hello Arduino Community! Super new Arduino user here. I am a graduate architecture student working on my thesis project which involves the designin and fabricaton of an environmentally responsive 'curtain' of sorts. This curtain is made up of many inflatable components. Each component has the potential to inflate or deflate thanks to a light sensor (each component has a light sensor and a fan attached to it )that triggers the arduino to tell the fan to blow in the positive when hit with light and reverse direction (suck air out) when sensing dark.
I have come across some helpful threads including this one,
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=67057.0 and I am in the midst of taking apart fans and attaching them to 12 volt batteries just to see the power, rpm. However I am still struggling with understanding a few things. I am unexperienced with code and electrical engineering in general (i am collaborating with 2 engineers that are helping me with that)but I want to gain as much of an understanding of the process as possible.
Right now I am struggling with figuring out exactly the right light sensor which will be attached to an inflatable component. (If anyone reading this has any light sensor suggestions that would be great! I have a list going, but the important aspect is that these wont be directly attached to the arduino board. They have to exist inside these inflatable components. (see sketch attached) This light sensor will most likely have only 2 inputs and not work on a scale. IE it will trigger the arduino to tell the fan to turn in the positive direction when dark (filling the component with air) and turn the motor in reverse when the sensor senses light. (sucking out the air from the component)
Another issue I am working through is how to hook up multiple pc fans to 1 arduino board. I understand I need an external 12 v dc power supply but do I need a relay board in order to handle a lot of fans? I suppose I might have up to 20 fans. Each 12 v dc fan will act on its own, they dont act in grouups. They each respond to their own individual sensors read of light or dark.
Finally, I would like to reverse the motor on my fans. If anyone has any tips beyond this thread that would be incredible!
I have found a helfpul link here about reversing motors
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl but if anyone has any specific tips about my project wow that would be much appreciated!
ps see the attached image/pdf for hopefully a more helpful explanation of project goals/issues!
Cheers,
Leslie Mignin
www.lesliebristowmignin.com