Pan and Tilt kit on its way

I just ordered a pan and tilt system from ServoCity - the SPT100. It can carry up to 10 ounces in weight, which should be sufficient for a bulb (even the smart ones) and a socket.

I intend to use this to control the direction of a light bulb, as opposed to the more typical uses such as camera or airplane. The SPT100 can be hung upside down per spec - exactly what I need!

The project will be developed in phases:
1. Start with one pan & tilt and write/test code to control it using raspberry pi with a servo controller if necessary.
2. Separately plan/design the bulb dimming and color control. Do I:

• use a packaged solution - such as the super expensive and feature-rich Philips Hue - or 
• design a limited version myself (good enough for a garage) with a cheaper RGBW led bulb

3. Integrate 1 and 2. If the solution so far is fully home-grown in my garage with no smart bulbs, the connections are bound to be hard-wired. Networking (zigbee, bluetooth, wifi) will happen at a later stage.

4. Scale: What if I wanted 6 bulbs in a room, all individually controlled by the pi?

5. Installation planning: Track lighting system is one possibility to explore

Light Automation

Objectives:

 

Control lighting in the room using raspberry pi. A set of bulbs must be programmable for task lighting, to mood lighting. If dance-floor effect is possible with the spot-light capability of the bulbs, synthesized light effects are a plus.

 

Must haves:

1. RGBW dimmable LED bulbs
2. Brightness to meet task lighting and mood
3. Swivel control of the bulb socket
4. Programmability of lights and swivel with python

Research so far has dragged up:

1. Bulbs: Philips Hue as the winner for programmable bulbs but LIFX and Belkin follow close on its heels if 16 million colors is not a criterion
• Other options include LIFX, belkin, LG, Samsung, Lumen
2. Robotics solution for swivel: Also called pan and tilt
•  Uses 2 servos, one generic for pan and the other specialized for tilt
3. Track lighting systems for mounting several bulbs
4. Controller board for each pan-tilt assembly which talks to the pi using a wireless technology

Found some interesting videos with low power led projects such as the led cube. Look it up on youtube.

A note on the network technologies:

• Bridge is on the internet using wifi
• Hue and its friends talk to the bridge using Zigbee
• There is no bridge zigbee API available for adding custom devices - walled garden

Other smart bulbs connect to the link/bridge using Bluetooth LE. Bluetooth LE is a PAN technology with a span of a few meters whereas Zigbee is a LAN and covers the entire house.