Imstevil
New elf
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2022
- Messages
- 8
Hey all, I previously had big ideas on doing a big light display using RGB Pixels, music, etc, etc, etc. Unfortunately money, power requirements, and network capabilities are just not going to make it an option for me at the moment so toying with the idea of making my own controller just for standard fairy lights. Had a couple of questions for anyone who may have tried this already, though I think this may be benethe people in here with the awesome setups I've seen!
One big problem I have is I know enough to be dangerous, but not as much as I should. I'm aware of this so feel free to correct me in anything I say, it's the best way to learn!
Basically I'm thinking of making up my own PCB and and having 4 or 5 H-Bridges on it, and have a spot to plug in a ESP826 to control them and using this to control my fair lights. I'm thinking of making multiple of these that can talk to each other via wifi and store a show on the chip (super basic one, just something to keep the house in sync) I'm thinking I'll have a master controller which will either be another ESP or just running on PC. It would broadcast using UDP a count down leading up to when the "show" should start, which I would use to try and get the different boards as insync as possible. I've attached a PDF of a rough design of what I was thinking of for the PCB.
What do people think of something like this, would it possible or something already out there to work similar? I currently have a very large house with 1000s of leds, hoping something like this might give me SOMETHING to work with until I can afford a proper setup. If it would work...
Another questions which might show I know just enough to be dangerous... is it possible to cut up fairy lights into shorter lengths? I tried cutting down an old string for testing and the more lights I cut off the more power it tried pulling from the power supply until it got to the point it over loaded. I currently have a 75m strand I run around our windows, If I was plugging into a controller I'd like to cut this strand into multiple shorter ones letting me light up windows individually. I did very limted testing and it was on a very cheap and old set of lights, but would love any tips on advice on doing this.
Sorry if this isn't the type of thing discussed here, figured I'd throw it out there as I imagine something this has been done before but very hard to find anything searching for it.
One big problem I have is I know enough to be dangerous, but not as much as I should. I'm aware of this so feel free to correct me in anything I say, it's the best way to learn!
Basically I'm thinking of making up my own PCB and and having 4 or 5 H-Bridges on it, and have a spot to plug in a ESP826 to control them and using this to control my fair lights. I'm thinking of making multiple of these that can talk to each other via wifi and store a show on the chip (super basic one, just something to keep the house in sync) I'm thinking I'll have a master controller which will either be another ESP or just running on PC. It would broadcast using UDP a count down leading up to when the "show" should start, which I would use to try and get the different boards as insync as possible. I've attached a PDF of a rough design of what I was thinking of for the PCB.
What do people think of something like this, would it possible or something already out there to work similar? I currently have a very large house with 1000s of leds, hoping something like this might give me SOMETHING to work with until I can afford a proper setup. If it would work...
Another questions which might show I know just enough to be dangerous... is it possible to cut up fairy lights into shorter lengths? I tried cutting down an old string for testing and the more lights I cut off the more power it tried pulling from the power supply until it got to the point it over loaded. I currently have a 75m strand I run around our windows, If I was plugging into a controller I'd like to cut this strand into multiple shorter ones letting me light up windows individually. I did very limted testing and it was on a very cheap and old set of lights, but would love any tips on advice on doing this.
Sorry if this isn't the type of thing discussed here, figured I'd throw it out there as I imagine something this has been done before but very hard to find anything searching for it.