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Smart electronic system for dancing fountains control capable to create water
and lighting scenarios synchronized with a music track

Article · May 2016

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 VOL. 11, NO. 9, MAY 2016 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
©2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

SMART ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR DANCING FOUNTAINS CONTROL

CAPABLE TO CREATE WATER AND LIGHTING SCENARIOS
SYNCHRONIZED WITH A MUSIC TRACK
Paolo Visconti1, Paolo Costantini1 and G. Cavalera2
1Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Monteroniroad, Lecce, Italy
2Cavalera Sistemi S.R.L. Galatone, Lecce, Italy

E-Mail : paolo.visconti@unisalento.it

ABSTRACT
This work regards on hardware and firmware development of an electronic control and driving system for dancing
fountains, able to manage water and lighting scenarios synchronized with mp3 music files stored on an external SD
memory card connected to the designed system. The smart PIC-based control unit reproduces the music file related to a
particular scenario and drives, in a synchronized way, fountain’s LED-based headlights and water pumps to create amazing
light and water plays.

Keywords: microcontroller; control and driving system; dancing fountains; light and water plays, hardware and software development.

INTRODUCTION which the system stores mp3 music files and the related
In last years, people’s needs in the fields of scenarios. In this way, the user can create custom
aesthetic taste, comfort and attention to details have scenarios on the basis of the own fountain, through a
considerably changed. In outdoor furniture field, more and dedicated software supplied with the control system. The
more people requires particular features to make their architecture of a typical dancing fountain managed by the
spaces cozy, liveable and original. This trend has also designed control system is reported in Figure-2: the
affected a classical element of outdoor furnishings: the controller drives, through dedicated power drivers, the
fountains. The simple gush of a fountain now is not water pumps and LED-based headlights in order to realize
enough, people wants and tries a greater visual impact. In scenarios with amazing water and light plays, and at the
order to meet this demand, specialized designers have same time it plays the music through the sound system.
created the dancing fountains (or musical fountains),
which combine water and light plays on the basis of a
reproduced music track. This new type of furniture has
collected considerable success in recent years, creating a
new and highly demanded field in the fountains' market.
Two famous examples of dancing fountains already
installed in our cities are reported in Figure-1: on the left
the one of Placa d'Espana, Barcelona and on the right the
one of Bellagio's casino, Las Vegas.

Figure-1. Dancing fountains in Plaça d’Espanya,

Barcelona (on the left) and near Bellagio casinò,
Las Vegas (on the right). Figure-2. Block diagram of the general structure of a
dancing fountain managed by the designed control
In this work, it was designed and implemented an and driving system.
electronic control system able to manage the entire
structure of a dancing fountain: it drives water pumps and In this work, in addition to the realization of the
LED-based lights, reproduces the music files and described electronic control system, it has been
synchronizes water and light scenarios with the music implemented a PC software with which the user can create
itself. This system is equipped with an mp3 reader for a digital file related to a particular water and light’s
music reproduction and with a slot for SD memory, on scenario. Each byte of the binary file created through this

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software represents the state of the eight digital outputs at application. It is provided with an mp3/wav decoder with a
every moment, as reported in the block diagram of Figure- reliable digital signal processing (DSP) chip, that exhibits
2, used to drive the water pumps and LED-based high performances and low power consumption, combined
headlights. Each file is related to a particular scenario and to a 18-bit digital-analog converter (DAC) and to an audio
is associated to a specific (.mp3 or .wav) music file. All amplifier for earphone. The VS1011e embedded chip, with
scenario and music files are stored on SD memory card Slave role, receives as input a bit stream through the Serial
connected to the designed control system. Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus, decodes it and sends the
result to the 18-bit sigma-delta DAC.
Architecture of the designed control system The entire PIC-interfacing and decoding process
The Figure-3 shows an architecture scheme of the is controlled by the Serial Control Interface (SCI) module,
developed control system for musical fountains. used for reading/writing of control registers that select the
functioning mode, set the clock, choose the visual effects,
set the volume and so on. It's also possible to set custom
specifications and to save them into a user section of the
RAM memory of 0.5kB capacity. The Figure-4 shows the
internal architecture of the VS1011 mp3 decoder.

Figure-3. Architecture scheme of the designed control

system.

