Sean Meighan
Hardware => General hardware => Topic started by: wbartles on July 05, 2024, 08:31:46 AM
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Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has considered a Halloween "prop" of sidewalk/pathway lights that interact with motion of walking and respond with the pixels following the individual as he/she walks up the sidewalk to the house.
I've been running xlights for about 4 years and have pretty much all the pixels and controllers I need (and then some!)
So, I thought about a Halloween show starting with lights that "eerily" follow a person as they walk.
I recall many years ago at a science fair that each stair in the staircase would light up as you neared each step. It wasn't a "contact step" scenario, but instead a proximity sensor. I saw no sensors on each step, but something at the top of the stairs. Any ideas??? Is it possible?
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https://experiencelights.com/motion-sensor-input-trigger/
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I have been thinking about the same for a couple of years. Three designs in my head - one I ran into on the internet, the second was written up on Adafruit and the third is just me thinking best way to achieve the effect.
1. Use multiple motion sensors set back into baffles to create zones. Connect up a Arduino with fastled and let the zones detected determine what to light. Internet link unknown. There are some radar modules available to do this as well. Similar idea would be to use IR switches that would be triggered when someone walked through them.
2. This project has the basics but instead of sound, use the distances to light the lights. https://learn.adafruit.com/halloween-pumpkin?view=all
3. Have the lights embedded into a walkway (using frosted plexiglass salvaged from the pandemic dividers) and use contact triggers to light up the correct tiles to achieve this look https://youtu.be/Zi_XLOBDo_Y?t=65
Most of the sensor ideas suffer from range issues but for a Halloween following effect like along a sidewalk, it could be accomplished.
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So many ways to achieve this!
Tell us what you already have and want to do.
This can be stand-alone running off an Arduino, ESP32 or Pi.
Or it could be running of a pixel controller with FPP/xSchedule changing the sequence.
E.g.
sensor -> GPIO on FPP -> plays overlay or other sequence.
sensor -> artNET input on a Falcon -> FPP or xSchedule trigger -> plays overlay or other sequence.
sensor -> GPIO on esp32 -> runs effect on WLED direct to pixels.
This can go as easy or complicated as you would like.