"Stranger Things" Mini Wall (HC-8+)

[JonnyMac]

For our new "open air" booth at Transworld we created a "Stranger Things" mini wall and it was a huge hit. Here's a picture of the 4' x 2' banner.



It is controlled with an HC-8+. We send commands and messages to it remotely through an Android device. The APK file is included in the code file attachment.

Materials:
-- EFX-TEK HC-8+ Controller
-- HC-06 Bluetooth radio module
-- WS2811 Christmas bulbs (we used the ones with 4" spacing)

We made a nice harness for the radio with Polulu products, but it comes with a cable that you can use. The connections diagram is attached.

The Christmas lights run from 12v and have a signal line that must connect to TTL output 7. The easiest thing to do is cut one end of a 3-pin extension cable off and solder the white wire to the signal line. The power for the Christmas bulbs comes from the V+ and GND terminals. We didn't run the bulbs very brightly, so our normal 1A power supply worked (you may need to use a bigger supply in your version of the project).

Note that we had a group of LED candles that were made for us by our friends at Smooth-On (they have an HC-8+ controlled candelabra in their lobby) so I decided to add them to the project. You can turn them on and off through the app.

The sign understands a bunch of colors an a few commands. Anything not in its command list is spelled out as on the TV show.

The crowds loved it, and several owners of haunts and escape rooms bought components to make their own. I've attached out wall art as a PDF if you don't want to hand-paint letters. We had ours printed as a 4' x 2' vinyl banner.

Have fun!

[JonnyMac]

These are the commands that the current app understands. You can add more to the HC-8+ code. Nothing needs to change in the Android app as this is simply a terminal that sends commands.

OFF
BLACK
RED
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
CYAN
BLUE
VIOLET
PURPLE
PINK
WHITE
STRANGE
RESET
WAX ON
WAX OFF

STRANGE will turn out all lights, then re-light them in a random order. I tended to use this after one of the color commands to get back to the original color sequence.

RESET will turn out the lights, then re-light them sequentially. The difference is that the colors are reset (new randomization). This command also clears the history list in the Android app.

WAX ON and WAX OFF are for candles control. I added this at the show. John and I happened to be talking about Ralph Macchio (as guitar players we both enjoyed "Crossroads") so I decided to use commands that were a throwback to one of his best known parts.

For those of you exploring the Spin code: It's a little heavy, but if you take your time I think you'll learn some neat tricks that are good for a variety of prop control programs.

[JonnyMac]

This is what the Android app looks like. It's really just a simple terminal that keeps track of the last three [unique] strings that are sent to the sign.



If anyone is interested in the MIT App Inventor source code, I will post it. This will let you change features, or add your own logo. Note that I cannot provide support for that end of things. There are several tutorials on the Internet that can help you with MIT AI 2.

[JonnyMac]

During a conversation with JB this morning I realized that I need to provide my HC-06 Bluetooth configuration tool. The HC-06 is funky with it's buffering, so you need a specialty terminal for access -- that's what this program does.

Steps
-- Connect HC-06 to HC-8+ (diagram attached to first post)
-- Open jm_hc-06_configurator__17-03-21.spin in Propeller Tool
-- Press [F12] to open PST. Set the baud rate to 115200
-- Click onto Propeller Tool. No press F10 to download (RAM)
-- Once download starts, press F12 to re-open PST
-- When download is finished, click Enable button on PST

The program will scan the BT connection at known baud rates. With an out-of-the-box module it will probably be 9600. We want to change this to 57600. In the PST terminal, enter this line

BAUD 57600

... then press [Enter] on the keyboard. This will update the radio, and change the program baud to match it. That's the only required change, but I suggest you change the name and pin. On our module I did this:

NAME STRNG_THINGS

... then [Enter]. After that I changed the pin away from the default of 1234.

PIN 1031

... then [Enter].

Changing the name will help you find your radio among other devices likely to be present, and using a new PIN will prevent others from connecting to your radio which would lock you out.