Відео

I have a setup very similar to what you describe with my matrix clock. It is dual controller... WLED for general effects, and a separate controller that runs the code for the clock, scoreboard, countdown timer and text display. A toggle switch on the frame allows me to switch the data line that goes to the LEDs from the WLED controller to the custom Arduino clock controller. For the LED curtain, I always planned on primarily using the SR controller. Really the only reason I built it with a swappable controller was for testing and for creating of the UA-cam video. I still have the standard controller, but have never swapped them out since I finished the video and mounted the curtain on the wall. But I have used the dual controller with a toggle for selecting the data line with my other matrices.

Yeah... it's likely that I could have "gotten away" with a short clip of 'real' music, but it just isn't worth the risk to me. First, if a claim is made, you are automatically guilty until proven innocent. And I've heard too many horror stories from other creators about their channel being de-monetized or even shut down over copyright strikes. I just completely avoid any possibility by using whatever UA-cam makes available as "public domain". Even then, I probably could have found something better than 8-bit arcade music! Thanks for watching... and taking a moment to leave a comment!

@@ResinChemTech guilty until proven innocent (No Truer words for sure)

Thanks for the tip. While I do use WLED for the examples in the video, I didn't limit the title to just WLED because the concepts apply to pretty much any DIY LED project, whether using WLED, ESPHome or even your own custom Arduino code for the controller firmware. But you are correct that a lot of folks may be looking specifically for WLED information and could potentially skip this video since WLED isn't mentioned in the title or shown on the thumbnail. I'll definitely consider modifying the title to include WLED. Thanks again!

It's a bit difficult to know exactly what is wrong from the information you provided, but it appears you have an issue with trying to use an entity name in your YAML that doesn't exist or isn't defined elsewhere. Note that the YAML that I show is just an example... it isn't meant to be used 'exactly' as shown because your Home Assistant (and entities) will be different from mine. I'd recommend that you review your YAML and check all the entity names. All entity names must already exist or be defined elsewhere if you are referencing them somewhere else, like in a templated sensor or automation.

Thanks! WLED has come a very long way since I started using it. And more features and options are available with each new release. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment. I appreciate it!

You are welcome! As many have stated, you can often get away without a shifter if keeping the controller close to the strip... until you can't. Many people have experienced the same thing as you. That's why I opt to simply include a shifter in all my LED projects, whether I could get away without it or not. The low cost and minimal effort to add it is well worth avoiding any potential problems later (in my opinion anyway).

The only real difference as far as the battery is concerned, is the size of the connector. You could take the existing controller apart, note whether the current battery has the smaller or larger connector and simply order one of the batteries with the same size connector. Some batteries actually have two connectors... one of each size... that will work with either version of the controller.

@@ResinChemTech aah, ok. Thank you very much.

If you use a GPIO pin, you must define this pin as an output component and then include that output in a light component in ESPHome. This allows you to set the brightness of the backlight using PWM. Or you can just set the pin to high for always-on full brightness. In effect, this provides the 3.3V that the backlight needs. I didn't show that here as I only include basic snippets of code. But it covered in the full ESPHome documentation. For Arduino, you can just set the GPIO pin to output/high or define PWM as well. Sorry for any confusion. Time simply did not permit me to fully cover either the ESPHome or Arduino code for each display, but the links I provide in the written guide do contain complete examples. But as you found, you can also just use 3.3V for the LED backlight if desired... there just won't be a way to turn the backlight off as opposed to using a GPIO pin.

@@ResinChemTech just got it working this way, thanks for your help thinking of adding motion sensor to turm back lifgt on and off

If you want to add anything to WLED, you need to install a custom mod (or write your own). While I haven't tried it myself, there is at least one custom mod for RTC in the WLED mods folder: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/tree/main/usermods I think this is similar to what you are wanting.

Thank you for your response and answer. I will try it

You are welcome. Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the comment.

I didn't try either the Arduino code or ESPHome code with the D1 Mini (or any ESP8266 for that matter)... but a few things come to mind. First, you may need to check the libraries and assure that they are even compatible with the ESP8266. There's a possibility that the libraries I selected simply aren't compatible. But you may be able to find alternates that will work. Next, assure you are using the proper SPI pins. Unlike the ESP32, there are only specific GPIO pins that can be used for the SPI bus on the ESP8266. Finally, I had a few instances when the board didn't initialize properly when the ESP was powered on. This was most often when I was using multiple displays with a single ESP, but assure you have a clear or resst display call in your setup() function. You can also try pressing the reset button on the ESP after it is powered on to see if that resets things.

