Bringing state-of-the-art LED Lighting to Hobbyists
Note: The Saiko5 software suite is still under very active development. Currently the GUI is being dramatically improved, we're implementing a system to automatically change the network settings on lights, and we are updating the puredata script for better responses to music. Please check back for more information, or join our Development or Announce Lists for updates or in order to contribute.
The software used with the Saiko5 WiFi LED Light Fixture is in the development stages. All software is written to take advantage of the Saiko5 Firmware developed for use with either the Arduino or Maple hobbyist boards. The firmware allows a straightforward communiation protocol using the Open Sound Protocol over WiFi which can allow any programmer to write software to control the color and brightness of the fixture. Software can be found in the Downloads section.
Basic functionality can be easily accessed through the use of the liblo library, available for python, C, PureData, and other languages. Example code of basic python scripts for controlling lights can be found in the saiko5 archive available in the Downloads section, in the subfolder /saiko5/software/scripts/
import liblo
address = liblo.Address("192.168.1.222", "2222")
liblo.send(address, '/light/color/set', ('f', 0.8), ('f', 0.0), ('f', 0.2))
In this code example, which is all that is required to control a Saiko5 fixture, there are three lines.
import liblo
address = liblo.Address("192.168.1.222", "2222")
liblo.send(address, '/light/color/set', ('f', 0.8), ('f',
0.0), ('f', 0.2))
Note that this is configured to send commands out as RGB data. This is not the preferred colorspace for dealing with LED lighting, and we highly recommend the use of HSI (Hue, Saturation, Intensity) for the local representation of light color. Code is available for converting from HSI to RGB in python in the saiko5 software repository at /saiko5/software/puredata/server/HSI2RGB.py
Hue is an intuitive way to think about "color", with values ranging between 0 and 360 degrees, where 0 degrees and 360 degrees are red, and as the hue increases, it passes first through yellow, then green, then cyan, then blue, then magenta before returning to red. This representation allows for the straightforward coding of steady color changes.
Saturation is an intuitive way to think about the "whiteness" of a color, with a saturation of 1.0 meaning as pure as possible of a color, and a saturation of 0.0 meaning white regardless of the hue. The use of saturation values less than 1.0 allows for the easy display of pastel colors.
Intensity is the natural representation for the brightness of a LED light fixture. Intensity is defined here as the sum of the red, green, and blue channels, between 0.0 and 1.0. This is different than the "value" used in HSV, where the value is defined as the maximum value between the red, green, and blue channels. Although the use of intensity instead of value limits the maximum brightness of the light to the brightness of a single channel alone, we feel that this is a more natural way to use a color changing light fixture. For example, in HSI colorspace, a HSI value, if intensity is constant, and the hue is changed, the total power being put out by the light fixture remains constant. However, in HSV colorspace, if the value is constant, and the hue is changed, the power being put out by the light fixture changes.
This is especially evident in the example of going from red to yellow (or any primary to secondary color). In the case of red, a HSV value of (0, 1, 1) is equivalent to a RGB value of (1, 0, 0). This is the same result that would come from using the HSI value (0, 1, 1). However, for yellow, the HSV value of (60, 1, 1) would result in an RGB value of (1, 1, 0) while a HSI value of (60, 1, 1) would result in an RGB value of (0.5, 0.5, 0). In the case of constant value, the amount of light being put out is higher for yellow than red by a factor of two, while in teh case of constant intensity, the amount of light being put out is unchanged.
The Saiko5 Software was primarily developed on Ubuntu 10.04. We highly recommend that to be certain that your setup will function you download and use our LiveCD image which will provide a basic Ubuntu environment with our software preinstalled and set up. However, we understand that this isn't an ideal situation for all users, and so software is also provided on our Downloads page. The saiko5 repository is split into two main folders, /saiko5/firmware/ and /saiko5/software/. This documentation will discuss the software contained in the /saiko5/software/ folder.
The gui folder contains a graphical user interface written in python using wxpython for widgets. This software allows for basic control over the light fixtures using a point and click interface, including choosing a HSI color, picking IP addresses to send the commands to, and doing basic color cycling modes. To use this software, open the saikoControlGui.py in python.
The scripts folder contains basic example code for controlling the light fixtures using liblo in python. Note that using these will require manual configuration of the IP addresses of the lights you are attempting to control.
The puredata folder contains source code for doing audio analysis using puredata with an accompanying python server for actual communication with the Saiko5 light fixtures. This is the software that is used to make the videos of music response on the Media and Installations page.