I'm completely new to world of Arduino and would like some help making a decision on the path I should take. I'm technically inclined and can do some programming so I have an idea of what I'm getting into...
What I'm thinking of doing is adding LED strips or Pixels to my home theater room I'm in process of building. What I would like to do is have maybe 6-8 zones of lighting I can control from a wall mounted touch screen. I'm think of adding lights to the top and bottoms of the speakers to use as wall sconces, 2 strips of lights on the wall next to the ceiling, something to back light the TV and a few other misc. things like lights in the shelves that hold the AV gear, etc.
Is this even possible with an Arduino or am I over reaching here?
Thanks in advance for you help! I've been searching around and not really found a definite answer for what I'd like to do. Has anyone already done a similar project?
But... if using neopixel type leds, you may have to chose carefully the type of Arduino you use. The libraries that enable an Arduino to drive these strips/leds need 3 bytes of ram memory per led. An Uno or Nano will only have 2KB of ram, and not all of that will be available, so this might limit how many leds/how long your strips can be, to perhaps 500 or so. Other Arduino models, like Mega or Teensy, have significantly more ram, so can drive more.
Have a think about how you will control all these leds. You could build an lcd display with physical or on-screen touch buttons. You could add Bluetooth and create an App on your phone, or you could use WiFi and have a Web interface. The WiFi option would be my personal choice. Simpler than you might think and amazingly cheap now that ESP8266-based Arduino boards like Wemos can be used with Arduino IDE and Neopixel.
If you start thinking pixels that at least triples the project size. And wifi triples that again. Not talking code size (which of course does grow) but time you need to spend. And because you are new I would just stick with the strips Don't try to build the Taj Mahal on your first go.
And yeah, it's a fast data signal. Running that around a room is asking for trouble. Then you are better of using multiple Arduino's as nodes.
I guess this is the n00b in me, I don't understand how using pixels adds so much time. in order to create 6 zones of lighting I would need 18 outputs for RGB or 24 if I went with RGBW. The pixels only require 6 outputs if I were to do it all from 1 unit. I understand there are coding differences, but are the pixels that much more involved?
What do you think the longest run of a data cable should be?
Looks like I need to go buy some toys, goodies, supplies and try some things out!
What do you think the longest run of a data cable should be?
I'm not sure. But if you wire the zones up in a daisy chain sequence (rather than in a "star" pattern outwards from the Arduino) you can probably reduce the length of the longest (data) cable run significantly. In effect you turn all zones into one long strip.
Note that whether you decide on adressable or non-adressable strips, you can't use the strip itself to carry power (current) for other zones (the conductors on the strips are too thin). You will need to route good quality power cables to each lighting zone.
If you control the pixels in the same way as the normal strips aka all the same color it doesn't add much time. But making effects, managing the memory etc will eat up all your time. So it's not about the number of outputs, but the possible number of things you can control. With normal RGB that's 18. With pixels that's (for the normal version) 60 per meter]! So you have a couple of 100....
And I don't know what the max is but the timing is pretty critical on those strips. I would not dare to go beyond 1m...
ah, ok I see the point your getting at... yes addressing 100's of lights will definitely take time.
I've got a roll of 14/4 cable to help avoid voltage drop. Is it acceptable to run each zone as a separate run rather then a long daisy chain? I'll have much short runs this way. If I do separate runs, I'm assuming a different output or would this still be 1 output?
Thanks again for taking time to answer my questions, it's appreciated!
Pixels for the fun of it and the cost isn't all that much more. I'll just start basic with the programming (single colors) and move on from there. I still need to figure out the total... but I guessing about 20 meters (overkill). My roll of 30/meter just arrived for me to play with ... now if only the Arduino would show up. If I go with the 30/meter were looking at around 600. I'm getting 12v rolls, so at about 2 amps a meter looking at 40 amps at full brightness, which will most likely never happen.... I have to look at my power supplies and see what I have to power it with. I think I have an old computer supply that will suffice.... but not sure till I dig it out.
Reburg99:
Pixels for the fun of it and the cost isn't all that much more.
Wait, what? Only a order of magnitude...
Quick price search. Neopixels $23,- per 5m. Makes +- $100. Power supply another $25,- And you need pretty beefy cables so that will cost a pretty penny as well. (wayyyy beefier then normal strips because of the 5V. At full brightness it will draw 72A!!!!!!!!! And if used with FastLed library in HSV it's still around 30A!)
Normal RGB strip is around $7,- per 5m, makes $30,- And at max brightness "only" 24A and normalized just 8A. So power supply for $15,-.
Reburg99:
I'll just start basic with the programming (single colors) and move on from there.
That's a great idea. But I would still not advice to make long cable runs to the sections. Like I said, the Neopixel data is pretty time critical and I would not dare to make the data cable longer then a meter. So to be sure you don't get problems/glitches/noise (now or in the future) you are already stuck with a distributed solution. Which is great in terms of speed and memory by the way. And not that hard. But I would not advice that as a starter project...
Everything finally arrived! These things are so freak'n cool, pixels for all!
I'm purchasing 12v pixels, so the power will be the same as normal RGB strip, unless I'm mistaken (not that that's ever happened before ;))
Just so I understand, what the deal with the timing anyways? I get the issues with noise and glitches', but can you help me understand the timing component?
I'll got some misc cuts of long wire around here somewhere to experiment with....
yeah, I didn't choose my words wisely on amps,watts and power....
i wasn't 100% sure if it was groups of 3 when I purchased them, but was pretty sure it was. I"m not sure what else to call them, pixel seems to be the accepted terminology.
But you missed the question 
