What was I looking for:
- Wall washer type of mood light.
- Have it do color fades. (color transitions)
- Being able to define a couple of colors that I can set the light to.
- Control it via RS232.
- Integrate it with Homeseer to be able to pair it with events and that kind of stuff.
The LanBOX looks very nice but I'm sorry paying more than 300euros (with shipping included) for what I want to do with it ain't worth it. (for me) I don't intend to use it for anything else than controlling a couple of wall washer/LED strips. So I looked for an alternative controller. What I found was the Chromoflex RGB controller, which can be bought for...38,50 euros! A real bargain if you ask me. (Conrad has it even cheaper) There is also a version with an Infrared receiver this one is 47,50 euros, but you don't need it if you go the RS-232 route.
Here's what I used:
- RGB strip (same ones mhwlng got) (with a common anode, aka a common '+' pole (R,G,B,+)
http://www.ledtuning.nl/catalog/product ... cts_id=327
- Chromoflex RGB controller 3x 2,5A 12V (not the 350 version but the STRIPE version)
http://www.ledtuning.nl/catalog/product ... cts_id=437
- Power Supply 12V 5.5A 66W
http://www.ledtuning.nl/catalog/product ... cts_id=486
- Some Cat5 cable
- 1x Serial-port connector (female one)
- 1x 10k-Ohm resistor
Total cost: A less than 150 euros. (including a 1m RGB LED strip)
The Chromoflex (CF from now on) has 8 programmable slots, where you can program a fixed color of your choice, or one of the included effects fading, bursts etc. For the effects you have one definable color palette which is shared by all effects. There is also one definable fade-effect for which you can define a separate color palette. You could in theory make your own effects aswell as they are just text files that you can alter but that would require some experimenting.
The CF can be controlled completely via the RS-232 port. You do this by sending commands in hex. It comes with a program to change some stuff on the fly. I used portmon to sniff the RS-232 communication...
You'll need to program your own interface for the thing if you want 'on the fly' controllable color changes, but it is possible. I myself didn't need this, as I just want to be able to change the light to a certain color I defined, depending on the mood I want, a certain event and sometimes start a fade effect.
So I needed a couple of command-line tools to use with Homeseer to control the sucker and be able to have a certain color display depending on events. I cooked up something really simple in VB 2008 (I'll post the code for those that want to have a look.) What I did was a really lazy approach: I build myself 8 .EXE's each one of them starts one of the 8 definable scenarios on the CF. I couldn't be bothered to make only 1 EXE and to feed it arguments for the scenario and COM-port to start on, so I hardcoded the COM-port to use.
Now that it's integrated with Homeseer I can change the light mood from my iFohn interface or have Homeseer do it automatically. I'm happy camper. [;)]
Some additional info:
- You can hang up to 30 Chromoflexes together and control them from one Chromoflex connected to the serial port.
- You can connect several CFs to the same power-supply, as long as it can bear the load.(Amps etc)
- You can connect several meters of LED strips to one CF.
Well that's it for now... As usual, a picture is a thousand words, so here is a small video:
http://lostjourneys.ustoopia.nl/rgbfohn.zip
Now then, the code, as you can see I have the CF on COM2:
====================================================================
Code: Select all
Module Module1
Sub Main()
' Thanks to Vladimir_MS
Dim buffer() As Byte = New Byte() {202, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 125, 21, 0, 200, 37, 25}
Using com1 As IO.Ports.SerialPort = _
My.Computer.Ports.OpenSerialPort("COM2")
com1.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
com1.Close()
End Using
End Sub
End Module
Ciao,
Esteban