Tag Archives: arduino

As you may have noticed, I love calling everything a “module” more and more. And with good reason: If you build a project of this size, splitting up in modules makes sense. It allows you to focus on PART of the problem, and replace the module if you find something smarter / better.

Required specs for the new automation hardware

As I was building out something new, I figured it should be big and bad enough to handle anything I want to throw at it, PLUS have room for future expansion. As I was falling in love with many smaller light sources again, and the RGB-CCT led panels, I came to the conclusion that whatever hardware I build, it has to have MANY channels I can use to control and possibly dim all hardware. Just as an idea, I wanted to use three RGB-CCT led panels, and those use 5 channels each for red, green, blue, cold- and warm white. So that is 15 PWM channels at 24V already maxing out an Arduino Mega (which has exactly 15 PWM outputs). So I needed more. Time to grab back to my faithful PCA9586 PWM I²C-based controllers. I would not place them onboard this time, but design them as separate modules that I could either place on top of the Artemis Controller, or optionally somewhere else (just running power to them and the I²C connection).

In the end, this is the huge wishlist I cam up with regarding the automation hardware: