The Process

Published February 18, 2022

Lane Tech HS - PCL - Automatic "Sun” Lights

Lights that turn on automatically and gradually to simulate the sun rising so that waking up on early mornings is easier.

BeginnerFull instructions provided83

Lane Tech HS - PCL - Automatic "Sun” Lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Particle Argon

Darlington High Power Transistor

Through Hole Resistor, 680 ohm

Hall Effect Sensor

Jumper wires (generic)

magnet

5.5mm x 2.1mm Female Male DC Power Plug Adapter

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

Story

One of the worst parts about school is waking up way too early. Especially during winter when the sun thinks its ok to sleep in longer than me. I chose this project to help make early mornings easier.

The Process

When I started this project, I knew it would be a lot of research. I didn't know how to control the LED light strip because I wanted to use the strip I already had. I didn't get an LED strip with jumper wires already attached, for example. I didn't know if I would have had to crack open the control box that came with the lights or somehow hack the ir sensor that received messages from the remote or control the electricity with the argon. After some research the third option seemed the best, but I had no idea how to go about doing it, I didn't even know what a transistor was.

Eventually, I found a very similar project by a user named Najad. However, this project uses and Arduino nano which has an output voltage of 5v and a Particle Argon has an output voltage of 3.3v. Something needed to change from their project to mine but I didn't know what. I tried looking at the transistor data sheet to see if that's what it was but there were too many numbers and letters that had no meaning to me. Turns out all it came down to was a simple division problem with Ohm's law, V = IR. The resistance needed was 660, and 680 was the closest we had.

With this information I was able to get all of the components I needed and was able to start building

3xTIP120 transistors, 1xDC power jack adapter, 3x680 resistors

1st prototype

This is the first test. Like almost everything in computer science, it did not work first try.

The pins were to short to connect to the jumper cables.

Not wanting to deal with that issue, I moved to working on the sensor for when my door opens to turn the lights off automatically.

Hall effect sensor

This is a hall effect sensor. It is used to detect when the door is opened by sensing when a magnet is near it.

Set up on the wall

In the code, there are 5 functions.

The chooseColor and chooseTime functions are there to choose the color of the lights and the time they turn on in the morning.

Code

int red = A2;
int green = A3;
int blue = A1;
int color[3] = {255, 255, 255};

int thirtySeconds = 0;
int i = 0;
bool start = false;
bool active = false;
int hour = 5;
int minute = 45;

int hallSensor = D7;

int chooseColor(String cmd);
int chooseTime(String cmd);
int on(String cmd);
int off(String cmd);
int doorOpen(String cmd);

void setup() {
    pinMode(red, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(green, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(blue, OUTPUT);
    
    Particle.function("chooseColor", chooseColor);
    Particle.function("chooseTime", chooseTime);
    Particle.function("on", on);
    Particle.function("off", off);
    Particle.function("doorOpen", doorOpen);
    
    Time.zone(-6);
}

void loop() {
    int now = Time.now();
    
    if (Time.hour() == hour && Time.minute() == minute && !start){
        start = true;
        thirtySeconds = now + 30;
    }
    if (start){
        if (now == thirtySeconds){
            i++;
            thirtySeconds += 30;
            analogWrite(red, i/30 * color[0]);
            analogWrite(green, i/30 * color[1]);
            analogWrite(blue, i/30 * color[2]);
            if (i == 30){
                active = true;
            }
        }
        if (Time.minute() == 30){
            start = false;
        }
    }
}

int chooseColor(String cmd){
    if (!(sscanf(cmd, "%d,%d,%d", &color[0], &color[1], &color[2]) == 3)){
        color[0] = 255;
        color[1] = 255;
        color[2] = 255;
        return 0;
    }
    if (active){
        on("");
    }
    return 1;
}

int chooseTime(String cmd){
    if (!sscanf(cmd, "%d:%d", &hour, &minute) == 2){
        hour = 5;
        minute = 45;
        return -1;
    }
    return 0;
}

int on(String cmd){
    start = false; 
    
    if (!(cmd == "")){
        sscanf(cmd, "%d,%d,%d", &color[0], &color[1], &color[2]);
    }
    
    analogWrite(red, color[0]);
    analogWrite(green, color[1]);
    analogWrite(blue, color[2]);
    active = true;
    return 1;
}

int off(String cmd){
    analogWrite(red, 0);
    analogWrite(green, 0);
    analogWrite(blue, 0);
    active = false;
    return 1;
}

int doorOpen(String cmd){
    if(!active){
        analogWrite(red, color[0]);
        analogWrite(green, color[1]);
        analogWrite(blue, color[2]);
    }
    if(active){
        delay(2000);
        
        analogWrite(red, 0);
        analogWrite(green, 0);
        analogWrite(blue, 0);
    }
    active = !active;
    return 1;
}

int hall = 7;
int led = 6;

bool state = false;
int pastState = LOW;


void setup() {
    pinMode(hall, INPUT);
    pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
    int hallS = digitalRead(hall);

    //magnet close to sensor
    if (hallS == HIGH && pastState != HIGH){
        Particle.publish("doorClose");
    }
    
    //magnet pulled away
    if (hallS == LOW && pastState != LOW){
        Particle.publish("doorOpen");
    }
    
    pastState = digitalRead(hall);
    delay(100);

}

Lane Tech HS - PCL - Automatic "Sun” Lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

The Process

Schematics

Wiring for one transistor

Wiring for transistor with power

Code

Led Argon

Hall Sensor Argon

Credits

Josh Parsio

Comments

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Lane Tech HS - PCL - Automatic "Sun” Lights

Lane Tech HS - PCL - Automatic "Sun” Lights

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

The Process

Schematics

Wiring for one transistor

Wiring for transistor with power

Code

Led Argon

Hall Sensor Argon

Credits

Josh Parsio

Comments

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