BLE-Beetle-Pixel

Code for several Neopixel (WS2812B addressable LED) projects, run by a DFRobot BLE Beetle controller

Overview

The DFRobot BLE Beetle controller is an Arduino-compatible variant which includes a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) transceiver based on the TI CC2540 chip. The Beetle is quite compact, 28.8mm X 33.1mm (1.13" x 1.30") and has the bonus of two sets of power terminals (V+ and GND) which are connected to the V+ and 0V pins in its micro-USB connector, so LEDs can be easily connected to power, bypassing the voltage regulator for the controller chip. (Getting to those voltages can be fussy on other small Arduino variants). It is part of their Bluno family of controllers. There are several mobile apps available for both iOS and Android devices, which means it fairly simple to build a wearable NeoPixel project remote controlled by your mobile device.

There is even a Play Bluno app available which includes an RGB color picker, but I found that it constantly barrages the BLE Beetle with messages irrelevant to controlling a simple illuminated wearable. I had much better luck (on iOS) with the BLE Terminal HM-10 App, which lets you preprogram up to 25 buttons with text(ASCII) or HEX commands, as well as including a simple ASCII/HEX type-and-send terminal.

There are 3 different programs in this repository:

• BLE_Simple_NEO is set up to control a few (default 5) addressable LEDs simultaneously, with all set to one color.

  Color: you can set their color via input of RGB values, or by selecting one of 7 preprogrammed color values. A rainbow mode will cycle the LEDs through a color wheel of 255 hues

  General brightness can be set (although it may affect hue)

  It also offers the option of steady on, or a fade-up and down pulse effect. Finally, a Sleep option turns off all the LEDS, but leaves the processor up and looking for new commands.

• BLEetleBelt_v6 controls a long strip (120 pixels default) designed to be mounted in a belt. (Why v6? It took six versions before I was happy with it)

  It offers the same color options as BLE_Simple_NEO but has a widely different assortment of lighting effects: Single color effects: (which may be rotated through the color wheel via the rainbow option)

  • pulse (fade-up/fade-down)
  • "Larson scanner" (like a Cylon eye) with multiple "eyes"
  • meteor or raindrop effect
  • split meteor effect either towards or away from center of the strip

• double meteor effect (criss-crossing the length of the strip)
  Double meteor effect

• theater chase effect, either single color or with a progressive rainbow fade along the length

• progressive rainbow fade of the entire length

There are also several blue-and-white animations, an artifact of when I was assisting with the Helsinki bid to host the World Science Fiction Convention:

• white, then blue, meteor effect
• white, then blue, cylon effect
• white and blue simultaneous meteors

The code also offers some debug and timing command options to tweak the number of eyes and speed of the other effects, and to tweak the timing in the BLE command parser in the event of interference.

• BLEetleCollar offers the same options as the belt, but is optimized for a shorter (default 20) LED strip, so a belt and collar can be worn together and put in complementary modes.

All of these programs use the Adafruit_NeoPixel library, as well as the EEPROM library (to store the last running state) Some Animations are based on those in the Adafruit_NeoPixel library examples