I am new to this forum and I am not to sure where this would go. Anyways, I am looking to do a big project with my arduino. I have done simple this with leds and such but nothing permanent.
Our lighting board failed and we got an idea. We want to make an arduino set up to control the lights. They are not used often so we have time to get a working set up. Does anyone have any ideas or tips on how to go about this. The lights are running at 125V or so and I doubt you can input that on the arduino. So Im thinking relays? We would have the unit on the permanent light bar. We would use php to code something (preferably a fader type set up) There are 6 lights in total I believe. Definitely no more than 6. Don't worry, my friend is an electrician and I will be studying engineering in the coming fall.
So with the relay wont it be either ON or OFF, like there is no fading? Relay seems like its the only thing that would work either way. What would be the best way to control the relay though. Can I get an Ethernet shield and host a webpage on it that controls the relay. Plug the Ethernet into my switch and get on computer and control the webpage from that? or would it be better to go with USB + PHP + APACHE? Thanks for the response :)
I figured it would be easiest with a webpage but I guess it really isnt needed. How would you do it with USB? would you use processing or just the serial monitor or something. Thanks for your help btw. I am very new to controlling the arduino from the computer.