LED Strip Control

by MK SmartHouse December 24, 2021

LED Strip Control

Demo:

Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to give you a demo of the LED Strip Control we will be creating.

So what is this LED Strip Control exactly well, it is a device that receives commands from our openhab server through MQTT and changes the color as well as brightness of the LED Strip. This is a cool device that adds awesome lighting to anything. Also, it is just really awesome being able to control your LED Strip from your phone from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. If I pull out a mobile device and open up the openHAB app you can see that I now have a new control in the MK Room Frame called Desk LED Strip. Currently the LED Strip is on the color blue. If I click on the color it brings up the color picker. From here I can choose any color and it will go to that color. Then at the bottom of the color picker is the brightness slider. As you can see when I move it the brightness gets adjusted. But lets also talk about the other two buttons in the item. So if press the back button you will see the two buttons surrounding the color. The down button turns the LED Strip off and the up button turns the LED Strip on. If you would like to control your blinds and be ready for the hardware video where I show you how to make it, then you can order a kit with all the parts from my shop over at mksmarthouse.com/shop. Next let's go over how it is all connected, starting with the power we have a 12v 3 amp power supply connected to the wall. Then that goes into the control box. Also connected to the control box is the LED strip and this is an RGB LED Strip. I wrapped the LED strip around my monitor stand to give my monitors a nice glow. If we take a look inside the control box we will find the PCB with its components. That’s it that is the entire device! In the next video I will show you all the hardware we will need and how to put it together. If you want to be ready for the hardware video you can buy a kit, or the PCB at the link in the video description. Alright thank you for watching and If you have any questions leave them in the comments section below or head over to mksmarthouse.com/forum. Good Bye!

LED Strip Control

Hardware:

Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to show you how to build the LED Strip Control.

So, in this video we are going to go over all the parts required for the LED Strip Control and then we are going to make it. To start off with the parts we are going to need 4 1 pin male headers, 1 4 pin female header with long pins, 1 4 pin female header with short pins, 1 4 pin 90 degree male header, 1 3 pin male header, 1 2 pin male header, 2 2 pin jumpers, 1 DC Jack, 3 TIP 122 Transistors, 3 470 ohm resistors, 1 esp8266, 1 buck converter, 1 custom PCB More on that later, 5 meters of 5050 led strip, black enclosure, wall tac and a 12 volt 3 amp power adapter. For tools we are going to need a soldering iron with ST7 tip, flux, steel wire, solder, wall tac, PCB holder, helping hands, wire strippers, small wire cutters, small flat screwdriver, phillips screwdriver, dremel, multimeter, drill bits, and a drill. That is everything that we will need. The links to all the parts and tools will be over on my website, link is in the description. On my website you will also find the kit for this device, so instead of buying all the parts separately you can buy 1 kit and get all the parts fast and at the same time. There is even an option to get the device assembled so all you have to do is install its software and set it up. In the beginning I did say custom circuit board because to make this easier I designed a custom circuit board so that way not only will it be very stable and have strong connections with no guess work in assembling it but, also so I can make many of them really easily for my house. I have provided the gerber file on my website as well as where to get it made. You can also buy the PCB on my website, which is the easiest and fastest way to get them.

Since all the connections are already made on the circuit board all we have to do is solder the components on to the board. First let's take the circuit board and put it into the circuit board holder. If you look closely at the circuit board you will see that there are labels next to the component slots, when I say where to put the component that is what I will be referring to. I like to solder from the less sensitive components to to most sensitive so, let's start off with the 4 1 pin male headers, put them into slots J1, J2, J4 and J5. Then solder them in. If you want to know how to solder or how I solder then check out my guide for the door sensor because in that video I went over it in detail. Next take the 2 pin male header and solder it into J8. After that take the 3 pin male header and solder it into slot J6. Following that take the 4 pin female header with short pins and solder it into slot J7. For the Power Plug1 slot we are going to solder in the DC jack. Now Grab the 3 470 ohm resistors and solder them into slots R2 R3 and R4. To put them in the slots I bent their leads. Once they were soldered in I also cut excess of the leads on the other side of the PCB. Next take the 3 TIP 122 transistors and solder them into slots Q2 Q3 and Q4. When you put them in the slots, the side of the transistor with writing should be facing the markings B C E on the PCB. Now take the 4 pin 90 degree male header and solder it into slot J3. Once that is soldered in flip the pcb over and solder the Esp8266 into slot U1. I recommend putting flux on every single pad of the esp8266 and of the circuit board and then solder it in. The last component we have to solder in is the buck converter. Grab the buck converter and place it on the 4 1 pin male headers. Make sure the out side of the buck converter is next to the MK-SmartHouse logo. Once it is nicely seated solder the 4 corners of the buck converter to the pins. Great everything is all soldered to the board!