True. Someone else just recently asked why go to all the trouble of building a WLED controller when you could just buy a Govee retail product. As I said to him, the reasons may be different for others, but I enjoy the DIY aspect... and challenge of trying to build my own version of a retail product... that is completely mine and doesn't rely on a vendor's cloud, firmware or what they do or don't decide to make available. And as you mentioned, reusing or repurposing old components is an extra bonus (not to mention a potential significant cost savings). Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment.

I can't speak for others, but for me personally I enjoy the DIY aspect. Plus I don't have any reliance on a vendor's cloud service or need to install any potentially questionable apps with unnecessary permissions on my phone. My device/installation can never be bricked or shutdown and quit working based on some manufacturer deciding to suddenly stop their cloud servers... or start charging a subscription to continue to use it. History is full of examples of vendors that just stop their cloud servers, rendering their devices useless. In addition, features aside, WLED is open source and extendable. I can make my own custom mods to the firmware to support whatever needs I may have... I'm not limited to just what is provided to me. Others may have their own reasons, and some may be perfectly happy with Govee or other prebuilt retail versions... I don't fault those for what they are. But for me, I like knowing that it is "my" device, built and configured by me and all control (including my data) remains local.

You're welcome! Glad you found the video helpful.

You are welcome. Glad you found it helpful.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you found it helpful.

WLED doesn't really have any sort of timer like you need here, or real automation engine built in. I think you could get somewhat close to what you want to do, but you'd probably need something like Home Assistant or NodeRED to handle the automation or create your own user mod in WLED to deal with the 1 sec. delay. You could certainly light up one pixel at a time with the built-in effects and segments and turn them off with a button push. But the effects repeat and don't 'stop' with all the LEDs on. And again, there isn't a stock way to pause or halt the effect for 1 second and then have it continue... not without a mod, outside automation engine or writing your own code.

I haven't tried one, but you can find a list of officially supported WLED boards here: kno.wled.ge/basics/compatible-controllers/

@ResinChemTech Ok. Thanks for the feedback. According to Copilot, my ESP32 mini is actually an ESP32 C3. It has an Espressif S3 chip, but it also has a little red chip with C3 on it. WLED does not yet support or is not yet compatible with the C3, but it is a work in progress.

Thanks so much for the super! I greatly appreciate it and it will be used to help fund future projects and videos. As far as the relay, yes you would need to kill the power to all the injection points, but there are multiple ways to accomplish this. First you can run the power from your supply through the relay before you split it off to the three different power injection points. That way you have a single relay that is controlling all the power to the LEDs. Just be sure that the relay is rated to handle the current you expect for the LEDs. While you can use multiple relays, do note that standard WLED is only designed to use one relay. There is a user-mod that supports multiple relays, but you'd have to add that and compile your own WLED. You can find more info on that here: kno.wled.ge/features/relay-control/ As far as the buck converter, yes you could power multiple relays but the same rule applies. Just be sure the buck converter is rated for the maximum amps that would be needed to power all the relays. Thanks again for the support...and the kind words. Let me know if I can help out any further.

@@ResinChemTech thank you for the quick response! After I sent my comment I did some research and came across that very idea, put the relay between the power supply and controller (in this case an ESP32). But I’m running the board from the same power supply so I’ll need to power that separately which is easy. I have a small 5v, 3amp plug which I can use to power both the ESP32 and relay (it’s a 5v relay since they don’t seem to make one for higher amps for 3.3v). I’m using a 20 amp power supply with a 30 amp rated relay so I’m good there. I hope this makes sense and I’m on the right track. Your videos are an inspiration to me, so well produced. Thanks again!

Sounds like you are on the right track! The only thing I'd mention is that if you are using different power supplies for the controller and LEDs, make sure you create a common ground between the two (one easy way to do this is just run a ground wire from your controller along with the data line to the start of the LED strip). If you don't have a common ground, the LEDs may misbehave do to possible ground potential differences between the controller's power source and the LEDs' power source. You may have already done this... but I thought it was worth mentioning!

