Arduino with XBee shield (top) driving a remote XBee Lilypad connected to an LED.
Xbee driving a triac board to turn Christmas lights on and off
Hi-res of the Triac driver board prototype setup.
Custom Windows Media Player plugin driving Arduino
Custom Windows Media Player plugin driving lights controlled by an Arduino micro-controller, which in turn communicates wirelessly with remote via Xbee 802.15.4 protocol modules
Technical schematic of this year's ambitious plan
This project is getting complicated...
Rough pinout diagram of the Arduino/Xbee boards. One Xbee will relay pin status to 4 others - in the second suit, each staff and cape.
Light Staff technical schematic
Bluetooth speakers I plan to canibalize for the AustinLightGuy Christmas Staff
Two Bluetooth dongles under $10 from DealExtreme.com. I'll use the one on the right to trasmit music to the Light Staff.
Here the triac board has been mounted face-down in a case, with the Lilypad face-down on the right. the battery pack just barely fits on top of the Lilypad.
Here is the Master controller fully assembled. The triac board is face-down on left and the Arduino board with XBee shield is face-down on the right.
Here I've pulled the speaker and the circuit board out of the case and mounted the speakers in the staff.
A plexiglass jar mounted to the top of the staff will serve as the housing for the circuit board
A perfect fit. The Bluetooth control buttons are still accessible through a hole I cut in the bottom of the jar.
Fully assembled.
Both staffs have an XBee, mounted on a simple XBee adapter (underneath), which is then soldered to some prototype board with a couple of transistors to drive 12V light strings in the shaft.
The second staff has an XBee, but to USB sound stuff. A color-cycling crhistmas orb adorns the top.
I cut the circuitry for control of two triacs out of a triac board. That is wired to an XBee via a USB XBee Adapter which I soldered to some prototyping board.
The front of the assembled case. I cut holes to see the LEDs on the triac board and for access to the XBee module without opening the case.
Zilker Tree Lighting appearance
Full tree
EverSequence custom sequencer software driving a GE G-35 LED light string
Downtown during Red Dress Run
We found Clemie and the other Red Dress Runners
Somewhere near 6th St
San Antone
GE G35 tap - Miniplug connected to ground