Next grab the power adapter and plug it into power as well as into the PCB. Then take the multimeter and put the black probe into the hole of the buck converter and then take the red probe and hold it over the out + terminal of the buck converter. Using a small flat screw driver on the gold screw, adjust the voltage of the buck converter to 3.3 volts. Once it is adjusted unplug the power adapter from the PCB and then take the 2 pin jumpers and put one over the power header and the other over the PGM side of the 3 pin header.

Everything to do with the PCB is now complete, so let's move on to modifying the case to make the PCB fit. Before we modify it fold down the TIP122 transistors on the PCB, this is so they can fit. Then take the side of the pcb with the 90 degree header and put it into the case. Using a sharpie mark the top of the header on the case. Then use a dremel to cut a rectangular hole. After the hole is cut use a small file to clean up the edges. Take the PCB and make sure the hole lines up. You may have noticed that the PCb still does not fit in the enclosure in terms of height. So grab a 6.5 mm drill bit and put it into a drill. I used a drill press but you can use a normal hand drill and drill down the four standoffs inside the enclosure. If you put the PCB in the case and close the lid everything should fit nicely.

Now let’s move onto the LED strip, the only thing we have to do is take the 4 pin female header with long pins and stick it into the female end of the LED strip. Next remove the lid of the case and connect the LED Strip, the white wire of the LED strip should lign up with the W mark on the PCB.

That is it for the hardware of the actual device now all it needs is some software which will be in the next video. If you need any of the parts shown in the video you can buy a kit, or the PCB to make the device at the link in the video description. Alright thank you for watching and If you have any questions leave them in the comments section below or head over to mksmarthouse.com/forum. Good Bye!

LED Strip Control

Software:

So ssh into your pi or whatever your server may be.

The first thing we are going to do is create the LED Strip items.

So type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/items/home.items and press enter, you may need to type in admin password.

Type in:

//LED Strip Control

Group MKLEDStripControl1Group "Desk LED Strip" (All)

Color MKLEDStripControl1Color "Desk LED Strip" <colorpicker> (MKLEDStripControl1Group) [ "Lighting" ]

String MKLEDStripControl1String "Desk LED Strip" (MKLEDStripControl1Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1:command:*:default]"}

Dimmer MKLEDStripControl1Speed "Desk LED Strip Speed" <time> (MKLEDStripControl1Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1:command:*:default],<[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1/state/speed:state:default]", autoupdate="false"}

String MKLEDStripControl1Effect "Desk LED Strip Effects" <rgb> (MKLEDStripControl1Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1:command:*:default],<[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1/state/effect:state:default]", autoupdate="false"}

And press enter.

Now press control x then y and enter.

Next up is the sitemap file so we can control the device.

Type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/sitemaps/home.sitemap and press enter. It will bring up the sitemap. If you are following along with my series then we have many different frames in our sitemap. I am going to put the device in the frame called MK-Room. So go to the frame and type in:

Colorpicker item=MKLEDStripControl1Color

Selection item=MKLEDStripControl1Effect mappings=["NONE"="NONE", "FADE"="FADE", "POLICE"="POLICE", "COLD"="COLD", "WARM"="WARM", "BREATH"="BREATH", "RAINBOW"="RAINBOW"]

Slider item=MKLEDStripControl1Speed

and press enter

Now press control x then y and enter.

There is one more thing we have to do and that is make a rule where it will convert the color picker into MQTT the device can understand.

In terminal type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/rules/home.rules and press enter. At the top of the file type in

var HSBType hsbValue

var int redValue

var int greenValue

var int blueValue

var String RGBvalues

These are the variables the rules will be manipulating.

