Hi All, thanks for indulging the very basic questions, please be kind!
I have a dollshouse with LED lighting. All wired up to a standard dollhouse switch strip where there are 12 individual switches to turn each LED light on manually. I will also be adding some small motors to move drawers/rocking chairs in the future (it's a haunted house)
What I'd like to do is to have these run through either a laptop/webpage/bluetooth mobileapp. My work colleague has suggested an arduino may be ideal.
Can one arduino control up to 12 individual LEDs in this manner? Each to have individual on/off switch. I can find many tutorials on how to operate just one LED - it's future scaling I'm thinking of.
Essentially I'm looking to work out which hardware to initially buy, but bearing in mind the future plan.
Thanks, that's great! At least I know I'm heading in the right direction to get a basic light setup working before I then start to worry about any motors etc and other hairbrained ideas!
One of the reasons for trying it this way instead of RC is that I'd like to learn some programming, maybe make some automated routines etc.
I don't want to try to run before I can walk though so I'll start with just on/off lighting.
Would an UNO and serial connection be enough to get me going, and then look to add bluetooth and app at a later date?
the Arduino. The easy part. An Uno is a great starting point, has 20 I/O pins (including two for Serial communication, if you need that you have 18 available) for that many individual peripherals.
The hardware. LEDs are easy of course, building a small servo into a drawer chest is much more of a challenge. That will allow you to easily move your drawers in and out. Servos are also great for rocking chairs, opening/closing curtains, and similar movements. Very easy to control. An Uno can control up to 12 servos.
The user interface.
First of all decide on what interface you want: Bluetooth, Serial, or something else.
Design a simple protocol of commands - two-number commands, the first being the thing that is addressed, the second number tells your program what to do with it. That's easy to implement on both sides.
Then you have to design your app to actually allow you to send those commands.
If you need more controls than the number the Uno has, there are many options to extend this. But you better get first your LEDs going, then build one drawer chest and get it moving, etc. Step by step.
If you already have identified a need to control 12 items with others in the future you might want to consider using an Arduino Mega which has over 50 I/O pins. The Mega also has 3 spare serial ports which would make a Bluetooth module easier to use.
Webpage - WiFi - ESP8266 - WeMOS D1 Mini - forget the UNO.
Various add-on modules such as a TPIC6B595 can drive 8 LEDs of higher power at a time. OTOH you may want dimmable LEDs - a PWM module could do that and also control the servos.
Paul__B:
Webpage - WiFi - ESP8266 - WeMOS D1 Mini - forget the UNO.
The ESP8266 modules have very few I/O pins and IMHO add-on modules can be complicated for a beginner.
Also (IMHO) web programming is more complicated than Bluetooth which is just serial by wireless - unless the OP is already familiar with web programming.
Robin2:
The ESP8266 modules have very few I/O pins and IMHO add-on modules can be complicated for a beginner.
Ahem.
The OP specifically cites "webpage" and "mobile app". I dispute that programming add-on modules is in any way difficult by comparison!
Robin2:
Also (IMHO) web programming is more complicated than Bluetooth which is just serial by wireless - unless the OP is already familiar with web programming.
Well, nevertheless that is what was specified. And I do doubt that writing an app for a mobile phone to interface with Bluetooth is trivial either.
I hope that given the plenty of available examples, Web programming on the ESP8266 is fairly easy, as that is exactly what I am needing to do myself.
Paul__B:
The OP specifically cites "webpage" and "mobile app".
Indeed.
However I am inclined to steer the OP away from that unless s/he is already experienced with web programming. I do agree that a webserver on an ESP8266 (or anything else) that displays a screen on the phone's browser is a great deal easier than writing a phone program. It is how I make my GUIs now. I started to write a short tutorial illustrating a web server GUI but I reckoned it got too complicated (too many different things for a newbie to grasp all at once) so I gave up.
In any case we have had no response from the OP to add any clarification.
I believe he’s on the right track starting simple. With any one new to Arduino it’s good to have but big overall goals but to start simple. There will be plenty of challenges getting the “small” things working right. Lots of room for improvement as project progresses. Can’t solve it all at the start especially for someone new to it.
It will only be confusing to start him off on ESP, MEGA, Due or particle boards. And sort of pointless. This first step is a huge improvement from his original system and a good start.
Thanks all for your suggestions - incredibly helpful.
As you can probably tell I'm a complete novice, basic knowledge of physical circuits (just about enough to RC) but I've never touched an Arduino or similar in my life. That's also a big part of the reason of why I want to try - I just like to learn! Never been able to learn for learning's sake though so having a project is ideal.
It's a BIG learning curve I know - so to start with I'm going to try to keep it (relatively) simple with the lighting as my first job through the arduino. Once that's done then fun with servos etc can start!
The ESP8266 sounds interesting - however a colleague (I work in IT alongside software engineers and DAs) has experience of the arduino so I can pick his brains occasionally. It was him that pointed me in this direction actually.
I'm sure I sound like a mad-woman jumping straight in to something I know nothing about - so thank you for indulging me. Until very recently my 'library' of all things tech-related was my grandad, a retired BT engineer, he was very much my only father figure and absolutely the font of all knowledge. It's as a kind of tribute to him that I want to get this working - he was a railway man rather than dollhouses of course - but the principle of miniature electronics and movement is common to both - and the thought of taking it one step further would have completely blown his mind
Right - I'm off shopping for my bits and bobs! Thanks once again, you're all very kind
ZoeDing:
The ESP8266 sounds interesting - however a colleague (I work in IT alongside software engineers and DAs) has experience of the Arduino so I can pick his brains occasionally. It was him that pointed me in this direction actually.
If he genuinely has experience in Arduinox, then for a WiFi project he will point you to the ESP8266.
In the meantime, it would be nice to get a Nano (not a UNO) and a solderless breadboard just to play with, some LEDs, resistors (220 Ohms for this project), and jumper leads.
Your original post mentioned 12 LEDs (i.e., outputs) and 12 switches (e.e, inputs). That is 24 connections just to start with, so I suggest you will be wanting to use expander boards (rather than a Mega).
For example:
Sixteen inputs, connects to the two I2C pins on your Arduino, libraries to use it readily available.
But beware when wiring up LEDs: the PCF8575 (and it's 8-port version the PCF8574) can only sink current, not source it. So you have to wire LEDS between Vcc and the board, and they're active LOW.
ZoeDing:
As you can probably tell I'm a complete novice,
That is why I continue to suggest that you start with an Uno or Mega. There will be nothing to assemble apart from fitting suitable resistors to the LEDs and, no matter what solution you choose, you will have to do that.
And the programming will be simpler because you won't need any code to communicate with another board.
Actually, assembly with a UNO or Mega is a right pain as it only has single sockets - you need to use jumper leads.
A Nano with a breadboard - MB-102 or a mini - is much more versatile. The MB-102 has "bus" runs for the returns from all those LEDs. You can also get expansion shields for 3-pin sensors/ effectors or "screw shields". Much neater than UNOs (and their funny screw shields).
Programming is of course, identical to UNO, so that is not an issue.
