Path or Stairs LED Controller

This came about almost as a time filler whilst I was waiting for some components and a PCB to come back from another project.

The idea here was to create a controller which could control LED strings like those commonly available from B&Q etc. in the UK. Where people were fitting them to their stairs or paths etc. it soon became obvious that turning them on and off would ideally involve more than just a timer. To accomplish this a group of us got together and between us came up with the following list of features we would like to see.

The current plan for the specifications of the controller board are:

  1. Sequential illumination of all lights from end "A" to end "B"
  2. Sequential extinguishing of all lights from end "A" to end "B"
  3. Sequential illumination of all lights from end "B" to end "A"
  4. Sequential extinguishing of all lights from end "B" to end "A"
  5. Variable "light setting to next light setting" i.e. – brightening speed
  6. Variable dim that is different to the brightening value.
  7. Variable "light-to-next-light" speed for turn on
  8. . Variable "light-to-next-light" speed for turn off
  9. All off input that over-rides all other inputs
  10. All on input that over-rides all other inputs apart from the "All-off input"
  11. Two inputs assigned to the first and last light override to on under all circumstances
  12. Settable light-sequence length – we may not want to run the full 24 lights
  13. Choice of method to extinguish lights
    1. Same direction as illumination. Most recent if there is more than one input triggered
    2. Opposite direction as illumination. Most recent if there is more than one input triggered
    3. All at the same time
  14. Time delay on either the cascade output or cascade input
  15. Time delay on the other inputs?
  16. Triggers active at top and bottom of stairs at the same time - I was planning to have the on actions active with both ends turning on and heading towards the middle. Depending on the length of the LED run and the speed of LED activation this may seem rather odd, be unnoticeable or look really cool. I will program it up and see how it looks. If possible I may be able to add some logic like 'if 2 inputs active then all on' for example
  17. Allow pairing of LED’s for path illumination, heavy loads etc.
  18. Should operate autonomously

 

So far I have a prototype piece of hardware and some demo software.

See the hardware picture here

(520k)

See the movie here (1,6Meg wmv)







This page last updated on 25th June 2006