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Halloween Controller RPi - Control your Halloween lights, triggers, props, sounds.

4479 Views 18 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  mobeye
2
Hi All,

In the past i've designed and built my own Controllers but it's reached its limits, so I'm currently developing a software that makes use of the Raspberry Pi 2 capabilities to control RELAYS, INPUTS, SOUNDS and HIGH POWER outputs.

I would love to get some feedback from people here on the features you would like to see, it's almost in a usable state, pending some features i still need to implement, although i'm the only one using it and I would love feedback/suggestions.

If anyone want's to try out the BETA software and give feedback, you can PM me for details.

What you need in terms of hardware:
1 x Raspberry Pi 2
Runs the software and provides the I/O
1 x PCA9685 (~ $8 from ebay)
Provides 16 x PWM output channels
4 x MOSFET driver module (~$5/each on eBay)
To support the PCA9695 by providing HIGH DC current supplies (eg. Dimming of lights or motor control)
8 x Relay modules (~$8 on eBay)
8 x Digital Inputs

Currently, it supports the following;
- Ambient Sound, Light control
- Save/Load sequence
- Input triggered sequence (can assign as many of the available functions as you want)
On Trigger, you can set the following for each function;
- Assign start delay (Relay or PWM)
- Set the duration (Relay or PWM)
- Set PWM duty (eg Light brightness) (PWM Only)
- Lighting effect (Strobe, fade, etc) (PWM Only)
- Play a sound

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Thanks for the comments guys, I had a look at Falcon Player and although the SW looks good, disregarding the cost of the PI, the other HW is damn expensive (unless I missed something)

If anyone wants to try it out, PM me and I'll send you the (beta) release.

There are HEAPS of features I can add but so far I haven't needed them and since i'm the only one using it, there hasn't been a need. For those interested, I've chosen to go down the path of Windows 10 IoT as the OS running in the background, so all code is written in C# using UWP APIs. In future, the software will provide the option to run the UI directly from the PI or on a Windows PC and controlling the Pi (or multiple PIs) through Wifi.
Eric_Edwards, that's pretty impressive...do you have a list of all your materials (excluding lights)? I'm more interested in how the lights are powered since clearly the RaspberryPi can't! I would love to give it a go.
Ah ok, yes this was my point... What's all that other stuff cost?
Yeah OK, I can see it uses but that's already too pricey for me. My setup cost me under $150 and controls my whole haunted house. I will steal some features from FPP! :D
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AusHaunt! I have a few Raspberry Pis laying around and would love more info on your project!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Excuse the late reply, Halloween got the better of me and I was flat out. Happy to share, PM me and I can give you a link to the code and a general rundown.
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