Capacitive touch Mood/Ambilight

This instructable is a quick write-up of my experience creating a multifunctional moodlight. Some basic knowledge of electronic circuits is expected. The project has not yet finished, some adding functionality  and tweaking has to be done but it is already functional. If you guys are enthousiast about this instructable I will update it.



At the heart of the system is an Arduino. It will process the input from USB or each of the Capacitive touch inputs and control the RGB light.
This instructable is split into three sections:
- The capacitive touch section covers the invisible input buttons
- The moodlight section covers the controlling of the moodlight
- The ambilight section covers input by serial port, processing RGB values generated by a computer program to control the lights.

Disclaimer: Electronics can be dangerous, you yourself are responsible for any damage done. Some code is collected from forums and might not contain the name of its owner. Please let me know and I'll add your name.

Step 1 Item list

The following components are needed for this instructable:

- Arduino+USB cable
- Breadboard
- Computer power supply
- 3x RGB strips, check out dealextreme.com.
- 3x TIP120 FETs, like http://uk.farnell.com/stmicroelectronics/tip120/darlington-transistor-to-220/dp/9804005
- A bunch of resistors (6* 10 kiloOhm, 3 * 2 megaOhm)
- A lot of wire.
- Tools

Capacitive touch
- Metal rings for groundplates
- Copper wire or plate
- Something to build it into (like a bookshelf:)

Comments

[joedpogi]

Nice project, I would like to make my touch sensors too with my arduino, is it possible to use all of the digital and analog pins for many touch sensors?

[kctess5]

Whats wrong with just using a TIP31 transistor, it sounds like it does the same thing as a FET

[Gazaman]

May I suggest using an Arduino Mini or a Mini Pro? You need a FTDI cable or FTDI Basic and a USB cable to connect like a full size Arduino board, you can get it in 3.3V or 5V source and it takes unregulated DC voltage from a wall wart or battery to the RAW pin. With projects like this you may want to keep the Arduino embedded if it's a "keeper" and these stamp sized units are smaller and cheaper.

[MANIAC]

would you be able to sue seperate el wire instead of leds? if so, what modification would need to be made?? thanks.

[RPKH]

Symbols used in the schematics are transistors not FETs

[Bongmaster]

kools :)