Hello everyone,
For a couple years, I've been telling myself someday I'll install some permanently mounted LED strips outside my house for holiday lighting but never got around to it. It seems like a big project to learn on, so I always put it off.
Well, I'm currently remodeling my living room and will be adding some shelving to either side of my fireplace. This presents a perfect opportunity for a smaller project to learn on- programmable under shelf lighting.
Before I crawl down the rabbit hole and buy a bunch of stuff to start tinkering with, I wanted to know how feasible my project is.
On either side of my fireplace, I want to install three approximately 4' individually addressable LED strips- two under shelves and one built into a soffit. I'd like to use an Arduino to control the lighting via a remote control. I won't need any fancy light shows... just perhaps different colors for the shelves. An example would be both bottom shelves and soffit red with the middle shelves green for Christmas, bottom and soffit blue with middle shelves orange for Bears games, etc. All of that I am sure is feasible. The part I'm unsure of is saving programming amd accessing them via remote control.
I'd like to basically have different "presets", so I can press a button on a remote to turn on the Christmas configuration, press another for the Bears game configuration, another for a third configuration, etc. If that isn't feasible, just being able to cycle through various presets would also be fine.
Is this something that can be done? Or am I better off just getting one of the RGB kits and just having all shelves the same color? Thanks for any tips or advice you can provide.
You can buy strips that do pretty much all you need without the need of an arduino. It might need a bit of fiddling to get the right colour on separate strips with the remote and not set them all at the same time.
Right, I understand that. But wouldn't I need multiple remotes if I wanted to do either of my examples where the bottom and top strips were one color and the middle another?
intheiroc:
Right, I understand that. But wouldn't I need multiple remotes if I wanted to do either of my examples where the bottom and top strips were one color and the middle another?
If you but the same receiver/led strips then just one remote would do but as I mentioned it may be fiddly trying to set different strips to different colours because all receivers may pick up the IR signal and switch.
vinceherman:
With a strip of these, an arduino and a 5v supply, you will be good to go.
Oh, and whatever IR receiver/FOB hardware you go with.
Right, I know what LEDs I need. I guess my question was more on the programming and and whether an Arduino can have different saved "presets" that I can program and later select with either an app or remote.
After doing some more research, it seems I can have each shelf act as a zone with a different output pin from the Arduino, correct? Then, for example, have one preset where the bottom left shelf, left soffit, right soffit and bottom right shelf are red while the middle left shelf and middle right shelf are green. And have that saved as "Christmas" so I can easily turn them on to that configuration. Feasible, right?
Absolutely feasible.
I think you can do the entire strip on one data pin. If the first shelf comprises 15 LEDs, the soffit has 10 and the second shelf has 15, just set those zones in software.
Set LEDs 0-14 Green.
Set LEDs 15-24 Red.
Set LEDs 25-39 Green.
Before I messed with a remote, I would add a single button to experiment with swapping modes. When you detect a button press, add 1 to the mode number (use modulo so it rolls over), then based on that mode number, set the colors accordingly.