Christmas Light Displays

Roy Carlson

Has anyone developed Christmas Light Displays via the Prop?

I have looked into using the PIC or SX via SSRs and a software program called Vixen but it seemed a bit tedious to code the 16 channels of light controls by hand.

What I was thinking and would like your input goes like this:

The channels would be completely controlled by a sound input routine that would break up the music into 16 different channels similar to a color light organ.· Could this be done by sampling the sound input and creating a binary output string that would then be stored and then fed into an output controller for switching the various light channels on or off, including brightness controls?

I am sure this can be done via software but not sure if anyone has tried this vs. what seems to be the way most have approached it - creating a control file via Vixen or other software that is fed to the mcu as binary strings to control the lights.

I wanted to take the music in - lights out approach so that a finial unit could be sold to anyone with a mps/ipod and Christmas music files.· The lights would have to blend and flow with the music and using 16 output channels should provide enough flexibility for the overall display.

We would have to have some user controls for the delay, brightness, and even the ability to map the sound to either a full 16 outputs or paired set of 8 outputs.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to were to start and look for help is greatly appreciated.

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hover1

Roy Carlson said...
Has anyone developed Christmas Light Displays via the Prop?


I have looked into using the PIC or SX via SSRs and a software program called Vixen but it seemed a bit tedious to code the 16 channels of light controls by hand.


What I was thinking and would like your input goes like this:

The channels would be completely controlled by a sound input routine that would break up the music into 16 different channels similar to a color light organ. Could this be done by sampling the sound input and creating a binary output string that would then be stored and then fed into an output controller for switching the various light channels on or off, including brightness controls?

I am sure this can be done via software but not sure if anyone has tried this vs. what seems to be the way most have approached it - creating a control file via Vixen or other software that is fed to the mcu as binary strings to control the lights.

I wanted to take the music in - lights out approach so that a finial unit could be sold to anyone with a mps/ipod and Christmas music files. The lights would have to blend and flow with the music and using 16 output channels should provide enough flexibility for the overall display.



We would have to have some user controls for the delay, brightness, and even the ability to map the sound to either a full 16 outputs or paired set of 8 outputs.



Any thoughts or suggestions as to were to start and look for help is greatly appreciated.

You mean, like this?
www.christmasradiance.com/LightShow/Lightshow.htm

Agent420

I'm thinking you may need to calculate some fft data from the audio source so that you get some frequency specific control.· Seems I saw some discussion of fft on the prop, but that can be a complicated topic.· An alternative would be to use some analog hardware filtering as used in simple color organs which the Prop can sample using multiple adc channels.·

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TinkersALot

if anyone is willing to consider an off the shelf solution, then light-o-rama is pretty cool stuff. Of course you don't get the fun of building it, but I sure do enjoy it. Also, wasn't there a design contest winner for propeller that was a 32 channel lighting controller?

hover1

TinkersALot said...
·Also, wasn't there a design contest winner for propeller that was a 32 channel lighting controller?

It was a 128 channel. It can be found here:
http://www.parallax.com/tabid/706/Default.aspx
It didn't sync to music per say, but was preprogrammed with Vixen:
http://www.vixenlights.com
It was a pretty cool setup.

Jim

deweycooter

DIY Light Animation - a fraction of the price per channel of LOR ($14 vs $3), plus everything is in kit form so you get to heat up the soldering iron.
DLA website

Microcontrolled

I saw something at the Expo that controlled LED Christmas lights depending on sound.

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Computers are microcontrolled.

Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.

But you·can·call me micro.

Want to·experiment with the SX or just put together a cool project?
SX Spinning light display·

Adam Wiesler

Hey, someone else is trying to do lights with the prop!

@Roy Carlson
To control my lights, I had Vixen sending out MIDI strings to my custom control boards that in turn controlled the ssrs.

There is a complete writeup here:
www.parallax.com/tabid/711/Default.aspx

About vixen being tedious, It isn't to bad, as long as you use the visual sequencer, not the scripting one. Also, there is a plugin that comes with Vixen that take an input file and can either dim a specific channel to the beat or multiple channels off and on, but act as a VU meter like thing.

I'll try to get the videos of last year's show on the web soon.

@ microcontrolled
I was the one that had the big light tower, it was 18 strands of lights, all connected to 2 of my custom boards, and the to the demoboard for the microphone. I also could switch between the microphone and vixen controlled.

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My website www.quigleyelectronics.com/

Timothy D. Swieter

I have done some different stuff with LEDs and lights and synchronizations. I have much more that I want to do too.....

Vixen vs audio detection is a good topic to discuss. Both are potential solutions, but the solutions are very different and you need to consider how you want the lights to look. For instance if you want exact beat synchronization and repeatability and precise light cues then there is no other way to do it then to hand program it and run the show from EEPROM or Vixen or some other lighting controller or time sync checker. If you want ambient lighting that changes or fades or bounces around more randomly then you can program beat detection or frequency and amplitude processing, etc.

For me, I like to use DMX512-A to precisely control the looks when I program lights and music together. However there are times that I just want the lights to fade or twinkle so I make a couple built in routines in the embedded hardware for this.

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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, 3.0" LCD Composite video display, eProto for SunSPOT
www.tdswieter.com