In the bottom of the file type in:

rule "MKLEDStripControl1"

when

Item MKLEDStripControl1Color changed

then

hsbValue = MKLEDStripControl1Color.state as HSBType

redValue = hsbValue.red.intValue

greenValue = hsbValue.green.intValue

blueValue = hsbValue.blue.intValue

RGBvalues= redValue.toString + ";" + greenValue.toString + ";" + blueValue.toString + ";"

sendCommand(MKLEDStripControl1String, RGBvalues)

logInfo("MKLEDStripControl1Color", RGBvalues )

end

What these rules do is take the values from the colorpicker and send them through MQTT.

Great! Now press control x then y and enter.

sudo systemctl restart openhab2.service

LED Strip Control

Software Mac:

Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to show you how to setup the software for the LED Strip Control using a MAC.

So in the last video we left off with the LED Strip Control Device being fully built so all it needs is firmware and to be connected to the home automation server. Many of you have been asking what to do if you were to connect more than 1 of any of my devices. So in this video I am going to show you how to connect 2 LED Strips to openhab, you can repeat the steps for the second one to add even 20 LED Strips.

So let's start off with the firmware. I recommend having my website open up so that way you have all the steps and commands ready, and so you do not have to type in everything you can just copy and paste. I know this is the software video but, there are some hardware things that we need besides a computer. We are going to need an arduino of some kind preferably a UNO or a MEGA equivalent with its usb cable of course and male to male dupont jumper cables. Links to these items will be in the description or on the website. On my website you will also find my shop where you can find the kit, and pcb to make this device.

1. The first thing we are going to do is grab the arduino and put a jumper cable from RES to GND.

2. Then grab the LED Strip Control and connect all the pins to their corresponding spots so, TX to TX, RX to RX, GND to GND, and 3.3V to 3.3V.

Before we continue, check to make sure the 2 pin jumper is above PGM. Please note that in this video I will not go over how to setup the arduino IDE and will assume that it is set up and you know how to connect an arduino to it. If you do not know how to set it up or it is not setup then go check out my Door sensor software video where I go in detail of the entire process.

Recently people have been telling me that they cannot compile the arduino code I have written. That is because your Arduino IDE is not setup, so if you are having this issue please go watch my door sensor software video I show exactly how to set it up.

3. Next we are going to head over to my site, the link is in the description to the exact page and press the download LED Strip Control Firmware.

4. On the new page press download. Then go to your finder and downloads folder and double click on MK-LEDStripControl.ino. A pop up will come up asking if you want to put it in a folder, click OK. It should bring up the code for the LED Strip Control, and there are only a few things we have to change.

5. The first thing is the wifi settings which are the ssid and password so change those according to your network. Please keep in mind that the esp8266 only works on 2.4ghz so type in your 2.4ghz wifi ssid and password not your 5ghz. Also when adding the information only change what is inside the quotation marks.

6. Next set of parameters are the Web Updater settings. The devices I designed are great because I implemented a web user interface for each individual device so that way if you ever have to flash new firmware you just go to its web address. The web address information is found at that top of the code in the giant comment block.

7. The first parameter is the hostname of the device, usually I only change the last digit but since this is the first LED Strip Control I will keep it as it is.

8. Next is the update path and personally I don’t change that. After that is the web user interface username and password, these are the credentials you use to access the webpage because each device is protected.

9. The next set of parameters are for mqtt. The first one is the subscribeTopic and this is the topic for which the device listens for commands or messages from the server.

10. The next one is the MQTT Server Ip address and this is simply the IP address of your home automation or openhab server.

11. The last one is the Unique device ID and this simply differentiates each device on the MQTT side, I usually just change the last digit for every single device. That is it the code is ready to be flashed.

12. So go to tools and make sure the Board: is Generic ESP8266 Module and the port is /dev/cu.wchusbserialXXXX. Once those are good press the upload button, it is the one with an arrow pointing to the right. When it is uploading you should see dots moving at the bottom and some percents. After it is done uploading you should see it say 100% and Done uploading.

13. Great now unplug the Arduino and the dupont wires from the first LED Strip and make sure the jumper is over PGM on the second LED Strip and connect the dupont wires to their corresponding spots.

14. Now let's make some changes for the second LED Strip so connect the arduino again. First change the number in the host from a 1 to a 2. Second in the subscribe topic change the 1 to a 2. Lastly, increment the device ID.

15. Now upload the code the same way you did the first one. Once it finished uploading unplug the arduino as well as the dupont wires.

