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Show HN: LuxBase – Open-Source Smart Lighting Control System

38 points by kienankb 10y ago

geekuillaume 10y ago
You can also use the pins of a RaspberryPi as a PWN output and do the same thing with only 3 inexpensive power transistors: http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-pwm-rgb-led-strip/ http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-pwm-rgb-led-strip/ Instead of servoblaster I recommend you to use PiBlaster: https://github.com/sarfata/pi-blaster https://github.com/sarfata/pi-blaster
- kienankb 10y ago
  Awesome, thanks for the heads up! Like it says in the blog post, PWM + transistors was an option I was thinking of (and still am if I ever decided to dip into dedicated hardware later on), I just wasn't sure if I had the electronics chops yet to not blow something up.
mjg59 10y ago
I picked up a http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017CKVG7G http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017CKVG7G a couple of months ago - it's pretty terrible in terms of build quality and range, but it's a simple Bluetooth LE protocol for full RGB control of the lights, and you can run multiple sets off a single machine with a bluetooth 4.0 controller. Rather than using a custom protocol I bridged it to something that emulates enough of a Hue hub for the Amazon Echo to let me control it. I don't know how the economics compare, but there's plenty of avenues to explore here.
- kienankb 10y ago
  Well hey, would you look at that. Exactly what I'm trying to do! Heh I was shooting for the REST API because I figured there's nothing that doesn't communicate through it today. I'll have to check into it more, especially if I decide to do dedicated stuffs down the line. I am a fan of the multiple strips thing.
  - mjg59 10y ago
    The bridge code is at https://github.com/mjg59/ulfire https://github.com/mjg59/ulfire but doesn't have the Bluetooth code since I haven't got it working reliably yet (the machine I'm testing with has an ancient version of Bluez, and I need to upgrade that before doing more testing). I'll push that in the near future. It's pretty board specific though, I've found at least 6 different Bluetooth LE protocols for lighting so far. The easiest way to do it for testing is to just call out to gatttool in the callbacks.
    - fit2rule 10y ago
      I'm not a huge fan of using Bluetooth for this application, but you've done some great work there .. I'll have to look into your implementation of the Hue API, maybe we could use it on the MagicShifter (which uses WiFi instead of BT)... ?
spangry 10y ago
Kudos for sharing. Btw I read your blog post on the project and really enjoyed it; you write well!
- kienankb 10y ago
  Hey, thanks! I appreciate it--I try to take pride in what I do as well as how I describe it.
sdwisely 10y ago
rather than using addressable LED strips I've been using some RGBW LED Par Cans over DMX. I use a raspberry pi running openlighting to act as bridge between artnet, osc and a few other protocols and control it over the network. openlighting: https://www.openlighting.org/ https://www.openlighting.org/
- kienankb 10y ago
  This is all new to me, I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!
fit2rule 10y ago
If anyone is looking for an out-of-the-box solution to get started writing Lighting control applications, you can pick up a MagicShifter right now for a good price and get cracking: http://magicshifter.net/ http://magicshifter.net/ Open Source, full repo for the onboard MS3KOS here: http://github.com/magicshifter/ http://github.com/magicshifter/ The MagicShifter is an open source Light Synthesizer with 16 RGB LED's, fully controllable over Wifi, with cool features such as an onboard web application for designing your own POV images, MIDI control (great for musicians who want their own custom light-show in sync with the drum machine), and a few other cool things: magnetometer, accelerometers, etc. We have a lot more planned for this synth, so if you're interested in the subject - consider joining us!
ShirsenduK 10y ago
The ESP8266 is an even smarter solution as it has Wifi built in. Control your lights directly from your phone!
ParanoidShroom 10y ago
I also made this. https://medium.com/@christophe.smet1/flux-irl-building-a-hue-clone-bd62df85a456#.sd7i0wkcq https://medium.com/@christophe.smet1/flux-irl-building-a-hue... But a bit more, custom pcb and just an app. Keeping it simple. Cool to see other people's projects