As can be observed in the figure above, the

designed system is composed by the following units:
 an interface for the access to SD memory card; Figure-4. Block diagram of the internal hardware
 a decoder for the reproduction of the music files; architecture of VS1011e decoder (on the left) and LQFP
 a real-time clock for setting of scenario’s start time; external package of the used mp3 decoder (on the right).
 an interface for auxiliary inputs;
For the storage of scenario and music files, it has
 a keypad and a LCD display for user interfacing; been used a Secure Digital memory, connected to
 an RS232 serial interface for system’s local microcontroller through the SPI interface. The
monitoring; microcontroller chosen for the designed control system is
 an interface for control and driving of the outputs; the PIC18F822 of Microchip's PIC18 family. The only
 a microcontroller for system’s management and a features researched in the PIC device’s choosing were the
RAM memory module. presence of SPI interface for mp3 decoder and SD
memory management, of a serial interface for PC
After system boot, the first step is to set the start connection and of a high number of inputs and outputs
data and time of the desired scenario. When the real-time pins for the control of the components shown in Figure-2.
clock (RTC) reports to microcontroller this start time, this The designed control system extracts the scenario file
last accesses SD memory (formatted with FAT32 file from SD memory and stores it into an external RAM
system), finds the file related to the programmed scenario memory (shown in Figure-5) in order to allow its easier
and copies it into the RAM module. Thereafter, the and faster management and thus a better synchronization
microcontroller accesses again the SD memory, finds the with the music file.
music file associated with the scenario and sends its
content to mp3 decoder. The decoder, which was set in
listening state from the initial reset, starts the data stream's
decoding and the music reproduction. At the same time,
PIC's firmware reads, from RAM module, the scenario file
and, on the basis of this one, updates the system's outputs
related towater pumps and headlights control, obviously
synchronizing this operation with the reproduced music.
The first step in the design and realization of this Figure-5. Microchip 23K256 RAM memory chip (a) and
control system was the choice of mp3 decoder. It has been related packaging scheme with the description of the
selected the VS1011e integrated circuit of VLSI Solution, pins’ functions (b).
because of its technical features suitable for the specific

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The chosen RAM module is the Microchip power supply voltage (3.3V). The adopted and realized
23K256 IC, which has the following technical features: circuital solution in shown in the Figure-7.
 SPI access interface;
 [2.7 ÷3.6]V range for power supply voltage, suitable
also for the other components and devices of the
realized controller;
 static memory: no refreshing needs;
 256 KBcapacity.
The chosen memory capacity is more than
enough, since for a single scenario with a music file of 5
minutes duration; about 24 KB of memory are needed. In
order to establish start data and time of a programmed
scenario, the control system uses the ST Microelectronics
M41T93 RTC device. The designed system controls the
drivers for the water pumps and the LED-based headlights.
These drivers represent the power section of the overall
system; therefore they must be insulated from the smart
PIC-based processing section. For this purpose, it was
realized an intermediary driver which adapts the voltage
levels and, at the same time, insulates the power section
from the control section of the board, through the TPL-627
opto-couplers with a Darlington BJT transistor as a
sensing element. The circuital scheme, shown in Figure-6,
is composed by the TPL-627 opto-couplers driven by
PIC's digital outputs for water pumps and headlights
control and by the power lines (J6 output connector) for
the managing of power drivers.
PIC’soutputs
Figure-7. Realized circuit to get electrical isolation of
input lines connected to the transducers used in the
designed control system.

As shown in the Figure-7, the input lines

provided by theINPUT_LINE_5x1 connector, coming
from the water level and wind force sensors, pass through
a debounce circuit in order to attenuate the abrupt signal
variations caused by some oscillatory phenomena on the
transducers. The debounce circuit is composed by a 10kΩ
resistor, a 100nF capacitor and a protection diode for
eventual inverse currents. The input lines connected to the
sensors and to keypad (CON_BUTTONS_5x1 connector)
converge on the same input data bus (DATA_IN). The
needed multiplexing operation between the INPUT_LINE
and CON_BUTTONS input lines is performed through the
READ-INPUT_LN and READ_BUTTONS selection bits
and by means ofthe four diodes (D7-D10) present, on the
circuit, right after the keypad. Both selection lines have an
Figure-6. Circuit for voltage level adaptation and for anti-spike circuit (a 4,7kΩ resistor in series and a 22pF
insulation of the power section from the control capacitor) and a further 4,7kΩ resistor to avoid current
section of designed board. overload on output pins of the microcontroller.
In the architecture of the designed control system,
The designed system is provided with a numeric the graphical user interface is composed by a 16x2 LCD
keypad for user interfacing and with some analog inputs display that shows the control messages. For system's
for the anemometers and for a fluid level sensor, used for power supply, a specific circuital section has been
detecting the water level in the fountain's pool. These designed, with the necessary surge protection (caused
sensors are useful for adjusting the power of the water jets from the power loads connection). The power supply
according to the wind's force and water level in the pool. section provides two different and stabilized voltage
Also the input lines must be opto-coupled, since the used levels, the first equal to 3.3V for the PIC, SD memory,
transducers require voltage levels greater than board's mp3 decoder, RAM module, RTC, LCD and keypad while
the second one equal to 12V for input and output drivers.

