diegomtzg/screenbacklight

Arduino-based embedded lighting system to enhance movie viewing and music listening experiences.

screenbacklight's Issues

BT Serial to Arduino

One thing that would be worth while is to have the arduino communicate via wirelessly with the host computer with a blue tooth module. This would eliminate the need to plug in to a com port. Then, only a single plug would be required to power the arduino/LEDs

Data Getting Mixed Up

It seems like the data being sent from my modified java program sometimes gets out of whack. My guess is the bit shifts aren't quite doing what we think they should be, because we are dealing with a different method of accessing the pixel data than what the original program did. Even the original program seems to show some jumpiness.

Values for the RGB components at times exceed 255 and sometimes are at 0. Most likely cause is the data being sent are not the correct values.

Java Program Should Wait For Arduino

Right now, the java program hammers the COM port with data no matter what the Arduino is doing. If there is any kind of delay at all on the Arduino side, this will cause the serial port buffer to grow considerably. Also, any timing mismatch (out of sync data transfer) can cause the same issue.

For this reason, we should send serial port data, and only take a new screen shot and process the image and send the rgb values back to the Arduino when the Arduino is ready. Likewise, when the Arduino receives the required amount of data, it should then send back an "OK" message to indicate it is ready for the next data stream.

This will also help improve performance of the program running on the client machine. Why? It will only be generating images and parsing the data/sending through the serial port when needed.

We can also have the java program send an "are you connected" message to the Arduino so then they both know that a device is listening on the other end.