Late last year I was invited to participate in a creative design contest: "Internet of Holiday Lights".
It was Christmas themed. There were only a few requirements:
- be creative
- use the
internet of things
- Christmas lighting related
- blog duty on the organizer's forum
The organizer donated two Arduinos and one shield.
One of the Arduinos was a regular UNO.
The other one a Yún (I may post on that one a bit more on this forum, because it's running linux)
The shield was an Infineon RGB driver shield. A bit strange that it is called a shield because it hosts an ARM Cortex microcontroller that's quite capable by itself.
I have downplayed the expectations of the organizer - they expect a focus on lights.
In stead, I've only used standard low power leds in my design, and did animations with motors and messaging with other people.
The summary write-down is posted
here.
If you are looking for info on how to drive LEDs, my entry may not be your thing.
But I do show how to drive stepper motors,
how to do real time clocking,
and how to use the internet of things to integrate with others (in contrast to using the internet to talk to @self).
As a throw-out proposal, I made my gizmo speak out the info other people were sending me with a synthesized voice. (This is also a tribute to RadioShack - a chain I care for a lot #childhoodmemories).
When you look at my entry, you'll notice that the actual 'thing' has never been a focus to me. I focused on creativity and wild ideas.
I hope you can find the fun I had during he contest.
Wish me luck,
Jan
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