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The designed and realized circuital solution is shown in

the Figure-8.

Figure-9. Microchip PICDEM HPC Explorer Board

formicro controller’s programming
and debug.

In order to test SD memory access, it has been

used the PIC-tail Daughter Board for SD and MMC cards,
Figure-8. Circuital scheme of the surge protection and
shown in Figure-10. This electronic board is an expansion
power supply sections (with ac/DC adapter and suitable
module for the PICDEM HPC board, which, in this way,
DC/DC converters) in order to generate stabilized
has the mother-board role and allows the interfacing
3.3/12V voltage values.
between the SD or MMC memory unit and the
microcontroller's SPI bus. The expansion module is
In order to satisfy the surge protection needs,
vertically connected to the PICDEM HPC development
some varistors have been used on 50Hz (VRMS=230V)
board through a pin connector composed by 2 lines each
main voltage side (on the left of T1 transformer with
of 14 pins.
N1/N2 = 220/12) and a Zener diode D2 with voltage
breaker role on the DC voltage side (after T1 transformer
and the diode bridge). The 3.3V stabilized voltage is
generated by the LD1086V33 voltage regulator, which
provides a maximum current of 1.5A and is contained in a
TO220 package in order to allow the mating with a heat
sink. The 12V insulated voltage is guaranteed by the
NMA1212SC DC-DC converter (manufactured by Murata
Power Solutions), which receives as input a 12V DC
voltage and provides at its output a ±12V DC voltage with
the added benefit of galvanic isolation to reduce the
switching noise.
The Murata Power Solutions NMA series of
DC/DC converters, in effect, guarantee a 1kV DC
insulation (for 1 second) between the input and output
circuits. In the circuital scheme of Figure-8, VDC+ Figure-10. PIC-tail Daughter Board expansion module for
represents the +12V DC insulated voltage generated by the SD or MMC memory connection to PICDEM HPC
NMA1212SC DC-DC converter, VDC0 represents the development board.
insulated ground for the driver units and VDD indicates
the 3.3V DC stabilized voltage generated by the 12V/3.3V On the expansion module, between the connector
DC LD1086V33 voltage regulator. and pins of SD memory, there are some buffers for
adapting the [0-5] V DC voltage levels of the signals
Hardware realization of prototype of the designed generated by microcontroller to [0-3.3] V DC voltage
control and driving system levels required for the SD memory. The power supply
After the circuit designing and software voltage (3.3V) is provided by a voltage regulator which
simulation phases, a prototype of the control/driving receives as input the voltage from PICDEM HPC board
system has been realized in order to test its functionalities. and reduces it at the proper 3.3V value. Two LEDs are
For PIC18F8722 programming and following test and used to indicate the proper power supply and operations of
debugging of the developed firmware, the Microchip the SD memory.
PICDEM HPC Explorer Board, shown in Figure-9, has In the designed control system, the music files
been used. stored on SD memory are reproduced during the scenarios
execution by means of an mp3 reader. For this reason, the
VS10xx proto-board (shown in Figure-11) is used for
connecting VS1011e mp3 decoder to the realized system
prototype.

