The IOT Grand Prix

INSPIRATION

As a huge F1 fan, I wanted to design and build a smart room, controller, inspired by F1 racing. To me there, a few things in life that are as exciting as a close race that goes down to the last turn with cars being a fraction of a second, apart from each other. With that in mind, I wanted to carryover that excitement and the ability for the Neo Pixel LEDs that are racing to have variable speeds, and will allow allow for a competitive unpredictable and exciting race.

CAPABILITIES

In the automatic mode the user can press the start button to initiate the race. The Neo Pixel ring light flashes three sections of red, before fully turning green starting the race between the two different randomly selected Neo Pixel colors that are shown on the track as the race is starting. As the Neo Pixel LEDs race the five laps two OLEDs are attached to their lap times displaying the “pace” of the Neo Pixel LEDs showing the same fraction of a second difference that you will see in an actual F1 race. As the Neo Pixel LEDs round the final corner, a checkered flag waves through a WeMo smart outlet controller signifying the end of the race and has both pixels cross the finish start line. The OLEDs display the total race time for each color and the winning color illuminates not only the entire track, but also initiates smart hue lights around the room to activate the same color as the winner.

By clicking the encoder, you can switch from automatic mode to manual mode, where the second button comes into play. In manual mode, the user plus a friend can race each other other around two laps of the IOT Grand Prix to compete and see who is faster. One click of the users button increases the position of the same colored neo Pixel LED and the first to complete two full laps is crowned the Victor. Similar to the automatic mode the track and hue lights change to the color of the winner, as well as the OLEDs displaying the total time taken to complete the two laps.