Bluetooth-based Remote Control App for Outdoor Lights

Manages Multiple Light Locations, Stores Custom Settings For Each User

The customer manufactures and markets outdoor lights for commercial and private spaces. The lights have an RGBW capability that uses four subpixels (red, green, blue, and white). The company needed a mobile app for managing their outdoor string lights.

Problem

The client’s lights are controlled by an RF remote control. They employed Softeq to create a mobile application that would link a smartphone to their outdoor string lights.

The solution had to provide greater control and functionality than the RF remote. It would set up different lighting modes, color temperatures, flashing effects, etc. The app had to use Bluetooth to connect to the string lights.

Solution

bluetooth_based_remote_control_app_for_outdoor_lights

Softeq created a mobile app to be used as a remote control for managing the colorful outdoor string lights. The app connects to the string’s controller via Bluetooth and allows the user to manage multiple parameters:

Different lighting modes
Color temperature
Flashing effects
Timers for automatic turn-off, etc.

The connection between the lights and the app is encrypted with a PIN. Additionally, users enter the PIN to manage particular functions, such as disabling individual bulbs from the string light or deleting the string.

Application Functionality:

Manages multiple light locations, e.g., Backyard
Detects available garlands
Manages light strings (single strings or groups, e.g., Backyard Group: Patio, Pergola, Porch)
Supports on/off scheduling
Selecting color combinations
Selecting lighting modes, e.g. Solid, Pulse, Twinkle
Creating custom lighting modes
Supports black-out of selected bulbs

Security

The solution leverages the authorization mechanism provided by the Google Firebase platform–the user must first log into his/her account to proceed to the app. The app communicates with the lights string over a PIN-secured channel using Bluetooth.

Challenge

The hardware and firmware for the lighting were developed by a contract manufacturer in China. The team had to adapt the development schedule to the availability of the hardware and firmware components.

The initial idea was to store the configuration of the lights and user profiles on the lighting device’s flash memory. However, the vendor could not entirely implement this capability. The device memory can only store either the current lighting mode, or a select color and event timer, or several lighting schedules. The team suggested using the Google Firebase platform to be able to store the user data on the server. The platform can also synchronize the data with the device while the Internet connection is on. If the string light is used in an Internet free zone, the user will be able to control the settings thanks to the offline mode availability. When the Internet is back, the changes will be synced to the Firebase server.