@@ResinChemTech common ground! That always throws me off. My LED’s are wired straight to the 20amp power supply. So I need to connect the same ground out from the 3amp power supply (to the relay and controller), the 20amp power supply (on the output side of course), and the controller? Sorry for all the questions.

Not a problem! You just need to establish a single common ground connection somewhere between the controller and LEDs. You can make this connection wherever it is convenient, but on the few occasions where I've done it, I just run a ground from the controller along with the data line to the start of the LED strip. Since I'm already running a line for the data signal, it is pretty easy to just include a second ground connection here. In fact, I have a number of standard wiring diagrams in one of my blog articles that shows this: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2023/01/wiring-diagrams.html Look for the example that shows dual 12V and 5V power supplies. This same wiring can be used for two separate 5V supplies as well. If you need additional assistance, I'm glad to help but it is a little restrictive what I can do here in the UA-cam comments. If you like, feel free to contact me via email (you can find my email address on the 'about' section of my UA-cam channel page... I don't publish it here because it gets picked up by spam bots). Or if you have a Discord account and want to shoot me over your Discord user name, we can connect over there as well. Otherwise, best of luck with the project. Let me know how it turns out!

Thanks Dave! While most the stuff we do can always be displayed on a Home Assistant dashboard, have a local display can be nice for many things as well. Oh... and thanks for noticing the t-shirt!

Thanks. You can certainly add static text after the value. In fact, if you go back and watch the section where I am using the temperature from the DHT22 sensor, you'll see that I added a static °C after the value from the sensor. The formatting can be a bit tricky, especially if you aren't familiar with using printf in Arduino. But you can add static text before or after a format string (or both). For example, again using temperature as an example, I could do something like: printf(.... , "The basement temperature is %.1f °C", id(sensor).state); The value (or state) of the sensor would be dropped into the format string that begins with "%" and the output to the display would be: The basement temperature is 21.9 °C Just make sure you leave a space after the format string and before any trailing text. Otherwise, your static text will be seen as part of the format structure... and this will likely cause a syntax or other error. Hope that info helps!

You should not need to download anything just to get a split configuration working. However, what is 'panel_custom'? Have you already split out some of your YAML to split files? If so, it is likely one of these files that is causing the configuration check error when you include them in the main configuration.yaml via the split option. The configuration check passes when you don't have the split statement because these other YAML files would not be included. Check your YAML and see if you can find somewhere that a custom_panel is defined. It is likely the error is resulting from including that YAML.

yeah no luck at all for me.

Thanks! I appreciate the comment.

Most of my projects that use a display of some sort are Arduino-based as well, but I have a few that use ESPHome. ESPHome is nice when you need something with native integration into Home Assistant, but Arduino generally give you more advanced features. Thanks for watching!

Honestly, I use the fixed rails much more often than the variable side. But most of my projects are ESP based so pretty much everything runs off of 5V or 3.3V. Occasionally, I'll have something that needs 12V. About the only time I use variable is if I need something that represents a battery... like 9V or 7.4V. But the majority of my projects use one of the three fixed voltages. But the nice thing I like is that I have the flexibility with this type of supply... including the ability to provide up to 3 different voltages simultaneously on the very rare case it is needed. But it could be made smaller if desired by just creating a variable output.

@@ResinChemTech I'm looking at using one of these "LTC3780" buck/boost converters I seen in another video. I really only need current limiting, so I can track down short circuits on other boards with voltage injection.

When using a larger power supply or a larger number of LEDs, you should connect the power in parallel... running from the power supply directly to the LEDs and then in parallel to the controller. I have both a video and blog article that covers this. In both cases, look for the sections on powering your LED project: Blog: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2023/01/wiring-diagrams.html Video: ua-cam.com/video/GZv5Ztj6i6I/v-deo.html

I love you

You are welcome. Glad my videos could help you out. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Sometimes it's amazing what a difference a little resistors can make. Thanks for watching!

Thanks... I appreciate the kind words!

I did run across those in my research of some of these other displays, but I haven't tried one. I've received a number of "offers" from various sellers that have a display with an ESP32 integrated, but I rarely do product reviews on my channel, so despite the offer of a "free" board or display in exchange for a review, I turn those down. If I had a particular need for one and I felt like it would fit with my channel, I would possibly consider it. But if I ever come up with a use case for my home, I would definitely consider picking one up and giving it a try. Thanks for the comment!

