Yes, the title of this post might sound a bit weird but this is actually what I was working on the last days.
I actually planned to dive into this physical computing thing. I guess I told some people about it. Because when I turned 30 there were two unexpected but great gifts. A microcontrolled robot which I soldered in one weekend with more than 150(!) solderings. And a new Arduino board! Thanks to the guys from BigSource for the board! Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I wanted to create something that is useful. There are thousands of physical computing examples that do nothing more than switching an LED on or off. I guess there is so much potential in the whole subject. And I’m sure that we will see more and more computer controlled physical objects that are connected to the internet in our every day life.
The cool thing about it is that you break the common workflow of having Keyboard or Mouse inputs and outputs on the screen. Now you can have inputs from thousand of sensors! I bought a motion sensor which detects a finger flip in 10 meter distance. I’m not sure what to do with it yet, but this is so cool! The output can be as different as well. You can control servos or lights or switch your outlets, whatever you want. Plus you can connect the whole thing to the internet. You can imagine how many possibilities you have if you know a bit about programming.
My goal was to create something for the everyday life. Something that is useful for me.
Actually I needed some decoration for my naked white walls in my living room. I was looking for pictures and art over five years and nothing could compete with my beautiful white walls. Now I can keep them white but very colorful. I created an iPhone controlled RGB LED light. This nothing new I guess, but it’s perfect for my living room.
I got the Arduino Board and began programming, soldered a DMX Shield (thanks to Raphael Perret for the etched board), bought a WiFi-Shield and a DMX controller, a RGB LED light and some cables.
Programming in Processing and Objective-C can be very exhausting. There are so many datatypes I never heard of. Something like uint8_t for example which is just a byte. The problem is more about knowing them and knowing when to use which one. Plus the whole pointer stuff really made me want to go back to the warm ActionScript 3 nest where everything made sense and seemed so easy.
Finally it worked. I managed to connect my iPhone with a socket connection via WiFi to my Arduino board. The Arduino board receives the bytes I sent from the iPhone app, converts them, adds some springing for smoother color changes and puts them in a DMX conform protocol. These data are sent to the DMX controller which controlled the lights. Sounds easy, right? It was not. But it was worth the effort! Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Ok, have a look for yourself!
This is a video where you can see the parts I have used and how they are assembled.
This is the light in action! Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.