DroidOrb
========

DroidOrb is an extensible, open sourced Android accessory. In it's barest form, 
it is a bedside or table-top dock for your Android phone that will charge the 
phone, and provide external notifications via it's "orb", which is a translucent 
white ball containing RGB and white LED's. The orb will glow and pulsate in various 
colours depending on the configuration of the DroidOrb app on the phone, and is used 
primarily for alerting the user to notifications such as missed calls, missed e-mails, 
etc.

The extensability factor allows modules to be plugged into the DroidOrb to provide 
additional integration. An example of a module would be a home automation module, 
allowing the phone to control lights and appliances while docked. Other ideas include 
an alarm system interface, interactive elements such as sound and light sensors, 
barometers and temperature sensors for weather prediction, etc.

Requirements
============

You will need the following to build this DroidOrb prototype:

Hardware:
- Arduino Uno board
- Sparkfun USB Host shield
- 3 LEDs: Red, Green, and Blue (preferably high-bright clear type)
  One RGB LED would work even better
- 3x 470 ohm resistors (1k should be fine too)
- 9V battery or wall plug to power the Arduino and charge the phone
- breadboard for ease, but you can solder the components onto the space
  provided on the USB host shield if you want to
- Android phone/tablet with USB cable

Optional:
- Table tennis ball for the orb
- Some aluminium foil for reflector to help diffuse the LED light

Software:
- Arduino development environment
- Microbridge library for Arduino: http://code.google.com/p/microbridge/

Construction
============

- Connect the USB host shield to the Arduino Uno board
- Connect pin 3 to the Blue LED, via a 470 ohm resistor to ground
- Connect pin 5 to the Green LED, via a 470 ohm resistor to ground
- Connect pin 6 to the Red LED, via a 470 ohm resistor to ground

Optional:
- Cut a small circle off the table tennis ball
- Stick a small piece of foil over the top of the LEDs
- Place the table tennis ball over the LEDS and stick in place with Prestik or similar

- Connect Arduino to your laptop/PC
- Fire up the Arduino IDE, load the droid_orb.pde project
- Compile and upload the firmware

Usage
=====

- Connect the 9V power to the Arduino board
- Enable USB Debugging on your Android phone
- Use Android SDK to compile and upload the Android app to your phone
- Unplug the phone from your PC/laptop and plug it into the Arduino USB host shield port
- Open the DroidOrb app
- It should say "accessory connected". If not, is a problem somewhere. Try resetting the 
  Arduino. Also monitor the serial output to spot any problems.
- Click the "Test" button to see the red LED pulsate
- Use the sliders to set the inidividual brightness of each LED, then click "Set Colour" 
  to apply the setting

How to contribute
=================

This project is still in it's infancy and any contributions are welcome, whether it is 
code, design, prototype building, or just ideas. Please see the Issues list for some of 
the ideas and work that needs to be done. Feel free to jump in and add comments or ideas 
that may be useful to this project.