So I'm new to the arduino gang, and have a pretty basic electronics background (been about 8 years since I had to actually do anything with it, but now that I can afford school, I need to brush up.) I have a car lighting setup right now, and am constantly upgrading it. My engineer buddy put me onto arduino, and I think this is the way to go, but any input would be great. I am a DIY'er, and definitely wanting to learn and expand.
I am looking at doing a lighting management system. Would be 16 or so (maybe more if I can make it work) "zones", (footwells, the fiber optics I have in my doors/headliner, exterior, cup holders, other stuff I have added.) Right now, its all wired and relayed to a single ON or OFF button. I would like to be able to control each individually, or all at once, including maybe even a fade in/out "breathing" option, flash, or some other cool stuff. Also looking to do a separate set of LED's that "twinkle" (like a fake candle) to emulate a starfield. I have my doors and headliner done with fiber optic stars (took forever) and I want to make a few twinkle randomly just to give it that extra...something. I also have some audio-controlled lighting, and he is using a spectrum analyzer to do it. Of course its 12v lighting, so there's that. I was gonna use a 16 channel 12v relay I found online, but the relays can't fade, so that's out. I am not using RGB, just 2 single colors. I have different length strips and single 12 LED's throughout. I was looking at the annikken Bluetooth setup, but I also came across a youtube playlist that has more or less what im looking for, all from an OLED setup with menus and submenus. I've been trolling forums and researching a bit, and decided to jump in.
I bought the ebay version of the mega 2560 (if I fry it, I can swallow the $13 total), and all the various jumpers, bread board, single led's to practice, a few shift registers, and resistors. I'm not so much looking for people to do everything for me, so much as if you have any stand-out tutorials or pages that might help, and of course, if this is gonna be feasible. I'm definitely excited to get this done, and the car all rewired, again. I know its gonna be a bit of work, but the image I have in my head is definitely worth it. Any input, advice, words of warning, let's hear it.