Enable a backlight LED ambient system on your monitor/TV controlled via computer or iPhone. You’ll be able to switch lights on/off, control light power or run predefined light pattern changes directly from your iPhone or computer.
Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSnY920Ywg
######This project features smaller projects inside which you may find interesting independently:
-
Arduino power control using transistors. Follow this tutorial: http://www.ladyada.net/products/rgbledstrip/#introduction Although this tutorial is oriented to RGB LED strips, the connection between Arduino, transistor and a single-LED strip is essentially the same. Just use one transistor instead of three. I’ve used a TIP120 NPN transistor (0,57 €) instead of the N-Channel model it recommends.
-
Serial port communication between Arduino and Objective-C, taken from http://todbot.com/blog/2006/12/06/arduino-serial-c-code-to-talk-to-arduino/ and added a few lines more.
-
Bonjour discovery and connection between Server (OS X) and iPhone, taken from
######Things you need:
- An Arduino Board. (I used Diecimila model).
- A LED strip (hundreds in Dealextreme).
- A transistor (I used a TIP120).
- A Mac or something running OS X. I used Lion 10.7.2.
- Optionally, an iPhone, iPad or iWhatever to run the mobile version.
The source code contains:
-
Arduino software. Just upload it to the board.
-
OS X Arduino controller and Bonjour server. Just change your arduino tty file:
#define kARDUINO_FILE @"/dev/tty.usbserial-A6004l98" and run it. -
iPhone App. Just run it.
Note: This project is made for hacking purposes only and expects a straight forward behavior by the user. It doesn’t take into account exceptional situations and the code may be not be optimized.