WarpeD
Active Member
I've designed quite a few lighting modules over the last 5 years or so and have often thought about adding phone control, but 2 things always steer me away.
Firstly, the whole playing field is moving so fast, there is a danger of anything married to todays technology is going to be obsolete tomorrow... <snip>
Secondly, battery power and battery life is a primary factor in anything I light... <snip>
Both very good points. My 2012 Nexus is already at end of life as far as Android support goes, so I know what you mean about rapid obsolescence. But I figure if I get this working once, as long as the Bluetooth standard remains consistent, which it must to provide support for legacy products, not to mention a wide variety of products, then the comms part will remain relatively stable. It would probably be smart to do the development on Linux instead of Windows too, especially since I've no intention of moving beyond Win7, but that's another story. As long as I comment things properly as a dev, then I should be able to remember. And since I'm nearing my own obsolescence at 61, I won't have to remember for too long!
Power is a consideration, but if the Bluetooth is working, then the only connection to the model would be 5v power or so from a wall wart. I won't put batteries in a model if I can help it. I'm planning a side mount that will use two of the raised areas near the middle of each side of the lower hull as my access hatches, to be carefully removed and then reattached with magnet(s). Either side could be used, and I'm just thinking ahead for mounting changes (L/R). These would be big enough for a 5v umbilical connection in addition to a sturdy and secure mount point.
If the top of the "wedding cake" is made removable, then I could swap out the tech if I really needed to. I'm doing that anyway since components can fail, and I'd rather not become a plastic surgeon.
The Arduino Uno supports up to 10 LED's, with a total of 400mA and a max of 40mA per individual LED as limited by the output pin on the Uno. I don't plan to run at full brightness, to be sure, so the amp draw will likely remain safe. 10 x 20mA LED's keeps me under the 400mA cap. That gives me three 10mm diffuse blue LED's for the main engines, and 7 more for high output white for porthole lighting. That's the current rough plan, anyway. I'm relearning my basic circuits stuff as fast as I can. No electronics guru, I.
There's a decent tutorial that seems to be giving me what I need to make this happen: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Control-using-Arduino-Bluetooth-and-Android-Pa/