LED Beer Pong Table

Projects General Guidance
1

Well I have just purchased a bunch of misc parts and a ruggeduino, this will be my first project.

The ultimate goal:

A beer pong table much like this one:

I am in the process of buying some 5m RGB LED Strips lpd8806 for the lights. I am going to have 6 different strips in total
2 for the perimeter, 1 for each ball washer, 1 for each triangle.

I want to set up a website with buttons (I have built a few websites before) to control the controller where I can set it up to have different modes of patterns of light and then one mode where it goes with the music.

My question is where I should start tinkering. I would like the BP table asap however i'm not sure how hard it would be to change the code to work with an ethernet shield later on down the road. I havent purchased an ethernet shield yet. Where should i start playing around to ultimately get me to the final goal?

2

I would like the BP table asap however i'm not sure how hard it would be to change the code to work with an ethernet shield later on down the road. I havent purchased an ethernet shield yet. Where should i start playing around to ultimately get me to the final goal?

Start with defining a list of things about the table that you want to be able to control from the web site.

When you have that list, make a set of global variables that will hold the values that you get from the web. Give those variables reasonable default values.

Then, forget about web control until the hardware is complete, and functioning properly.

Then, add the ability to actually change the values.

3

Thank you PaulS. That makes a lot of sense and easier down the road. Which pins should I try to leave free?

4

Which pins should I try to leave free?

You have to do more than try. The Ethernet shield uses pins 4, 10, 11, 12, and 13. These can NOT be used for anything else. Don't even think about it.