Need to wirelessly control lighting effects
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- BellesCosplay
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed May 04, 2022 10:28 pm
Need to wirelessly control lighting effects
I've been looking at all the different options that you supply for wireless control options. I am working on a fan film where I need the ability during a fight seen to do trigger settings wirelessly on the lights on a arm prosthetic. I am looking to write code for the lights to do different things when selected wirelessly. I am looking to see what you would recommend to possibly achieve this effect out of the items you provide for the remote capability and tying into the Arduino housing the lights programing.
- michaelmeissner
- Posts: 1830
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:40 am
Re: Need to wirelessly control lighting effects
It usually depends on lots of details, such as how fast you need the connection to go, the amount of data that must transmitted, are there barriers between the controller and device. Now, I haven't done much of this, but I've thought about it off and on.
There are several different methods to control things wirelessly that I know of, and probably lots more that I don't:
There are several different methods to control things wirelessly that I know of, and probably lots more that I don't:
- IR signal: Think TV remote control. Very simple to set up, but the downside is you can't send much data, and you need the receiver to be able to see the controller. If you are shooting outdoors, the background light can often overwhelm the signal.
- Bluetooth: This is likely what you will want to use. You either get a chip with bluetooth as part of the design (like the new ESP32, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3 devices, but not the ESP32-S2 boards), and you put an app on your phone, and you can send basic commands. Or you can get real elaborate and write special apps on your phone or computers that can do extensive data sharing with the device. The main downside is bluetooth is typically only good for about 10 meters (30 feet). It can go through walls, but they can reduce the range. Similarly, if you have lots of other devices using the 2.4GHz range, it can reduce the distance and speed.
- Wifi: You could use wifi instead of bluetooth. This has advantages that you can communicate over potentially larger distances using the wifi infrastructure. But you have to set it up to use the local networks, and you potentially can have security issues if you communicate outside the local hub. I would imagine wifi is more useful for IoT (internet of things) devices where you have a permanent device that does things or provides data.
- Lora and other radio technoligies: I don't know much about these, other than you can do point to point transmission at greater distances than bluetooth or wifi if you are not hooking up to the internet.
- Using bluetooth to control neopixels using Bluetooth Circuit Playground: https://learn.adafruit.com/easy-no-sold ... oom-lights
- Using bluetooth to control a camera slider: https://learn.adafruit.com/bluetooth-mo ... r/software
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.