38 points by kienankb 10y ago

You can also use the pins of a RaspberryPi as a PWN output and do the same thing with only 3 inexpensive power transistors: http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-pwm-rgb-led-strip/ http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-pwm-rgb-led-strip/ Instead of servoblaster I recommend you to use PiBlaster: https://github.com/sarfata/pi-blaster https://github.com/sarfata/pi-blaster

kienankb 10y ago
Awesome, thanks for the heads up! Like it says in the blog post, PWM + transistors was an option I was thinking of (and still am if I ever decided to dip into dedicated hardware later on), I just wasn't sure if I had the electronics chops yet to not blow something up.

mjg59 10y ago

I picked up a http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017CKVG7G http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017CKVG7G a couple of months ago - it's pretty terrible in terms of build quality and range, but it's a simple Bluetooth LE protocol for full RGB control of the lights, and you can run multiple sets off a single machine with a bluetooth 4.0 controller. Rather than using a custom protocol I bridged it to something that emulates enough of a Hue hub for the Amazon Echo to let me control it. I don't know how the economics compare, but there's plenty of avenues to explore here.

kienankb 10y ago
Well hey, would you look at that. Exactly what I'm trying to do! Heh I was shooting for the REST API because I figured there's nothing that doesn't communicate through it today. I'll have to check into it more, especially if I decide to do dedicated stuffs down the line. I am a fan of the multiple strips thing.
- mjg59 10y ago
  The bridge code is at https://github.com/mjg59/ulfire https://github.com/mjg59/ulfire but doesn't have the Bluetooth code since I haven't got it working reliably yet (the machine I'm testing with has an ancient version of Bluez, and I need to upgrade that before doing more testing). I'll push that in the near future. It's pretty board specific though, I've found at least 6 different Bluetooth LE protocols for lighting so far. The easiest way to do it for testing is to just call out to gatttool in the callbacks.
  - fit2rule 10y ago
    I'm not a huge fan of using Bluetooth for this application, but you've done some great work there .. I'll have to look into your implementation of the Hue API, maybe we could use it on the MagicShifter (which uses WiFi instead of BT)... ?

spangry 10y ago

Kudos for sharing. Btw I read your blog post on the project and really enjoyed it; you write well!

kienankb 10y ago
Hey, thanks! I appreciate it--I try to take pride in what I do as well as how I describe it.

sdwisely 10y ago

rather than using addressable LED strips I've been using some RGBW LED Par Cans over DMX. I use a raspberry pi running openlighting to act as bridge between artnet, osc and a few other protocols and control it over the network. openlighting: https://www.openlighting.org/ https://www.openlighting.org/

kienankb 10y ago
This is all new to me, I'll definitely check it out. Thanks!

fit2rule 10y ago

If anyone is looking for an out-of-the-box solution to get started writing Lighting control applications, you can pick up a MagicShifter right now for a good price and get cracking: http://magicshifter.net/ http://magicshifter.net/ Open Source, full repo for the onboard MS3KOS here: http://github.com/magicshifter/ http://github.com/magicshifter/ The MagicShifter is an open source Light Synthesizer with 16 RGB LED's, fully controllable over Wifi, with cool features such as an onboard web application for designing your own POV images, MIDI control (great for musicians who want their own custom light-show in sync with the drum machine), and a few other cool things: magnetometer, accelerometers, etc. We have a lot more planned for this synth, so if you're interested in the subject - consider joining us!

ShirsenduK 10y ago

The ESP8266 is an even smarter solution as it has Wifi built in. Control your lights directly from your phone!

ParanoidShroom 10y ago

I also made this. https://medium.com/@christophe.smet1/flux-irl-building-a-hue-clone-bd62df85a456#.sd7i0wkcq https://medium.com/@christophe.smet1/flux-irl-building-a-hue... But a bit more, custom pcb and just an app. Keeping it simple. Cool to see other people's projects