questions before buying--school project

[RJ2120]

Hey so i am doing an interactive mood lighting project for my design class and I would like my lighting fixture to react to motion and sound. It also needs to change colors. However i have little experience with this kind of electronics so i wanted to make sure i was buying the right board, senors, and lights to do what i want to do. I was thinking of having it flash and change colors to music and sound as well as maybe change colors or dim the closer you get to the light fixture. That way weather you are talking, playing music, or walking around the light is reacting. below is the list of what i was looking to buy


-12mm Diffused Thin Digital RGB LED Pixels
-The Starter Pack for Arduino
-Electret Microphone Amplifier - MAX4466 with Adjustable Gain
-Maxbotix Ultrasonic Rangefinder (which rangefinder should i get? was thinking the LV-EZ0)


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[RJ2120]

or for the music and sound aspect would it be easier to us a led music controller? here is a link to one http://www.vozop.com/index.php/vozop-sm ... oller.html

[MaxBotix Inc]

Hello this is Tom Bonar from MaxBotix Inc.

I have seen that you are looking at integrating an ultrasonic sensor in your application regarding interactive mood lighting. How far do you want to detect people in your application? For easy integration, I would recommend testing the MB1210. For integrating with a 10-bit ADC, 1cm is equal to 1bit output by the sensor.

In contrast, the MB1000 requires a quick calculation. When reading this sensor with a 10-bit ADC, every 2 bits the ADC reads is equal to 1 inch.

For integration of our sensors using the analog voltage output, please refer to this article.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Tom Bonar
Technical Support
of MaxBotix Inc.
Phone: (218) 454-0766
Fax: (218) 454-0768
Email: thomas@maxbotix.com
Web: http://www.maxbotix.com
Follow us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MaxBotix- ... 9384204938

Technical support and sales are subject to
the terms and conditions listed on our
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[adafruit_support_mike]

Tom -

I appreciate the fact that your company sells something that's relevant to this project, and I'm glad you told us about it. This forum isn't meant to be a direct marketing opportunity for salesmen wanting to jump on the Maker movement's bandwagon though.

The relevant information is fine. The links to the product and whitepaper are okay. The 50% of your post containing boilerplate, contact info, and legal notices? Not so much.

Please join the conversation.. just talk to us as a person, not as a corporate mouthpiece.

[MaxBotix Inc]

Hello, this is Tom from MaxBotix Inc.

As an employee of MaxBotix Inc., I am legally required to say how I'm affiliated with MaxBotix Inc., when posting on a forum that doesn't belong to MaxBotix. I will take note of your request regarding the legal notice and let my management know about it.

I wasn't trying to come from a sales point of view, as I work in technical support. Our preferred method of support is via email. However, we realize to best support our customers, forum support is sometimes required, and that it is best to answer where the question is asked so others have access to the same information.
I hope this information helps. Please email me at thomas@maxbotix.com if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Tom Bonar
Technical Support
of MaxBotix Inc.
Email: thomas@maxbotix.com
Web: http://www.maxbotix.com

[adafruit_support_mike]

Hi Tom -

Thanks for the reply. Your post was on-topic and informative enough that I didn't want to just hit the Big Red Button. Unfortunately, anything that becomes popular on the internet becomes a magnet for link farmers, spambots, and other such vermin. Some of them have gotten quite creative, and I'm one of the guys who tries to keep our signal-to-noise ratio high.

Frankly, the fact that you made a second post tells me there is indeed a thinking human being on the other side of the screen. That counts for a lot. Now that I know you, I can adjust my own mental filters for the constraints you have to obey.