How To Make DUMB Lights SMART (For the LAST TIME)

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OK, so I probably spent way too much time making these dumb lights smart, but It just needed to happen! ESP32, ESPHome and Home Assistant to the rescue!
I made a bad purchasing decision a few years ago. At the time, these cheap pole accent lights seemed like exactly the thing I needed, but the remote made me crazy. So, instead of buying new ones, I decided to fix these ones with some electronics. I used an ESP32, some resistors, some MOSFETs, and a new power supply to make a smart controller. I even created my own custom PCB using an app called Fritzing.
I used ESPHome to program the ESP32 and then connected it to Home Assistant to handle all the automation. Now I'm happy with these lights.
Home Assistant: www.home-assistant.io/
ESPHome: esphome.io/index.html
Fritzing: fritzing.org/
Home assistant light template: github.com/gmorse81/HA-backup...
Fritzing file: github.com/askcloudarchitech/...
videos mentioned in this one
• How To NEVER Touch a L...
• Waaaay Over-Engineerin...
00:00 - Turning Dumb Lights Smart
00:17 - The Problem with My Lights
00:43 - Attempt 1 - IR Blaster
01:18 - Dumb Light Disassembly
01:54 - The unknown LED strip
03:41 - All the parts necessary to smarten these lights
04:23 - Wiring the Color LEDs
05:43 - Wiring the White LEDs
06:33 - Disaster Strikes!
07:31 - Designing and Building a Custom PCB
08:35 - The Finished Product
08:54 - Wrapping it up with Home Assistant Software

Опубликовано:

27 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 89

@YeahNoTellTheTruth 6 месяцев назад

Sometimes going down the rabbit hole just makes you feel good. Subbed.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

I feel like “sometimes” might be an understatement for me personally. 🤣

@jimmyscott5144 6 месяцев назад

I think the LED strip is considered WRGB (white red green blue) when you use white is a more pure white then mixing rgb. You can also get wrgbs in different whites (warmer/natural and cooler white colors)

@mmmaxxx__ 6 месяцев назад

For anyone wanting to have white in their room, DO NOT USE RGB ONLY!! Its attempt at producing white is terrible and even eye-straining. Get RGBW/RGBWW/RGBCW/RGBCCT

@EwenBell 6 месяцев назад

Respect brother. Respect. Have wasted most of my life engineering solutions that already existed. No regrets.

@Bruno-wg1ct 6 месяцев назад

This is how great engineers are born!!! It is a simple project in terms of complexity but it's such a fun, relatively cheap and cool way of learning new things in eletronics. I once had the same problem and my train of thougths were exactly like yours which is cool... great job!

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks!

@SliphRahl 7 месяцев назад

Have you looked at WLED instead of ESP Home?

@wscottfunk 7 месяцев назад

He's deep enough into Home Assistant, ESPhome and tinkering, so he definitely knew about WLED. Looks like he enjoyed the process though, so kudos to him for achieving his goal!

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Yes I looked at it but I wasn’t sure if it would do the PWM for controlling the white LEDs (it might, I just knew I could do it with esphome so I stuck with it)

@wscottfunk 7 месяцев назад

@@LearnFastMakeThingsyes, WLED can do that. Nice job. Isn't it funny how we will spend $80 to convert a $40 device rather than buy a ready to use replacement for $45? 😂 Thanks for sharing!

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Interesting. Well the good news is that I could easily replace the software on the esp32 and the hardware could remain the way it is. I might try it out. Yeah, my wife watched this video and said “I told you it would be cheaper to buy new lights”. But it’s all about the experience for me. It’s fun to do stuff like this plus now they work exactly the way I want them to.

@thezfunk 6 месяцев назад

@@LearnFastMakeThings And then you never have to admit defeat! You can also make the argument about less E-waste or something.

@MinecraftBenny 6 месяцев назад

I did something extremely similar with a cheap RGBW led lightbulb. Similar IR remote. I used an esp32 running HomeSpan for Apple HomeKit integration and a simple IR led. Works perfectly.

@0xBerto 7 месяцев назад

Glad I just found this channel. Subscribed! Keep doing stuff like this 🚀

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Thanks for the sub!

@HATipsByLarry 6 месяцев назад

Really good video. You could have just used WLED, it's firmware that you flash on a esp32 or 8266, Natively supported by Home Assistant, and does support the RGBW strips that you have. I use it all over my house, under the kitchen counters, under bathroom vanities, etc. You could have even have just used 1 MCU as WLED supports segments for multiple strips. And best of all it's completely free. 😀I Also use LD2410C mmWave/presence sensors and BH1750 light/lux sensors with esphome to control these strips and other lights, devices around the house.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the comment! Do you by chance know what this strip is? I looked at the wled docs and found a bunch of supported rgbw strips but none really matched this exact one I have here.

