all passed to the MIDI>DMX box.

There's no reason not to use the Arduino, it's just that I feel this approach will yield better results.