Repost: Wirelessly Controlling Vixen Christmas Lights

[akibaKeymaster]

[This topic reposted from the old forum]
Hi,
Last Christmas made a singing light display using Vixen and an Arduino 2560. It required 52 channels. I don’t know how to code so I just used other peoples code and edited it to fit my configuration.

I really like the idea of wireless and tried to use a cheep wireless USB system that I could never get to work.

This year I want to make a Singing snowman display that requires a minimum of 13 channels. I want to get the most affordable option. I only need to transmit through one wall (Wood and Stucco) and then no more than 50 feet
I like your recommendation of 900MHZ

My question is: What is the max number of channels on your wireless boards and which one would be my most affordable option for 13 channels.

Thanks,
Walt

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Twitter: @freaklabs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freaklabswireless

[akibaKeymaster]

Hi Walter.
If you want a full 256 levels of brightness, then I’d recommend you stay at around 100 channels per device. The maximum packet size is 100 bytes so if you figure one byte per channel, then that would be 100 channels. If you need more, I’d recommend having multiple devices with each addressing up to 100 channels. The system has a 16k address space although it’s unlikely anybody would use that much. I’d say a practical limit is that the serial buffer connected to the PC starts to get strained if you have more than about 300 channels, although there are various ways to deal with this.

Regarding a system I’d recommend, there’s nothing that is ready off-the-shelf to control Christmas lighting, although now I’m thinking to design something for this. If you’re okay with a bit of soldering, I’d recommend my standard 900 MHz USB dongle as the transmitter and my standard freakduino 900 MHz board as the receiver.

If you’re okay with it, I’ll keep you posted on a dedicated Christmas lighting controller that I’m hoping to have later this year.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Twitter: @freaklabs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freaklabswireless

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