@HATipsByLarry 6 месяцев назад

@@LearnFastMakeThings I have never seen this exact pixel arrangement but it is a RGBW strip. So it should be supported by WLED, if the white LED's are controlled by PWM signals which i assume they are then WLED should be able to control them. It has 22 different types of strips it supports. I would try the PWM RGBW LED output in WLED. That should do the trick.

@8SiCK0LAKE1 2 месяца назад

@@HATipsByLarry Does that work with HomeKit.

@keithws79 7 месяцев назад

Oh! That custom PCB looks so good! I might have to try that for a future project.

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

It was so easy to do. I think I spent a couple hours doing google-foo while learning the lingo but overall it was intuitive.

@DrFiero 7 месяцев назад

I just ended up with 3 of these IR lights that were billed as RF. Glad to know I'm not stuck with JUST the blaster option! (auction BTW, so it's a click n' done thing!)

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Let me know if you end up making the conversion. I’m super happy with mine.

@substandard649 7 месяцев назад

Interesting, i like that you showed your full experience including the fails, thats a valuable lesson for anyone learning this stuff. I why didn't you program all of the logic into the esphome yaml so that home assistant just sees a generic light?

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Is that possible? I had no idea

@FrostedJr 6 месяцев назад

Such a helpful video. Thanks heaps! 👍

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Glad it was helpful!

@gordon861 7 месяцев назад

I'm in the process of doing similar for some light strings that I bought for last Christmas, just regular RGB 5V WS2812 LEDs I think. But I'm using ESP8266 controllers and WLED, which means they can be controlled from Home Assistant and they also have a dedicated IP address so they can be controlled via a browser. I designed a prototype PCB in EasyEDA (I will now check out your suggested software too) and sent the design to PCBWAY for manufacturing, and was pleasantly surprised they actually worked. The current design is about credit card size and has power input spaces for either microUSB, USB-C or just straight 5V depending on what I plan to power them with, it also has breakouts for every pin on the ESP8266, and then the output for the three LED wires. I have made a few mistakes on this version, that will be revised for version 2, but at the cost of £10 for 10 PCBs they don't really break the bank. Currently designing/planning version 2 which should be smaller and will include traces and solder locations for a PIR, switch and possibly microphone as they are all supported in WLED and will open up other options when putting together light strips.

@gordon861 7 месяцев назад

OK took a look at the Fritzing software, it might do what I need but there is not a demo version and it would appear to be setup to create files for their production process, which is like 10x the cost of PCBWAY. So I will probably stick with the EasyEDA software.

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Sounds like a fun project! A lot of suggestions for wled. I knew it existed but haven’t tried it. It seemed like I would need to install mqtt alongside home assistant to get it working, is that right? You are right, fritzing does have a cost and I don’t remember if there was a trial or not. I think you can export the pcb designs for printing from any company but they make it super simple to use their service.

@SamFigueroa 6 месяцев назад

Didn't know fritzing can be used for PCB design. I have struggled so much with other tools, and you saying it was relatively easy with this makes me want to try it. You should consider making a dedicated video on how to make a PCB design with fritzing.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll add it to the list.

@akhosha2 7 месяцев назад

Sub'd because Ive had that same chuckle at the beginning when something finally works!

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

I often forget to record those moments. This time I remembered and im so glad that it actually worked.

@frequencywatchers 6 месяцев назад

Your First Question In Video Make Me Feel better. Good Video, Cool Thing You Did, I Wish I Could Do Such Things, But You Know What, I Will Learn !

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks. Keep learning! It never gets old

@TechCircuitBreakdown 6 месяцев назад

Its a rgb(White) led, so its basically a normal rgb but with a white led for more clean white colors instead of that blueish white color you would get wit rgb.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

I guess i just expected the white portion to be built in and not controlled separately.

@gearscodeandfire 6 месяцев назад

I like your stuff man!

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks!

@jensschroder8214 7 месяцев назад

You could use WLED. That makes the ESP smart. Can also be controlled by the home assistant.

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

Does wled require mqtt to work with home assistant?

@gordon861 6 месяцев назад

@@LearnFastMakeThingsNo, there is a WLED integration and you can call presets etc from automations or switches.