Thanks. A pretty long video (with a fair amount of repetition), but I figure most folks will be looking for one particular type of display or another and will skip ahead to those sections and not necessarily watch the entire thing from start to finish. Therefore I wanted each display to sort of stand on its own for those only interested in one or two different options. Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment!

Long is not a problem for me 👍

I will do my best to answer your questions based on what I believe I know, but I haven't either created 'non-serpentine' matrices similar to what you are wanting to do with the t-connectors, nor have I used COB LEDs. But I have a couple of thoughts. I _think_ that the matrix can be set up in a non-serpentine manner. But if that doesn't work, the ESP32 (dual core) can have up to 10 different data pin output. This means that you could run a separate data line from a different GPIO pin to each of your nine strips. Each strip can be individually controlled via segments, or all could be treated a single 'matrix' or install (or any combination of the two). See this for more info on multi-pin/strip support: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/ If you are on Discord, the WLED Discord server may also be a good source of info. I'm sure some of the folks there could help you out. In terms of the hot controller, I'm assuming you are not running the power for the LEDs through the controller board? Power for the LEDs should be run in parallel with the controller. It could be another reason, but I thought I'd mention this as the LEDs can draw pretty high current and could cause components to get very hot if not designed to carry that current. Good luck with your project.

Yes. You can find info on how to do so on the WLED site under creating custom effects: kno.wled.ge/advanced/custom-features/

@@ResinChemTech Thank you very much. I am building a B9 Robot (Lost in Space) and wanted to setup the correct effects.

Danger, Will Robinson! Good luck with the project.

I am not 100% sure, but I believe that the "u" indicates US and "e" indicates EU. But I think both are gen 2 and would use the gen 2 connector. If you want to be 100% sure, you can take the current controller apart and check the battery connection. The size of the connector is really the only difference as far as the battery is concerned.... at least as far as I am aware with the US versions of the gen 1 and gen 2 controllers.

@@ResinChemTech okay thank you for your help

Thanks! It was actually one of my most enjoyable... really just the challenge to see if I could build something similar to the retail version but using only off-the-shelf parts and WLED. Thanks for the comment and kind words!

I'm powering the ESP and the 5V side of the shifter from the power supply, but the 3.3V side of the shifter is being powered off the 3.3V pin of the ESP board. I also had misbehaving LEDs in one of my very early LED projects that was fixed with a level shifter. That's why I always include one now... even if I might be able to get away without it in some situations. Good luck with your project!

@@ResinChemTech This is pretty new to me. It's hard to make sense of what all the cables stretched across the breadboard are doing. Any chance you can link a diagram of how this is all connected, or maybe explain a little bit what part of each chip is connected to which?

No problem. I get this question and many others about wiring the LED controller. So I have a blog article with a lot of different wiring diagrams, including a section specifically on the level shifters: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2023/01/wiring-diagrams.html Do note that most of my videos (but not this particular one) where I show wiring or code, there is generally a related blog article with copies of those wiring diagrams or code snippets. I always leave a link to any written guides in the video description.

@@ResinChemTech Awesome, that was helpful. Appreciate the timely responses. So I've made progress, but I'm still having an issue. LEDs are more stable but are still flickering intermittently. With the D1 powered by usb, the blue light will be on and the LEDs will not act correctly. With the D1 still powered, sometimes the blue light cuts out, but the LEDs will respond correctly (although they still flicker, much less than before.) These are 24v LEDs, is there a chance 5v is still not enough to drive data on them?

