Hello everyone!
Nick here! I am absolutely new to the world of Arduino and programming, however I find the possibilities interesting and I hope to learn a lot here as time passes.
My intended project:
I have a vivarium with a breeding pair of golddust daygeckos.
The lighting for this vivarium is ExoTerras standard lighting with UVB bulbs and spotlights. These are on timers and I'm fine with that. What I would like to have is background lighting that cycles through sunrise/noon/sunset and moon lighting..
A am aware this has been done before. I have searched, googled, read, understood (some of it) and played around in the IDE. However I feel somewhat overwhelmed from all the info that some guidance is needed to get me back on track.
What I want to create:
- A stand-alone light controller for background lighting (LED strip) that cycles through sunrise/noon/sunset/moon.
- My first thoughts were to have a code that looped for 24hrs and I just connected it all at the right time of day to have it synced. However I have understood that many designs use a RTC like a DS1307 to automatically sync the code with the time of day. I am unsure how it works though. Is it connected to the internet or does it use stored values?
Equipment I have at my disposal
- Arduino Uno with Arduino Starter Kit and Arduino Projects Book
- 4,8m SMD5050 RGB LED strip with 144 LED's (30 LED's per meter)
- Basic tools
- A few different power supply units. One is a Luxorparts switching power supply (outputs 9-24V)
- A few MOSFET's of the type IRLZ44N
I have come across several codes and looked through and tried to understand what is happening. I copied the parts I believed to be most important and played around with them in the IDE. I played around with a crossFade code and code from "Make Us Of"
/*
// Output
int redPin = 6; // Red LED, connected to digital pin 9
int grnPin = 9; // Green LED, connected to digital pin 10
int bluPin = 5; // Blue LED, connected to digital pin 11
//overall brightness value, 0=off, 255=full
int Brightness = 255;
//individual brightness values for the red, green and blue LEDs for different States
int RDark = 0; //Total darkness
int GDark = 0; //Total darkness
int BDark = 0; //Total darkness
// Color arrays
int black[3] = { 0, 0, 0 };
int white[3] = { 100, 100, 100 };
int red[3] = { 100, 0, 0 };
int green[3] = { 0, 100, 0 };
int blue[3] = { 0, 0, 100 };
int yellow[3] = { 40, 95, 0 };
int dimWhite[3] = { 30, 30, 30 };
int Night[3] = { 1, 1, 2 };
int Srise[3] = { 27, 11, 1 };
int Noon[3] = { 70, 40, 40 };
int Sset[3] = { 30, 10, 3 };
int SRR = 70;
int SRG = 30;
int SRB = 1;
int DTR = 180;
int DTG = 100;
int DTB = 80;
int SSR = 80;
int SSG = 25;
int SSB = 1;
int NTR = 1;
int NTG = 1;
int NTB = 2;
// etc.
// Set initial color
int redVal = black[0];
int grnVal = black[1];
int bluVal = black[2];
int wait = 20; // 10ms internal crossFade delay; increase for slower fades
int hold = 0; // Optional hold when a color is complete, before the next crossFade
int DEBUG = 1; // DEBUG counter; if set to 1, will write values back via serial
int loopCount = 60; // How often should DEBUG report?
int repeat = 0; // How many times should we loop before stopping? (0 for no stop)
int j = 0; // Loop counter for repeat
// Initialize color variables
int prevR = redVal;
int prevG = grnVal;
int prevB = bluVal;
// Set up the LED outputs
void setup()
{
pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT); // sets the pins as output
pinMode(grnPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(bluPin, OUTPUT);
if (DEBUG) { // If we want to see values for debugging...
Serial.begin(9600); // ...set up the serial ouput
}
}
// Main program: list the order of crossfades
void loop()
{
for (int i=0;i<256; i++){
analogWrite(redPin, NTR);
analogWrite(grnPin, NTG);
analogWrite(bluPin, NTB);
delay(10);
}
crossFade(Night);
crossFade(Srise);
for (int i=0;i<256; i++){
analogWrite(redPin, SRR);
analogWrite(grnPin, SRG);
analogWrite(bluPin, SRB);
delay(10);
}
crossFade(Srise);
crossFade(Noon);
for (int i=0;i<256; i++){
analogWrite(redPin, DTR);
analogWrite(grnPin, DTG);
analogWrite(bluPin, DTB);
delay(120);
}
crossFade(Noon);
crossFade(Sset);
for (int i=0;i<256; i++){
analogWrite(redPin, SSR);
analogWrite(grnPin, SSG);
analogWrite(bluPin, SSB);
delay(10);
}
crossFade(Sset);
crossFade(Night);
if (repeat) { // Do we loop a finite number of times?
j += 1;
if (j >= repeat) { // Are we there yet?
exit(j); // If so, stop.
}
}
}
*/
int calculateStep(int prevValue, int endValue) {
int step = endValue - prevValue; // What's the overall gap?
if (step) { // If its non-zero,
step = 1020/step; // divide by 1020
}
return step;
}
int calculateVal(int step, int val, int i) {
if ((step) && i % step == 0) { // If step is non-zero and its time to change a value,
if (step > 0) { // increment the value if step is positive...
val += 1;
}
else if (step < 0) { // ...or decrement it if step is negative
val -= 1;
}
}
// Defensive driving: make sure val stays in the range 0-255
if (val > 255) {
val = 255;
}
else if (val < 0) {
val = 0;
}
return val;
}
/* crossFade() converts the percentage colors to a
* 0-255 range, then loops 1020 times, checking to see if
* the value needs to be updated each time, then writing
* the color values to the correct pins.
*/
void crossFade(int color[3]) {
// Convert to 0-255
int R = (color[0] * 255) / 100;
int G = (color[1] * 255) / 100;
int B = (color[2] * 255) / 100;
int stepR = calculateStep(prevR, R);
int stepG = calculateStep(prevG, G);
int stepB = calculateStep(prevB, B);
for (int i = 0; i <= 1020; i++) {
redVal = calculateVal(stepR, redVal, i);
grnVal = calculateVal(stepG, grnVal, i);
bluVal = calculateVal(stepB, bluVal, i);
analogWrite(redPin, redVal); // Write current values to LED pins
analogWrite(grnPin, grnVal);
analogWrite(bluPin, bluVal);
delay(wait); // Pause for 'wait' milliseconds before resuming the loop
if (DEBUG) { // If we want serial output, print it at the
if (i == 0 or i % loopCount == 0) { // beginning, and every loopCount times
Serial.print("Loop/RGB: #");
Serial.print(i);
Serial.print(" | ");
Serial.print(redVal);
Serial.print(" / ");
Serial.print(grnVal);
Serial.print(" / ");
Serial.println(bluVal);
}
DEBUG += 1;
}
}
// Update current values for next loop
prevR = redVal;
prevG = grnVal;
prevB = bluVal;
delay(hold); // Pause for optional 'wait' milliseconds before resuming the loop
}
I realize that this is ab it of a messy first but I greatly appreciate any form of guidance, tips or advice I might get.
BR
Nick
