My HUE project

[sn00p]

Thought rather than spam the main hue thread, I'd start one for this.

Following on from my last post where I'd misplaced my traco dc-dc convertors, I did indeed have a board I designed with one on, so out came the hot air gun and off came the convertor.

I can now stick everything onto the veroboard which will make life easier. I need to grab some different led strips so that I can just confirm the output interfacing for strips based on less other than the APA102 which is what I have.

Using this DC/DC convertor means that a single power supply can be used for both the LED's and the controller as it has a wide input range, LED strips are power hungry to will be powered direct from the power supply and a feed off that will supply the power for this. LED strips come in a variety of different voltages, 5V, 12V, 24V. The caveat is that a controller will only control LED's of the same voltage unless you splice the positive rail directly onto the strip/strip connector rather than use the terminals that I will provide.

I'm also going to be cheeky and call the project "hju"....which is the phonetic spelling of HUE!

 

[shiftspark]

Subbed.
Looks interesting

 

[c4pob]

Subbed. Looking forward to seeing this.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Following

 

[Liamm]

I still haven't got the slightest clue what you're on about but I like the sound of it lol
I'll buy !

 

[sn00p]

I’m also tempted to add the option of a IR sensor and ESP32 module on board, I have a s**t load of ESP8266 modules which are an older generation module which just has WiFi, but the ESP32 has both WiFi and Bluetooth.

I’m thinking along the lines of you could just fit the board with IR + ESP32 + Zigbee and you could use it as a switch module, you could repurpose a remote control (either IR or possibly bluetooth) to control lights. ESP32 modules come in between 2-3 quid each.

I need to think about this because I want to make this as simple to put together as possible, nobody is going to put one of these together if you have to solder too many components, it obviously also needs to be cheap so I’m trying to get bang for buck here!

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

You planning on making these as a little self build kit for people?

 

[sn00p]

I’ll supply a list of parts and a link to purchase the PCB I will design from China.

I found a much cheaper DC/DC converter board, I’m trying to make the thing as simple to put together with as few bits as possible. While I might have no trouble soldering a 64 pin QFP, it’s not something that average joe can do, so using modules where possible is the best solution.

unfortunately the ZigBee module is only available in a SMT format, but it’s solderable for mere mortalsas long as you take your time.

an alternative would be for me to produce DIP format carrier board for the module, then that would plug into the main board. This would give the option of supplying the ZigBee module for anybody who can’t solder it.

the downside of using modules is that it increases the size of the “system” but I don’t think that’s too much of an issue.

 

[sn00p]

You planning on making these as a little self build kit for people?

I have decided to go the route of the carrier board for the moment, so just quickly knocked up a carrier for the zigbee module and I’ve ordered 3 from OSHPARK in the USA will let me test out doing it that way.

OSHPARK are slightly more expensive than china, but (you get 3 from OSHPARK where in china you’d get 5 for the same price, but....OSHPARK boards come in a with a cool purple solder resist) it does mean I can make them public on their site and all you have to do is add the boards to your cart.

 

[coolspot007007]

I'm interested in this. The cost was the only thing putting me of the Hue stuff strips. I already use cheap LED strip for lighting in 3 bedrooms so this is ideal for making them smart.

 

[c4pob]

I have decided to go the route of the carrier board for the moment, so just quickly knocked up a carrier for the zigbee module and I’ve ordered 3 from OSHPARK in the USA will let me test out doing it that way.

OSHPARK are slightly more expensive than china, but (you get 3 from OSHPARK where in china you’d get 5 for the same price, but....OSHPARK boards come in a with a cool purple solder resist) it does mean I can make them public on their site and all you have to do is add the boards to your cart.

View attachment 1475912

A soldier free option would be mega.

 

[sn00p]

DIY GUIDE: Build your own cheap Philips Hue LED Strips

Philips Hue is great, but their Lightstrip LED strips are too expensive. Here's how you can build your own Hue Lightstrips in under an hour, on the cheap.

char.gd

@sn00p Are you doing this just because you can/interest rather than buying the cheap Chinese controllers and strips?

Good question, a few reasons...

1. Is as you say, interest and because I can.
2. Because I can make it work with anything, not limited to specific strips, this will be a generic controller where you select what LED is on the strip.
3. I can push what is possible, a single controller operating multiple individual strips is also an aim, where’s multiple ways of achieving this, think of a single controller acting as a bunch of virtual lights and then using say bluetooth/wifi/rs485/can/lorawan as a connection to “physical drivers”. The drivers could be very cheap, esentially they only need a microcontroller + logic buffer, you could even omit the logic buffer if the micro permits open drain configuration for I/O and provide a 5V external pull up resistor.
4. Open Source - both hardware + software, build it yourself, modify the design, modify the software etc.

It’s not going to be for everybody, yes there are easier off the shelf solutions, but I want to provide the mechanism for something that is extensible and flexible, I also want to make it as easy as possible for people to get on board with, I’m trying to minimize the amount of effort in building it.

 

[realnumber 1]

Good question, a few reasons...
It’s not going to be for everybody, yes there are easier off the shelf solutions, but I want to provide the mechanism for something that is extensible and flexible, I also want to make it as easy as possible for people to get on board with, I’m trying to minimize the amount of effort in building it.

I kind of get you. It'll be interesting to see what you do.

 

[sn00p]

Got around to rewiring the hardware using veroboard so its neater (and less likely to have wires fall off), verified that the module is working correctly. This accepts a voltage from 4.5 to 36V DC.

Output driver is next on my list, I have a few different LED strips on order, various voltages from 5V to 24V and different ways of driving the strip. On this veroboard mockup I’ll have to directly wire power to the LED strip and also wire the input voltage back to this board, veroboard doesn’t have the current carrying capacity that is required for some LED strips, even in metre lengths.

Going to make the drivers as plug in modules, smart leds will all pretty much use the same module. Dumb LED strips (these are ones where the input voltage is varied on the RGB (W+WW) lines require MOSFETS to be switched on with PWM signals, chunky mosfets with a high current capacity to reduce heat/need for heat sinking.

Not the most interesting photo, once I have a LED strip hooked up it will be a little more interesting.

 

[sn00p]

And here’s my controller being detected by hue (I use iConnectHue app as it’s better than the hue app, but the light obviously appears in the official hue app.

 

[sn00p]

I think my Zigbee modules have got lost, they're still showing that they shipped from Singapore on the 25th of May and it's been radio silence since then.

I've ordered loads of stuff from china since then and the shipping seems to be unbelievably quick from there at the moment (covid! lol), 7 or so days, normally it's 14-25 days.

Really annoying I didn't notice or it didn't say that they were shipping from singapore, I would have chosen a china supplier otherwise.

Kind of stuck without them.

 

[sn00p]

The PCB’s to breakout the zigbee module have arrived from the USA where I had them made, but the bloody zigbee modules are still missing in action. This is the longest I’ve ever had to wait for a module to arrive.