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Figure-11. VS10xx Proto Board forthe connection of Figure-12. Circuital scheme of the realized prototype of
VLSI Solution VS1011emp3 decoder to the realized designed control/driving system.
system prototype.
In Figure-13 is reported a complete image of
The VS10xx proto-board is a simple stand-alone realized prototype of the control system, which shows the
mp3/wav reader and constitutes an easy platform for all interfacing of each hardware module described during this
VLSI Solution's products. It has embedded the slot for a paragraph: in the magnified image on top left, the pull-up
common 1.5V AA battery, the VS1011e mp3 decoder resistors and VDD regulation resistors can be seen, while
integrated into the LQFP package, a 12.288 MHz quartz, on bottom right corner, the impedance matching of the
an EEPROM memory for firmware loading, three buttons, SCK line is shown.
an SD connector (only for stand-alone uses), appropriate
interface circuits for earphone audio output and for the
microphone input, a boost circuit for rising the 1.5V power
supply voltage and a series of jumpers and connectors for
custom circuit configurations. Thanks to these connectors,
the VS10xx proto-board has been connected to Microchip
PICDEM HPC board and then to the microcontroller. In
this case too, the [0-5] V DC microcontroller's voltage
levels have been adapted to [0 - 3.3] V DC voltage levels
required by the mp3 decoder, reducing mother-board
power supply through a voltage regulator. On Microchip
mother-board, there is a connector with three pins, each
connected to a pin of the voltage regulator.
As reported on PICDEM HPC guide, in order to
set voltage to the desired value, a 1.18kΩ resistor with 1%
tolerance must be connected between the 2nd pin (the
central one) and ground. Resistors with these features don't
exist on the market, therefore a resistance of 1.2kΩ (near Figure-13. Hardware prototype of the designed control
to desired value) has been generated through a 1kΩ and a system, assembled in its full version through the
200Ω resistors connected in series. Thanks to this interfacing of different development boards in order to test
resistance, 5V VDD voltage has been regulated to 3.3V its proper functioning.
DC value. The proper operation of PICDEM HPC +
PICtailboards system has been verified and then the Firmware development for managing of scenarios
VS10xx proto-board has been connected in order to consisting of water and light plays
complete the experimental setup. In Figure-12 the circuital The PIC18F8722 microcontroller is driven by a
scheme of the realized prototype is shown. firmware composed of five files, written in C language by
means of C18 compiler of MPLAB development platform.
The implemented functions present an high abstraction
level: the microcontroller's main operations can be
understood by code reading, but the low level operations
remain hidden on both hardware and software points of
view. The flow chart in Figure-14 shows the different
working modes and the sequence of executed instructions

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from the processing unit of the control system; therefore it

can support the reader in the firmware comprehension.

Figure-15. Screenshot of main.c file of the developed

firmware.

The other project files are included in the first

four code lines of main.c. Starting from the fifth line, the
code follows the structure shown in the flow chart. First of
all, the firmware resets the mp3 decoder. Thereafter, a
sound test is performed (sinetest() function), the first file
on the SD memory, a text file, is read and sent on the
serial port (read_text_on_serial(0)funtion) and after the
Figure 14. Architecture of the firmware developed for the
second file on SD memory, an mp3 file, is reproduced
designed control/driving system of the dancing fountains.
(play_file(1) function). All PIC configurations and the
board's base functions are enclosed in the
Substantially, the written code is divided into five
conf_hardw_softw.h file. The physical communication
files:
between the microcontroller and SD card is implemented
in the driver_SDcard.h file. The FAT2 library is a driver
 main.c
for the FAT32 file system and it has been implemented in
 conf_hardw_firmw.h order to access to the data blocks in the memory and find,
 driver_SDcard.h into the file system, all sections of a certain file. The code
 FAT32.h that allows the communication with the mp3 decoder is
 driver_VS1011.h contained in driver_VS1011.h file. It makes possible the
creation and sending of a command to the VS1011e
The main.c file, shown in the screenshot of device, the hardware or complete device's reset, the audio
Figure-15, contains the main of the project which includes test execution and finally the sending of a data block to the
all other project files. mp3 decoder. The end of a mp3 file is indicated through a
stream of 2048 zeros.
For PIC programming and debug, it has been
used the Microchip MPLAB ICD2 PIC programmer and
the MPLAB IDE software. This programmer was
connected to the Microchip PICDEM HPC board, as
shown in Figure-16a, through the RJ25 6-pins connector
schematically detailed in Figure-16b.
Finally, by performed tests relative to the music
files' reproduction, it can be stated that the developed
firmware ensures an high audio reproduction quality of the
mp3 music files.

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