C. Smart Light Device

In this third tutorial, you'll create a "Smart Light" device and program its apps.

Tutorial Goals

The goals of this third tutorial are to help you:

• Practice connecting physical inputs and outputs to your Photon device

• Program a Photon app that controls your device's physical inputs and outputs

• Program a web app that interacts with your Photon device through Particle Cloud

What is a Smart Light?

The Philips Hue smart light bulb was introduced in 2012. Today, there are several companies that offer smart light bulb systems.

From the outside, a smart light bulb looks like a regular light bulb. However, what seems like a simple light bulb is actually a full-fledged IoT device: inside the bulb are multiple LED lights wired to a microcontroller circuit board that connects to your Wi-Fi network.

The smart light interacts with a mobile app that allows you to control an individual light or a group of lights. The mobile app might offer features such as:

• Remotely turn the light(s) on or off

• Set automatic timers to turn the light(s) on or off at specific times

• Adjust the brightness of the light(s)

• Change the color of the light(s)

• Sync the light(s) to music, movies, or games

• Control the light(s) using a voice assistant (such as: Alexa, Siri, etc.)

For this tutorial, you'll create a prototype of a Smart Light device using one LED. Your device will include a button to manually turn the light on or off. You'll program a Photon device app to control the LED using the button. You'll also program a web app that interacts with your Photon device over the internet to monitor the light's status and to allow you to remotely turn the light on or off.