Skylighting

Noisebridge's skylights are boring and dull.

Lets make them shiny shiny!

The Idea

In all of Noisebridge's skylights, a set of RGB LED strips at the base. Each controlled by a standalone microprocessor connected via ZigBee, with the network as a whole controlled by a RaspberryPI base station.

The system should be as Anti-Fragile as possible:

• If the power goes out, it should come back on and look neat
• Each skylight can act independently of hardware failure of any other skylight
• Multiple base station designs can be used to control simultaneously, as long as can speak a protocol over ZigBee
• Wireless by default, wired if available
• Use of DNS-SD so you don't have to scan the network to find a damn basestation
• Replacing parts is really cheap and easy to do

Some really neat uses:

• Clicking a spot on a map on Infobanana turns the overhead lighting into a magical directional indicator
• When someone buzzes the door, perhaps a certain pattern could be shown
• A UI that lets one configure each cell's RGB for an event
• Automatically turning on/off based on a motion sensor grid in the space

The Software

• Skyglighting on Github - Main issue tracker
• Graviton - Internet+RPI network control, interactivity, and discoverability
• gpiotty - RPI+ZigBee connectivity

The Hardware

• A handful of LPD8806 LED Strips
• Taking advantage of LED Arudino RGB LED Strips Arudino