Hi all. Not been on here in awhile, hope everyone is well.
I am moving onto my new project which is a controller that won't take care of my lighting in my new living room.
There is going to be four or five different strings of LED-based lighting being run through PWM controlled drivers.
I plan on hiding an UNO in the cavity of the wall where the original light switch was, and then obtaining either a 4 or 5 inch Touch screen display to cover the front and all for me touchscreen controls of all of the lighting.
I am however struggling to find a 4 or 5 inch Display that is reasonably priced in the UK. And finding it especially hard to find one with some sort of case or enclosure.
Can anyone recommend any or any suggestions other than trying to graft my own screen enclosure out of some sort of plastic. Ideally I'd like it to look like some sort of small tablet stuck on the wall.
Any advice or suggestions welcomes. Thanks.
Steve.
I use cheap Android phones for this type of purpose (avalable SIM free for <£35) with a free SIM that is never enabled to keep the phone happy. Phones have a much higher quality robust glass capacitive touch screen, available in good range of screen sizes. Already neatly boxed up, just needs a USB feed or battery replacement hack.
NodeMCU as a wireless controller (very cheap) for the controller linked to WiFi or Adhoc with a custom app prodiced with the MIT app inventor (quite easy to learn block based editor with examples on the web). Another tablet/pc anywhere in the house (or world via a secure VPN!) can act as a controller. Since you now have an internet enabled device IOT (or MQTT via Adafruit free service) monitoring and control also practical...
Quite a lot of effort and learning to start with but it is worth it.
Thanks for your informative reply bodmer. But that all sounds well beyond my grasp with my knowledge of coding. I will look into the Android app coding though.
Stevelondon:
Thanks for your informative reply bodmer. But that all sounds well beyond my grasp with my knowledge of coding. I will look into the Android app coding though.
OK, in that case a Bluetooth link to the Arduino with serial message exchanges from the Android App will do the trick. There are cheap Bluetooth modules avaible on eBay that an Android phone will connect to OK. There are free Apps and Arduino tutorials available on line for this method of communication.
Edit: Forgot to mention that cheap 7" Android tablets are available for less than $40 which are much better value than large "Arduino compatible" displays.
bodmer:
OK, in that case a Bluetooth link to the Arduino with serial message exchanges from the Android App will do the trick. There are cheap Bluetooth modules avaible on eBay that an Android phone will connect to OK. There are free Apps and Arduino tutorials available on line for this method of communication.
Edit: Forgot to mention that cheap 7" Android tablets are available for less than $40 which are much better value than large "Arduino compatible" displays.
I think I'm definitely going to look into this. What is the best way of designing the screen of the tablet to display what I want? What App? Do I need to buy the tablet first or can I design it on a computer app or similar? Will it work with Apple?
For the display I would ideally like an array of boxes, one to select on and off which string of lights to change the brightness of, then a few other boxes with 10%, 20% and so on so that when pushed the Arduino will send the relevant PWM signal to my LED drivers.
Stevelondon:
I think I'm definitely going to look into this. What is the best way of designing the screen of the tablet to display what I want? What App? Do I need to buy the tablet first or can I design it on a computer app or similar? Will it work with Apple?
For the display I would ideally like an array of boxes, one to select on and off which string of lights to change the brightness of, then a few other boxes with 10%, 20% and so on so that when pushed the Arduino will send the relevant PWM signal to my LED drivers.
Apple have pretty much locked their devices from linking/talking to simple Bluetooth devices so I would not go down that path. Go to the Apple App store and search for Arduino and you will see what I mean, on the Android App store you will be overwhelmed by choice.
Search for "Arduino Bluetoth" for starters. This one caught my eye but I have not tried it. Many of the App descriptions link to tutorials or provide example code and there are quite a few books available but most info can be found on the internet for free.
bodmer:
Apple have pretty much locked their devices from linking/talking to simple Bluetooth devices so I would not go down that path. Go to the Apple App store and search for Arduino and you will see what I mean, on the Android App store you will be overwhelmed by choice.
Search for "Arduino Bluetoth" for starters. This one caught my eye but I have not tried it. Many of the App descriptions link to tutorials or provide example code and there are quite a few books available but most info can be found on the internet for free.
Explore and see what you find. Have fun!
I see what you mean, there are loads on Android. The only reason I asked about Apple is that I have a couple of spare Apple phones and wanted to try it out first before buying an Android tablet only to find out I can't do it. I searched the Apple App store and there is a few on here. I have just downloaded one called Blynk which seems quite good. I'm going to order a Bluetooth dongle now.
Blynk is not a favorite of mine as the control is done via a remote internet server or you need to setup you own server with say a Raspberry Pi.
I would setup a server as otherwise you will not be able to control anything if your internet connection goes down. Make sure you get an Apple compatible dongle... i.e. look for the really expensive ones
