Firstoff I hope this is in the correct forum...
I am looking to expand a hayride I work for by implementing onboard speakers and LEDs onto the wagons, and have the sound/lighting synced with the scene lighting and sound. (a good example would be if an explosion went off in the scene, the sound of shrapnel would "land in the wagon" and the wagons lighting would cut out, spark, etc.) There are 8 scenes and 8 wagons.
After talking to people online, I found it would be best to place an arduino in each scene, and one on each wagon. I have never worked with them before, however I would need the scene ones to i guess control the sound and lights for that specific scene, as well as broadcast lighting, sound, and timecode for the wagon to pick up. The onboard device would then read the scene signal and clock to the same timecode before playing back the prerecorded scene cues to the amp and lights onboard.
Again, I have never worked with arduino devices before and if anyone knows of a simpler way of doing this, or if I am doing anything wrong, please comment. Anyone who wants further info or would like to chat personally please PM me.
Why? Because this is all about sharing concepts as widely as possible.
The general advice is - get started with the Arduino, buy some bits, practice simple sketches and work up progressively.
Bits might include Uno or Pro Mini, breadboard and USB interface, light sensors, sound sensors, sound recorders, relay boards. You have to decide on your communications, it clearly is not going to be wired, so you need wireless modules or (unlikely,) IR.
The point is though you really are not going to do this in a hurry, so you do not need to get everything at once, you will be starting simple and working up, one function at a time, seeing what is do-able and what does not work.
Get some bits, get playing, and do keep in contact here.
I'm not in a real hurry, however the plan is to start the build process (from conception to programming to final soft tests) for this new implementation somewhere between november to july. I understand I may not be the best source to code/build the technical side (arduino, network, etc) because of my lack of knowledge, however I was more-so looking for feasibility with this project. Does it seem like something that could be accomplished and could it be done the way I'm thinking of doing it?