I am venturing out on my first Arduino project and I hope I did not bite more than I can chew. We are organizing a music festival in June and I would love to control the main stage lightning via Arduino and some sort of interface which is good for live acts. I've prepared some questions, and if anyone finds a minute and could give me some guidance I would highly appreciate it. As the title suggests, I am a rookie. I knew about programable LEDs before, but found out about Arduino about a week ago
I made some simple sketches and designs so Its easier to explain the task.
I am planning to run 1800 LED's, 30 LED's (or maybe 60) per meter, 5V, to 11 sections. I would run them from Arduino UNO REV3 or Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3 with an extra power supply which I haven't figured out yet. The LEDs I would be using are WS2812B 5V.
Are there any LEDs better suited for this kind of project?
Are there any boards better suited, which also include WiFi?
What kind of power supply is suited?
Judging by the attached sketch, do you think I might run into some problems, and if so, what?
The best place to buy everything in Europe (Slovenia)?
Is there any service online, where I can hire someone to do the programming for me? I would
love to learn by myself, but for this project, I think I might run out of time, so I will happily pay someone to program some scenes
Let me see, 1800 LEDs at 55 mA each, that turns out to be 100 Amps at 5 V if commanded to full white at any point - which may just happen.
So you must provide suitably rated power cables running alongside the LED strips to tap 5 V and ground into the strip every 60 LEDs (5 Amps) or so as the foil in the strip itself is not going to handle that much current.
Also note that data and ground must run together as a pair wherever you connect data from one part to another. You must be careful that the ground for the data will not be carrying the main power unless it is of suitable gauge and the 5 V is also travelling together with it.
With 1800 LEDs, you will be limited to around 15~20 frames/full updates per second at most. Splitting the strip into sections, each attached to a separate Arduino pin, won't necessarily increase the frame rate at all, unless you can skip updating some of the sections on each frame.
There is a way to get around this limitation, but not with most Arduinos or libraries. Search for Octo-WS2811.
If that frame rate is adequate, there are other boards, smaller than either Uno or Mega, with built-in wi-fi, such as WEMOS D1 mini. But almost all these boards are 3.3V logic and the ws2812 need 5V logic, so a level converter will be needed. It may appear to work without the level converter, but don't trust that it will in difficult environments like a concert stage. Don't buy the 4-channel bi-directional level converter boards sold on eBay etc. They are for i²c circuits and not suitable for ws2812 LEDs. Use a 74hct14 chip or similar instead.
Just FYI - There is a stage-lighting standard called DMX512. Most stage lighting is DMX controllable and there are "manual" and automated/computerized DMX controllers. (And there are DMX shields and a library for the Arduino.)
I'm NOT saying that you should use it for this project and it would add an extra layer of complexity. But for compatibility with other lighting or for long-term use and maybe operated by someone else, it would be an advantage. Just keep that in mind... Maybe add DMX in the future.
DMX doesn't have enough "channels" to address 1800 individual LEDs so you'd probably have an Arduino for each LED strip with an DMX connection "talking to" each Arduino...
...I've made some sound activated dance-lighting effects and I DON'T use DMX. They also don't use NeoPixels. They are "simpler" than NeoPixels but there are enough random modes/variations to keep things from getting boring. I keep "thinking about" doing something with NeoPixels, but I'm lazy and unlike you, I don't have a deadline!
P.S.
Wi-Fi (or anything wireless) adds extra complexity and more potential for things "going wrong" which is the last thing you want with a live show. If you don't really need wireless, keep it simple! (There is also wireless DMX, which I think is done with plug-in adapters so it's completely compatible and easy to switch between wired & wireless.)
And if you're not thinking about this already, consider using a separate Arduino for each LED strip. That way when something goes-wrong you just loose one strip.
Hey man! thankyou for your feedback! I know my way around DMX (kinda) so this news comes helpful I will for sure look into this because I have extra 16 RGB spotlights and 2 lasers(hopefully).. last year I ran everything from MyDmx3 and it worked awesomely.
ill scrap wifi.. cables will do fine for now
so, it could work, If I have an Arduino for each section, and everything connected with DMX.
