Potential E1.31 / WiFi mod for dumb strips & floods.
- Thread starter Barnabybear
- Start date
I was looking for a way to pull some RGB floods into my setup, and found this thread, which has been awesome for a resource, BTW!
Here's what I found after buying a couple different RGB floods from Amazon..
This RGB flood is Bluetooth, doesent have the best reviews, but its 2 for $30 right now..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083FQRSPK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Its better for my hacking purposes because its a plastic case, already uses a weird BT module running at 3.3v and the module matches some of the ESP8266 module footprints (you dont need a full D1 mini, its already got 3.3v power, but you do need a way to program whatever you use.. so.. choose what works best for you..). Other Amazon flood lights I tried (using IR remotes) were built using 5v MCU's so its harder to drive the LED to full 10W power.
This item is glued with silicone.. break/bend down the plastic lip on one side and slide a knife under the glass to separate it. Inside you'll see the module and the power systems. This model I got runs off DC but its line level conversion, so we're talking about 140V DC inside!! Keep you fingers out of this unless youre smart enough to mess with these safely! And DONT connect the USB connection to the PC at the same time its plugged in - "GND" inside these floods may not (probably is not!) the same ground as your PC.
Also this is RGB WarmWhite CoolWhite, so its 5 channels total.
The BT driver chips run from 3.3v directly, using PWM, so its very easy to run a PWM output from an arduino/esp device to the chip connections. (My diagram doesent have colors mapped correctly, but you'll figure that out easy if youre doing this type of modification.)
Also, i cant find anything for these chips in this device.. all no name or weird names that no-one knows.. but i did find this one image that appears to be correct for the driver:
The code to get these running as E1.31 devices is already here - I might suggest tack on some ElegantAsyncOTA libraries as well so you can update it remotely, since you cant open the case constantly to update the MCU.
Thanks again for the help here guys, its been very useful, and I thought I'd throw this info back at ya'll in case anyone has skills enough to hack existing devices, and come out with a 10W RGBWW flood for less than $25.
(OH! note i used a 680 ohm resistor between the esp and the driver chips. You might have to play with the values to get full brightness from them.. if the resistor (mainly for some minimal protection) is too high you wont get it to respond at all.. )
Here's what I found after buying a couple different RGB floods from Amazon..
This RGB flood is Bluetooth, doesent have the best reviews, but its 2 for $30 right now..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083FQRSPK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Its better for my hacking purposes because its a plastic case, already uses a weird BT module running at 3.3v and the module matches some of the ESP8266 module footprints (you dont need a full D1 mini, its already got 3.3v power, but you do need a way to program whatever you use.. so.. choose what works best for you..). Other Amazon flood lights I tried (using IR remotes) were built using 5v MCU's so its harder to drive the LED to full 10W power.
This item is glued with silicone.. break/bend down the plastic lip on one side and slide a knife under the glass to separate it. Inside you'll see the module and the power systems. This model I got runs off DC but its line level conversion, so we're talking about 140V DC inside!! Keep you fingers out of this unless youre smart enough to mess with these safely! And DONT connect the USB connection to the PC at the same time its plugged in - "GND" inside these floods may not (probably is not!) the same ground as your PC.
Also this is RGB WarmWhite CoolWhite, so its 5 channels total.
The BT driver chips run from 3.3v directly, using PWM, so its very easy to run a PWM output from an arduino/esp device to the chip connections. (My diagram doesent have colors mapped correctly, but you'll figure that out easy if youre doing this type of modification.)
Also, i cant find anything for these chips in this device.. all no name or weird names that no-one knows.. but i did find this one image that appears to be correct for the driver:
The code to get these running as E1.31 devices is already here - I might suggest tack on some ElegantAsyncOTA libraries as well so you can update it remotely, since you cant open the case constantly to update the MCU.
Thanks again for the help here guys, its been very useful, and I thought I'd throw this info back at ya'll in case anyone has skills enough to hack existing devices, and come out with a 10W RGBWW flood for less than $25.
(OH! note i used a 680 ohm resistor between the esp and the driver chips. You might have to play with the values to get full brightness from them.. if the resistor (mainly for some minimal protection) is too high you wont get it to respond at all.. )
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I had not actually.. i did throw some test/POC code together to play with PWM levels and verify i wasn't overdriving things, but it looks like WLED would certainly be easy enough to build and push.. I'll try it out - thanks!
Edit - WLED is nice but.. perhaps overkill? also, i have 5 channels on a couple of the floodlights (cool and warm white + RGB) and it looked like from research that this isn't fully supported (2 white channels). Although I'll keep watching the project and thank you for the suggestion.
Edit - WLED is nice but.. perhaps overkill? also, i have 5 channels on a couple of the floodlights (cool and warm white + RGB) and it looked like from research that this isn't fully supported (2 white channels). Although I'll keep watching the project and thank you for the suggestion.
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