Hi all, I'm currently in the process of refurbishing a small purpose-built Home Cinema.
I have virtually completed the lighting scheme for the Auditorium, and with exception of a few of the re-wired original lights, the whole lot has been achieved with LED strip.
The Screen is protected by motorised Theatrical Tabs when not in use, and I have designed a simple way of putting a decent amount of light on them using RGB 5050/300 sitting in narrow, home-made mirrored reflector troughs to get as much light as possible on the fabric - which is an olive green velvet - so not the best for light! but it does actually work better than expected.
One of the problems I am grappling with at the moment, is how to effectively automate the strip to fade in/out in sync with the Tabs.
The ideal solution would be a module that will change state over a programmed time period, upon a trigger pulse from say, a micro-switch at the head of the Tab track. This wiould also give Me the ability to over-ride the microswitch remotely when needed.
The nearest readily available item I know of, is the circuit used in touch dimmers, but their routine is cyclic, in that is they will only run at a pre-determined rate, and wont change state by a gradual fade up/down upon a momentary touch.
As I see it, I only have 2 realistic options to achieve this; 1, to go down the (time-consuming?) arduino route, or 2, to build a mechanical assembly with simple slip-clutch on the Tabs motor (or cord) to operate a potentiometer-based solution. (a bit Heath Robinson I know, but if it works...)
Any thoughts from those Who have solved a similar problem will be very gratefully received.
I have virtually completed the lighting scheme for the Auditorium, and with exception of a few of the re-wired original lights, the whole lot has been achieved with LED strip.
The Screen is protected by motorised Theatrical Tabs when not in use, and I have designed a simple way of putting a decent amount of light on them using RGB 5050/300 sitting in narrow, home-made mirrored reflector troughs to get as much light as possible on the fabric - which is an olive green velvet - so not the best for light! but it does actually work better than expected.
One of the problems I am grappling with at the moment, is how to effectively automate the strip to fade in/out in sync with the Tabs.
The ideal solution would be a module that will change state over a programmed time period, upon a trigger pulse from say, a micro-switch at the head of the Tab track. This wiould also give Me the ability to over-ride the microswitch remotely when needed.
The nearest readily available item I know of, is the circuit used in touch dimmers, but their routine is cyclic, in that is they will only run at a pre-determined rate, and wont change state by a gradual fade up/down upon a momentary touch.
As I see it, I only have 2 realistic options to achieve this; 1, to go down the (time-consuming?) arduino route, or 2, to build a mechanical assembly with simple slip-clutch on the Tabs motor (or cord) to operate a potentiometer-based solution. (a bit Heath Robinson I know, but if it works...)
Any thoughts from those Who have solved a similar problem will be very gratefully received.