This project started when I bought an LED light strip from Amazon. When I received the box, I realized, much to my dismay, that I had not purchased a power supply or controller for the lights.
But I am far too stubborn to admit my mistake and purchase a controller, and having access to a small horde of electronic components, I decided to make my own.
Goals:
-Make something that will control an RGB light strip
-Have it connect to my network so I can be super lazy and not have to stand up to turn it on or off. This will have the added benefit of not using a remote that I will lose in a few days.
-Use the parts that I already have on hand.
Hardware:
1x Huzzah ESP8266 breakout board
1x LM7805 Voltage regulator
3x IRFZ44N Transistors (I usually stick with TIP120’s but these were at the front of the drawer)
1x Whatever LED strip – I bought this one https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0CMD5Z5R8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
1x 12V 5A power supply
1x old bad-quality perf board that smells like cigarettes.
Software:
I had written some code in the Arduino IDE before I discovered WLED. That was a waste of 2 hours.
-WLED https://kno.wled.ge/
Step 1: Prototyping
I prototyped the circuit on a breadboard. This project has already been done, so sorry no schematic 🙁 it’s pretty straightforward, though.
Make sure everything has its grounds tied together (including the power supply).
This means pin 2 on the 7805, pin 3 on the Z44N’s, the GND pin on the ESP8266 and the negative of the 12-volt power supply should all be connected.
The outpin pins from the microcontroller should be connected the pin 1 on the Z44N’s, the output to the LED strip will be pin 2.
Speaking of outputs, most of my newer breadboard wires are Dupont style, which won’t fit in the RGB header of the lights as they are a bit square. However I have some older wire that fits right on in!
Is connecting the lights like this a good idea? Probably not. Am I going to fix it? Also, probably not.
Step 2: PermaPrototyping
Once I made sure everything was working, I recreated the circuit on some perfboard.
I bought a whole bunch of these forever ago, and I absolutely despise them.
The layout of the board is terrible, the copper is difficult to wet, and they have been kicking around so long that the minute you start to solder on them, they reek like cigarettes (I claim about 30% responsibility for this)
Why do I keep using them? Because I’m a hoarder and I won’t buy new ones until they are gone.
After much cursing, I ended up with this;
After cutting the end off a power supply and soldering it on, things have been working well. While the WLED gives a nice function web page you can access, I have since set up Home Assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/) for controlling them because I have no self control.
Things to do: LOL
-Make a Box for the circuit so I don’t have bare boards kicking around (OH the indecency)
-Draw up a CAD circuit and get some actual boards made
-Re-evaluate why I spent a multitude of hours and $30ish dollars of hardware to make something I could have just paid another $20 for.