16. Then move the jumpers on each device to run. Let’s Test them!

17. Take the power adapters and plug the devices into the wall. To confirm that it flashed correctly and is working you can fire up MQTT.fx, connect to the server and in the subscribe section type in # and press subscribe.

If you do not have MQTT.fx then check out my Home Automation Server Setup Guide.

18. Then click on the publish tab.

19. In the topic bar type in the subscribeTopic that we wrote in the first LED Strip Control device code that we flashed.

20. Next in the message box type in 100;100;100; and press publish. The LED Strip should have changed color.

21. In the topic bar type in the subscribeTopic that we wrote in the second LED Strip control and press publish. This LED Strip should have also changed color.

22. Now the devices are complete and just need to be added to OpenHAB. So ssh into your pi or whatever your server may be. The first thing we are going to do is create the LED Strip Control items.

23. So type in

sudo nano /etc/openhab2/items/home.items and press enter, you may need to type in admin password.

24. Then go to the bottom of the file and type in

//LED Strip Control

Group MKLEDStripControl1Group "Desk LED Strip" (All)

Color MKLEDStripControl1Color "Desk LED Strip" <colorpicker> (MKLEDStripControl1Group)

String MKLEDStripControl1String (MKLEDStripControl1Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl1:command:*:default]"}

Group MKLEDStripControl2Group "Cubes LED Strip" (All)

Color MKLEDStripControl2Color "Cubes LED Strip" <colorpicker> (MKLEDStripControl2Group)

String MKLEDStripControl2String (MKLEDStripControl2Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStripControl2:command:*:default]"}

And press enter.

Now let me go over the items we created. They will allow us to control the LED Strip Controls. Each LED Strip has 3 Items that go along with it. The first item is a group item and what this does is group all the items for the LED Strip so they are together. The next item is a color item and it is the item that deals with your interaction with the user interface, this is the item we will use in the sitemap file. The last item is a string item and this is the item where the MQTT command will be sent to, as you can see the subscribeTopic is at the end. Thats it for the items file.

25. Now press control x then y and enter. Next up is the sitemap file so we can control the device.

26. Type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/sitemaps/home.sitemap and press enter. It will bring up the sitemap. If you are following along with my series then we have many different frames in our sitemap. I am going to put the device in the frame called MK-Room. So go to the frame and type in:

Colorpicker item=MKLEDStripControl1Color

Colorpicker item=MKLEDStripControl2Color

and press enter, what we did is import the item into the sitemap so we can control it from the user interface in the form of a color picker.

27. Now press control x then y and enter. There is one more thing we have to do and that is make a rule where it will convert the color picker into MQTT the device can understand.

28. In terminal type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/rules/home.rules and press enter. At the top of the file type in

var HSBType hsbValue

var int redValue

var int greenValue

var int blueValue

var String RGBvalues

These are the variables the rules will be manipulating. In the bottom of the file type in:

rule "MKLEDStripControl1"

when

Item MKLEDStripControl1Color changed

then

hsbValue = MKLEDStripControl1Color.state as HSBType

redValue = hsbValue.red.intValue

greenValue = hsbValue.green.intValue

blueValue = hsbValue.blue.intValue

RGBvalues= redValue.toString + ";" + greenValue.toString + ";" + blueValue.toString + ";"

sendCommand(MKLEDStripControl1String, RGBvalues)

logInfo("MKLEDStripControl1Color", RGBvalues )

end

rule "MKLEDStripControl2"

when

Item MKLEDStripControl2Color changed

then

hsbValue = MKLEDStripControl2Color.state as HSBType

redValue = hsbValue.red.intValue

greenValue = hsbValue.green.intValue

blueValue = hsbValue.blue.intValue

RGBvalues= redValue.toString + ";" + greenValue.toString + ";" + blueValue.toString + ";"

sendCommand(MKLEDStripControl2String, RGBvalues)

logInfo("MKLEDStripControl2Color", RGBvalues )

end

What these rules do is take the values from the colorpicker and send them through MQTT.

