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[Dynamic Living-room Lights] Description

Brief

The basic idea is to connect living room lighting to the internet and make them work together with holiday lighting so that the entire system functions as a whole. In this post I discuss the structure of the system.

Straight to the system

The system is quite simple. I drew up a diagram for the basic functionality which looks like...

The center

The center piece is the Raspberry Pi which has an existing install of OpenHAB. It also has an MQTT Broker running so that if we loose internet connectivity, the system can still function manually. It has the Infeneon Shield and an LED strip which illuminates the room's back wall. This provides the mood lighting and the software control is explained briefly in the previous post.

Submodule 1

The Shelf panel is also lit up to create a lighting system that does not need to be taken down after the holidays and is controlled via IR. I bought some ready to install lights but redid the shelves and wall.(Pics coming soon.)

Submodule 2

The Arduino Uno is connected to the Yun via either a cable or a 433MHz RF link. The decision will depend on the distances and locations at the time. I have started work on the tree which is near the back wall and hence for the sake or cost reduction, I might kick out the RF bit to be on the simpler side. The christmas tree has RGB LEDs which can be made to glow in any pattern and are controller by the UNO and the system uses a string of RGB LEDS for this.

Submodule 3

We have a santa doll which is also preprogrammed with jingles. Instead of making my own, I am getting one from the toy store and installing an IR trigger which can be controller via the YUN. The functionality is that everytime someone tweets or emails me seasons greetings, santa will let us know.

Sound input

I thought about this a lot and came up with a simple solution. I have an FM radio connected to the YUN's input and the frequency is fixed. I hacked an old radio from my junk bucket and it works! Next I made a small FM transmitter which can be tuned to transmit to the rx. Now I have the sound input movable across the room. It can be placed in front of the sound system or on the table.

Mystery module.

More on this IF the rest gets done in time

Progress

The tree is a work in progress and I am doing the walls. The place looked pretty dull and is getting a once over. I am waiting for some LED trips to show up and experimenting with the YUN.

The openHAB system has been running for sometime and I will integrate with it directly which should be simpler.