Hello, I'm a complete newbie, but I've been handed a project which I'm hoping someone here may be able to give me some advice for.
I need to control 150 lights within a physical architectural model from a single computer. Ideally I'd like RGB control using something like the Triple Output LED RGB at Sparkfun but more valuable would be the ability to control the brightness of each light rather than just switching it on and off.
I'm open to suggestion with regards to computer/os and hardware set up, but the UI to will be built in Flash, delivered as an Air app, with input being touchscreen.
I've been looking for an excuse to spend time playing with the Arduino for some time now, but I'm concerned that the scale of this project may be too much for it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm sure this isn't adequate information to get proper advice, but it's a start!
Perhaps this is too big to take on as a first project and you can suggest a company that I could sub-contract the work to?
So if you want 150 RGB LEDs then you are in effect controlling 450 LEDs. I assume you also want to be able control the brightness of each one as well.
Do you know how often you want to change them and what patterns you will be getting them in?
Perhaps this is too big to take on as a first project
I think this is one of the biggest under statements I have ever seen. This is a big project for someone with experience but a beginner :o sorry.
It's possible to do this with smart LEDs...small devices that include an LED and enough intelligence to display a desired color or sequence on their own, while your controller speaks to each LED in turn.
There are plenty of options. If you want an off the shelf solution, Color Kinetics (now Philips) has premade strings of color controllable LED pixels. You would need three of their 50-LED strings, and the appropriate controller. Also, spacing is set at a maximum of a foot or less.
A more homebrew option is Triklits, produced by the makers of the Cubatron.
Even more homebrew, there are two similar-yet different products. BlinkM and my own ShiftBrite modules. BlinkM has enough intelligence to run preprogrammed patterns on its own, each device must be programmed with an address before using. ShiftBrite only allows you to set a specific color, but it's a daisy-chained protocol and no programming of each pixel is necessary. Both options will probably suffer if you need long distances between pixels.
All of the above options will be bright, but not enough to light things on an architectural scale. If you need a lot of light per pixel, you might need to look at Color Kinetics again; they have RGB spotlights and wall-washer color bars. And there's also the BlinkM MaxM, which is about five times brighter than the normal BlinkM device.
Those are the main options available to you, at least the ones with which I'm familiar. You might find other options by taking some of the information above as inspiration for Google searches.