29. Great! Now press control x then y and enter.

Before we go any further let's confirm that everything works so go to your web user interface and then Basic UI. You should see the LED Strip Control items. If you press the UP button it turns the LED strip on, If you press the DOWN button it turns the LED Strip off, and if you press the circle it brings up a color picker and you can choose any color you want. That is it! The software is complete, now all we have to do is install the device in its final place which will be completed in the next final installation video. Alright thank you for watching and If you have any questions leave them in the comments section below or head over to mksmarthouse.com/forum. Good Bye!

LED Strip Control

Software Windows:

Hey guys Matt here from MKSmartHouse.com and in this video I am going to show you how to setup the software for the LED Strip Control using Windows.

1. The first thing we are going to do is grab the arduino and put a jumper cable from RES to GND.

2. Then grab the LED Strip Control and connect all the pins to their corresponding spots so, TX to TX, RX to RX, GND to GND, and 3.3V to 3.3V.

3. Next we are going to head over to my site, the link is in the description to the exact page and press the download LED Strip Control Firmware.

4. On the new page press download.Then go to your file explorer and downloads folder and double click on MK-LEDStripControl.ino. A pop up will come up asking if you want to put it in a folder, click OK. It should bring up the code for the LED Strip Control, and there are only a few things we have to change.

7. The first parameter is the hostname of the device, usually I only change the last digit but since this is the first LED Strip Control I will keep it as it is.

9. The next set of parameters are for mqtt. The first one is the subscribeTopic and this is the topic for which the device listens for commands or messages from the server.

10. The next one is the MQTT Server Ip address and this is simply the IP address of your home automation or openhab server.

12. So go to tools and make sure the Board: is Generic ESP8266 Module and the port is COM and a number. Once those are good press the upload button, it is the one with an arrow pointing to the right. When it is uploading you should see dots moving at the bottom and some percents. After it is done uploading you should see it say 100% and Done uploading.

13. Great now unplug the Arduino and the dupont wires from the first LED Strip and make sure the jumper is over PGM on the second LED Strip and connect the dupont wires to their corresponding spots.

15. Now upload the code the same way you did the first one. Once it finished uploading unplug the arduino as well as the dupont wires.

16. Then move the jumpers on each device to run. Let’s Test them!

If you do not have MQTT.fx then check out my Home Automation Server Setup Guide.

18. Then click on the publish tab.

19. In the topic bar type in the subscribeTopic that we wrote in the first LED Strip Control device code that we flashed.

20. Next in the message box type in 100;100;100; and press publish. The LED Strip should have changed color.

21. In the topic bar type in the subscribeTopic that we wrote in the second LED Strip control and press publish. This LED Strip should have also changed color.

22. Now the devices are complete and just need to be added to OpenHAB. So ssh into your pi or whatever your server may be. The first thing we are going to do is create the LED Strip Control items.

23. So type in

sudo nano /etc/openhab2/items/home.items and press enter, you may need to type in admin password.

24. Then go to the bottom of the file and type in

//LED Strip Control

Group MKLEDStripControl1Group "Desk LED Strip" (All)

Color MKLEDStripControl1Color "Desk LED Strip" <colorpicker> (MKLEDStripControl1Group)

String MKLEDStripControl1String (MKLEDStripControl1Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStrip1:command:*:default]"}

Group MKLEDStripControl2Group "Cubes LED Strip" (All)

Color MKLEDStripControl2Color "Cubes LED Strip" <colorpicker> (MKLEDStripControl2Group)

String MKLEDStripControl2String (MKLEDStripControl2Group) {mqtt=">[broker:MK-SmartHouse/lights/MK-LEDStrip2:command:*:default]"}

And press enter.

25. Now press control x then y and enter. Next up is the sitemap file so we can control the device.

Colorpicker item=MKLEDStripControl1Color

Colorpicker item=MKLEDStripControl2Color

and press enter, what we did is import the item into the sitemap so we can control it from the user interface in the form of a color picker.

27. Now press control x then y and enter. There is one more thing we have to do and that is make a rule where it will convert the color picker into MQTT the device can understand.

28. In ssh type in sudo nano /etc/openhab2/rules/home.rules and press enter. At the top of the file type in

var HSBType hsbValue

var int redValue

var int greenValue

var int blueValue

var String RGBvalues

These are the variables the rules will be manipulating. In the bottom of the file type in:

rule "MKLEDStripControl1"

when

Item MKLEDStripControl1Color changed

then

hsbValue = MKLEDStripControl1Color.state as HSBType