@abhimanyusareen1670 6 месяцев назад

You can build this without homeESP too with a little bit of coding, better than making arrangements and hotfixes in home assistant, and more reliable because them that's the DEVICES behaviour and not because you've forced it to show up like that. (plus I feel C would be easier than setting all that up in HA). WLED also allows you to add wrgb lights, along with the D_in and multiple modes. I have a normal RGB set up with a mosfet for each the R, G and B lines, and have coded the "scenes" and exposed them from HA

@NicoMoessmer 6 месяцев назад

i myself did something similar but instead of esphome i used wled which also supports rgbw (which you have), i wonder why you didnt decide to go with it? you can also throw wled into home assistant without any issues

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

I already had esphome set up so I went with it. Quite a few people have recommended wled so I think I’ll try it. I should be able to swap the software in the esp32 and all the wiring will be the same.

@jackipiegg 7 месяцев назад

9:17 Use tasmota rather than esphome since you do not to recompile every small changes. Every changes are in real-time for tasmota. Also tasmota has a PWMFrequency command, I keep mine at 20kHz to prevent flickering. EDIT: if you're using esp8266, it can't go that high. Use esp32 instead. Its the same price or cheaper.

@LearnFastMakeThings 7 месяцев назад

I’ll check it out

@TrevorV 6 месяцев назад

or WLED..

@jackipiegg 6 месяцев назад

@@TrevorV Nope, WLED doesn't work well with analog leds.

@TrevorV 6 месяцев назад

@@jackipiegg Cool, thanks for the info.

@KevinDavidson 6 месяцев назад

@@jackipiegg it does with quinled-dig2analog board

@mathiasbraunling368 6 месяцев назад

Maybe I'm mistaken, but couldn't you use a group entity helper in home assistant to control the lights the way you wanted? I have a ceiling light with three individual zigbee bulbs which also show as three lights in home assistant (which is technically correct, but not what I wanted). I grouped them together and now I have only the ceiling light entity in HA in the frontend.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Yes kinda. I tried that but the issue was the “relative brightness” that I talked about in the video. I needed to adjust each lights brightness level independently even though there was just one visual slider.

@aknovaman 6 месяцев назад

Did I miss a source/link for the clear project box/case? I really need on of those.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Sorry, forgot to add links to products. I’ll go back and update the description, but this is the box I bought. www.adafruit.com/product/903

@TallGuyJimmy 6 месяцев назад

Japanese Horse was a 11/10 joke

@thezfunk 6 месяцев назад

I am going to try something similar with two LED lights in the kitchen. I just did a remodel and my wife picked these Chinese curved light fixtures for over the island. They are 3 kinds of white. I think they are basically white and warm LEDs and if you pick the middle color temp it just brings on both. But they have these dumb remotes that you are supposed to be able to pair so you can control multiple lights with one remote. NOPE! They are trash and I think I am just going to do what you did and hack the fixtures to work from HA.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Cool! Let me know how it goes!

@RCDUDEFPV 6 месяцев назад

Thumbs up, hit all the buttons

@NERO-ez1mn 6 месяцев назад

subbed

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks!

@iqmal Месяц назад

github link not working

@LearnFastMakeThings Месяц назад

fixed!

@goodrun88 6 месяцев назад

random comment - but the controllers design reminds me of a xiaomi m365 electric scooter controller

@turbocuber 6 месяцев назад

Solder female headers on the board so that you can easily put and swap esp's on the pcb

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Thanks a great tip! Thanks.

@OliverHamilton 6 месяцев назад

I used to build my own devices, but nowadays I just buy shelly units and be done with it.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

I have plenty of that stuff too, but not nearly as fun 😀

@adirmugrabi 6 месяцев назад

did you say 40$ ?! i got mine for 5$ and they came with BT and WIFI connect-ability!

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Nice.

@engd1060 6 месяцев назад

I Just use an Smart IR 😅

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

if it gets the job done, thats all that matters.

@marcinbrzozowski2091 6 месяцев назад

This is RGBW strip

@thebetterharry 6 месяцев назад

If you are interested in honest feedback: Seeing your eyes follow your script while looking in the camera was a bit unpleasant for me.

@LearnFastMakeThings 6 месяцев назад

Unfortunate side effect of scripting my videos. I found that often the content is too detailed to memorize and the experience of me fumbling through the delivery seemed worse than seeing my eyes move as I read the script. I can try to make the words larger so there isn’t as much horizontal movement. Thanks for the feedback.