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Have Idea, Need Help... LED Lighting related.

Former Member

Hi all! I have an idea, I think it's a good Idea but don't know what hardware to use.

 

I'm looking to make a network of Sidewalk Lights Using RGB+W LEDs. I really like the "NeoPixel Sticks" so that would be a good start.

 

Sounds simple, right?

Well, I would like each "Sidewalk Light" to have two Ultrasound/Distance sensors. One looking in each direction of the sidewalk. As a person walks closer to the light, the light will start illuminating. First the LED closest to the person. As the person walks closer the Light will illuminate more and more of the LED's. All LED's are lit, when the person is standing right in front of the light.

As the person walks away, the opposite happens. This should have the effect of the light following the person as they walk light to light. I plan on spacing them about 4'-6' apart.

They will be powered by a buried Low voltage cable and networked via I2C (For example could be WiFi as well, who knows.) together so that the color and intensity can be controlled from a central location. (Orange during Halloween, Green and Red during Christmas, Red White and Blue during 4th of July, and so on... ) The distance Sensor information may be passed back to the master controller via the network so the master controller can respond by controlling that lights LED's accordingly. This way the Light doesn't need any kind of smarts and just acts as a slave.

 

I may also use the neighboring light's distance sensor to tell the light the person is standing in front of (Via the Master Controller) to stay lit since the person may be standing in between the two Distance sensors field of sight.

 

In the long run, I would like to expand this same system into the back yard to illuminate the Deck, walk way's, Fence, Pool and Hot Tub. Here again, I would like to control everything from a central location to be able to turn off or on all LED's manually, change the color scheme and/or brightness, or make one color chase another color throughout the entire property.

 

I realize with this size of a system, I will likely need a full blown PC to control it and I have no problem with that. What I do want, is to keep the cost per Light down as much as possible. If I can keep the cost at about $25-$35 ea. That would be great. less, even better.

 

Let me know what you guy's think. Eventually, I think this could be a pretty cool commercial product if done right.

 

So what I'm looking for, is a board that can take two Distance Sensors and report that data back to the master controller, and also be able to control Multiple RGB+W LED's according to instructions sent to it from the master controller.

 

I found an reasonably priced Ultrasonic distance sensor here for around $5 ea.

Now I need an I2C board that can take two of the Ultrasonic sensors and also control the LED's according to instructions sent from the master controller.

 

Any Input/help, would appreciated.

 

--Mike

Parents Reply
  • in reply to amgalbu

    Thank you for that link. I would prefer a wired over wireless solution just because of the improved performance. This makes me think that i2C is definitely a viable solution.

    One thing that was pointed out, is that rather than having all the traffic go back to one master controller I should have zone controllers. So something like the Pi Zero or an Arduino to handle the things that that can be handled at the zone level. This way the only thing that the Master controller needs to worry about is Color Scheme changes. Would also make communication easier and more reliable.

    A Zone could be defined as for example Pool, Front walkway, Drive way, Hot Tube, Rear Deck, and so on.

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