You could check the technical specifications for the particular LEDs you are using. The electrical characteristics section should specify the expected voltage for the data signal (probably called logic voltage or similar). As far as the blue LED, if you are using the same GPIO pin for your LED data signal as the one tied to the LED (D4 / GPIO2), it is not unusual to have the onboard LED to turn off when the LED strip turns on or vice versa. I think different versions of WLED handled this differently throughout its development. If it concerns you or you don't want it to do that, you can move your LED data line to a different GPIO, like D5 (GPIO14). Just remember to update your LED preferences in WLED to the new GPIO pin being used. One other thing to try.... an older version of WLED. My hexagon lights (DIY nano leafs) started acting really weird and not responding when I upgraded to the latest version of WLED (0.14.3). I downgraded to 0.13.3 and they started working perfectly again. The nano leafs are using a D1 mini as well. I think that WLED is slowly moving towards the ESP32 and I believe that the latest version may have issues with the lowly ESP8266. You can download 0.13.3 from the WLED Github and do an OTA update via the Security and Update section of WLED... or you can reflash via USB cable. I'd try this downgrade first and see if it resolves the issue. Otherwise, you might just need to do some general trial and error troubleshooting. I don't think you mentioned the distance between the controller and your LEDs or whether you are currently testing with a breadboard and Dupont jumpers. You can try shortening the distance and/or even try something like alligator clips which generally have higher gauge wire than Dupont wires. You could even try a different D1 Mini (if you have one) just to assure the one you are using isn't having a problem. Basically, try changing distance and swapping out as many different cables/parts as you can until you get a stable signal. From there, you might be able to identify the issue and come up with an approach to fix it.

What you are actually seeing in the video is that my hand triggers motion to turn the LEDs on. But then the motion detector "resets" or clears when there is no more motion and this turns the lights off. My hand really has nothing to do with turning the LEDs off. All motion detectors work this way. Some just reset faster than others. So the way I used it in WLED, the lights will always turn themselves off at some point after motion clears. You'd have to use some other type of sensor and settings to get movement to turn the lights on... then they stay on until motion again turns them back off. Or use two sensors... one to turn them on and the other to turn them off. Hope that helps clarify what you were seeing in the video.

Thanks! Some of my older videos, like this one, don't necessarily have the best video and audio quality since I hadn't yet invested in better equipment, but hopefully the content itself is still helpful. Thanks for watching and taking a few moments to leave a comment!

As I stated in this video (and many, many times in other videos), you can sometimes get away without the shifter... until you can't. I simply opt to always include one to avoid any potential issues. And it really doesn't matter how many LEDs; it is a matter of voltage drop on the data line between the controller and the first LED. The further away the controller is from the start of the LED strip, the more likely that voltage drop will cause an issue. But as I always say, the choice to include a shifter is entirely yours. While I recommend it, you can often get away without one if you keep the run between the controller and the start of the LEDs relatively short. To see an example of what can happen if the data line voltage drops too low, I show the results on another video related to the need for a shifter: ua-cam.com/video/Q9mLitVxF3c/v-deo.html As far as 12V LEDs, nearly all types still expect a 5V data signal. So, while you will run +12V and GND to the +V/GND pins on the LEDs, the data signal is still expected to be 5V. The same is true with most 24V LEDs. So if you opt to include a shifter, the same shifter will work with 5V, 12V or even 24V LEDs.

@@ResinChemTech Thanks for your help!

@@ResinChemTech May I ask another question? Now that I wanted to order level shifters, I was reading the WLED kno.wled.ge pages about compability of hardware. There is a orange highlited "Warning (!): I2C shifters are generally too slow for addressable LEDs, so don't use them." The ones you are using are I2C shifters, right?! Do they work? Even with long strips with lots of LEDs? Is there a limitation? Why the warning?

I address that exact question (and provide my answer) in this video: ua-cam.com/video/61VWgYmomz4/v-deo.html

The SN74AHCT125N is a quad gate buffer... so yes, you should be able to run four data lines. I connected the unused lines to ground just to assure they weren't left in a floating state... probably not necessary, but it doesn't hurt. While I haven't tried it myself, I believe you should be able to use two shifters to shift more data lines. The biggest thing is to assure everything is using a common ground so you don't end up with ground potential differences. But please follow up and let me know if you were successful in using multiple shifters. I haven't done any LED projects large enough to require that many data pins, so I'll be curious as to how yours works out. Best of luck!

@@ResinChemTech Thank you for the quick reply! This is a large LED project and I might be over my head a bit. I'll need three power supplies (60A each), and when you say common ground do you mean I need to connect all the grounds together using a terminal strip?

Yeah... everything needs to be tied to a common ground.... but especially the controller and the LEDs. If there is a ground potential difference between the controller and LEDs, the LEDs will very likely behave strangely with flickering, wrong colors, etc. Best of luck with your project!

Thanks so much! Apparently I do have a small clue. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you the great information.

You are very welcome. Hopefully you found it helpful.