i have led rgb rock lights that i can turn off and on using a bluetooth app on my phone. very limited range of connection on it i have to be in the truck to actually turn them on or off. im looking to possibly use an arduino with bluetooth and add physical buttons to control my lights. any help to put me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated
Do you know the details of the message that your phone sends to the lights' receiver?
Maybe the first step is to make an Arduino program to act in place of the receiver and figure out what the phone is sending.
However I don't immediately see how an Arduino bluetooth solution would give you more range.
...R
no idea what my phone sends to the lights i'm new to all of this stuff. i should have clarified better about the range. the bluetooth on the leds seems to only be able to connect when im about 3 ft away, so the arduino would need to be able to connect around that distance.
Arduinos can handle buttons easily.
Arduinos can connect to Bluetooth using e.g. a HC-05 or HC-06 module.
Typical Bluetooth can connect up to about 10 meters (line of sight), newer versions may be able to reach 100 meters. So your required range should be no problem.
awesome. an arduino with the bluetooth module. now adding buttons and programming. thank you all for the help i am new to this stuff.
lego6219:
awesome. an arduino with the bluetooth module. now adding buttons and programming. thank you all for the help i am new to this stuff.
Slow down a bit.
Unless you know what to send to the lights' receiver you won't get very far (logically, or distance-wise).
Of course it may be possible to replace the lights' electronics with another Arduino with a bluetooth module - then you would have full control of both ends.
...R
how can i figure out what im sending to the lights? currently im using an app on my phone that can control them
lego6219:
how can i figure out what im sending to the lights? currently im using an app on my phone that can control them
It's easy to figure out what you send - because you define it.
The problem is to figure out what the phone sends and I suggested a way to do that in Reply #1
...R
gotcha. thank you. i just dont know how to make a program but im willing to try and figure it out
lego6219:
gotcha. thank you. i just dont know how to make a program but im willing to try and figure it out
I would start by hooking up the Bluetooth module to a SoftwareSerial port and trying the second example in Serial Input Basics. However this is just a wild guess and it may prove totally irrelevant.
But before that you may need to figure out how to pair with the phone.
And, f you are doing this within range of the light's receiver make sure it is switched off.
...R
Thanks for the info. At this point i think im way over my head and will probably abandon the idea all together. Ive never dealt with programming and stuff like this before. But thank you all for the help