I have always been a fan of colourful lighting and embedded electronics, so whilst I was putting up last seasons festive decorations, I wondered what I could build if I put my mind to it.
I tend to have a string of lights at the front of the house over the garage, so this is where I plan to target the installation. I'm calling it an installation, because in my mind this is going to be a beautiful work of art!
The plan is relatively simple.
So, the string of lights will look something like this...
There are a couple issues with this approach...
Firstly, while using a standard LED strip, the data in (DIN) and data out (DOUT) are at opposite ends of the chain. I need them to both be accessable at the top to enable chaining the strips together. In the initial prototype, I ran a wire from the bottom DOUT to the top to daisy chain over to the next strip.
The second issue is around power distribution. I need to inject power at regular points along the strip to ensure that all LED's have enough juice.
I built an initial prototype using a standard LED strip, and a patch wire from the bottom to the top. This was cobbled together with a horrible wiring loom across the top. The net result was something that proved the system could work, I just needed to build the thing now.
... if only I had taken some pictures of it ... oh well, leson for future blogging self!
I made use of an RP2040 microcontroller and the embassy framework to control the LED's, executing a simple colour wheel effect to ensure all LED's were functioning as expected.
The results were spectacular, you'll just have to take my word for it!
This was supposed to be ready for Christmas 2024, but as with all best plans, procrastination got in the way. See those pretty SVG images above, I got 100% sidetracked in getting them working on this site, and as a result I ran out of time to build the actual lights! Check out the remark-svgbob post to see what took up all my time.
I promise not to get sidetracked again... until the next time of course!
I will be creating a number of posts covering all aspects of the implementation process, including
Hopefully this will be ready for Christmas 2025! But no promises, as there is always the next procrastination :o)