Honorable Mention: Gregory Bartlett
Description:
The Prop 128 v2 Light Controller is a second generation light controller that can synchronize up to 128 light channels to music. Each light channel has 255 levels of intensity. The heart of the system is the Main Board controlled by the Propeller chip. The Main Board can directly control 32 light channels using four 74HC4094 SIPO chips to trigger eight, 4 channel Solid State Relay (SSR) Boards connected via Cat5e patch cords. It can also control up to three Daughter Boards via an RS422 link connected by Cat5e patch cords. Each Daughter Board can directly control 32 light channels using four 74HC4094 SIPO chips to trigger the SSR boards. See Figures 1-3 for a picture of each board.
Modes of Operation:
Mode 1: Stand alone mode. The controller waits for a predefined start time. It then plays MP3 encoded songs and synchronizes the light channels to the music using data stored on an SD card until a predefined end time. This is the primary mode of operation. See Figure 4 for a Block Diagram of Mode 1.
Mode 2: Controlled by a PC via a wireless ZigBee radio link. The PC plays the MP3 songs and sends the light channel data to the controller using a MaxStream XBee Pro ZigBee radio link. This is the fallback operating mode if Mode 1 fails to initialize. Mode 2 is also used during display setup to test and troubleshoot the display. See Figure 5 for a Block Diagram of Mode 2
A Sequence is a light show synchronized to music. A freeware application called Vixen (http://www.vixenlights.com/) is used by the lighting artist to create the sequence. See Figure 6 for a screenshot of Vixen. Vixen divides the song into discrete time blocks called Events. Each event is usually 50ms to 100ms long called the Event Period. The intensity of each light channel can be changed at every event to correspond to changes in the song. The Sequence is the collection of these intensity changes for each event of the song. A separate application written by the designer called the Prop 128 Show Builder is used to take the Sequence data generated by Vixen and reformat it for use by the Prop 128. See Figure 7 for a screenshot of the Prop 128 Show Builder.
A Show is a group of Sequences and Pauses between the Sequences. The Pauses can be anything between 1 second and 3599 seconds (59 min and 59 sec). There can be up to 999 Sequences and Pauses in a Show.
The Prop 128 v2 controller controls 255 levels of intensity on 128 channels updated up to 20 times per second. It also simultaneously reads data from two open files on an SD card and controls an MP3 player. All while monitoring a ZigBee radio. This would be impossible for any other single microcontroller except the Propeller Chip!
The Prop 128 v2 Light Controller was primarily designed to control the Christmas light display on the designer’s house. But it can be used for many other events also such as: Halloween displays, 4th of July displays, parties, weddings and any other event where you want lights synchronized with music.
Downloads:
Prop 128 Source Code (.zip)
Prop 128 Schematic (.zip)
Full Description and Data (.pdf)
Judges Notes:
- Synchronizes lighting events to an MP3 file, either read directly from an SD card or wirelessly transmitted by a computer, with up to 128 8-bit lighting channels refreshed at 20 Hz. Distributes playback, communication, and multichannel analog control among processors.
- The Prop 128 v2 Light Controller allows anyone to produce their own light show; set it up to receive lighting commands wirelessly from a personal computer, or program a light show into a SD crad and have them run in sync with MP3 files.