I have an idea for an awsome electronics project for my garden. At the moment I have all the lighting and pump connected to some standard 20a switches in the garage. This of course is quite annoying to turn on/off and you can't dim some of the lights.
I was thinking of using some circuits to interface with a PIC, and then to some LEDs and either a relay or 10v to a dimmer module from Velleman (**broken link removed**) or to a relay board triggered by 5v. Then I could have 3 dimmable outputs for the 3 lights which are dimmable and 3 relay outputs for the pump and two lowvoltage light transformers.
I can mount this in a large case indoors, wired to the existing incoming cables, and have a main breaker for it. Then I can connect up as many inputs to control the various parts as I want, including things like VRs, QPROX touch sensors (read on) and PIRS, etc. And, I could program the pics so there can be timers, fades, etc.
I have another cool idea for the external switches; use some 2 channel QPROX touch sensors, each with a tricolour LED, in a small box with two translucent squares, with an tricolour LED and electrode behind. I was thinking perhaps: dim orange for backlight on when its night, red when you have just turned the light off (lasts 3 secs then to orange or something), and green while the light is on. I could have multiple sensors all connected to different inputs with different functions.
ie, button 1 on front of house puts up driveway light for 2 minutes, button 2 puts on side lights and rear floods to 50% (you can dim standard floodlights afaik) for 5 minutes. button 1 on back of house is a toggle version for rear lights, and button 2 puts on the path lights in toggle mode too, etc, etc.
So what do you think, and how would you go about doing my idea (ie, what kind of pics, and how would you program and get the flexibility of what I want?). I could even include DMX-512, serial, parallel control or an LCD screen!
What you think?
computer
I was thinking of using some circuits to interface with a PIC, and then to some LEDs and either a relay or 10v to a dimmer module from Velleman (**broken link removed**) or to a relay board triggered by 5v. Then I could have 3 dimmable outputs for the 3 lights which are dimmable and 3 relay outputs for the pump and two lowvoltage light transformers.
I can mount this in a large case indoors, wired to the existing incoming cables, and have a main breaker for it. Then I can connect up as many inputs to control the various parts as I want, including things like VRs, QPROX touch sensors (read on) and PIRS, etc. And, I could program the pics so there can be timers, fades, etc.
I have another cool idea for the external switches; use some 2 channel QPROX touch sensors, each with a tricolour LED, in a small box with two translucent squares, with an tricolour LED and electrode behind. I was thinking perhaps: dim orange for backlight on when its night, red when you have just turned the light off (lasts 3 secs then to orange or something), and green while the light is on. I could have multiple sensors all connected to different inputs with different functions.
ie, button 1 on front of house puts up driveway light for 2 minutes, button 2 puts on side lights and rear floods to 50% (you can dim standard floodlights afaik) for 5 minutes. button 1 on back of house is a toggle version for rear lights, and button 2 puts on the path lights in toggle mode too, etc, etc.
So what do you think, and how would you go about doing my idea (ie, what kind of pics, and how would you program and get the flexibility of what I want?). I could even include DMX-512, serial, parallel control or an LCD screen!
What you think?
computer
