Posted on Thu 19 September 2024 in Making • Tagged with electronics, xmas
For my Christmas lights, I've been using homemade MQTT-controllable relays. I've been wiring up an ESP2866, a relay, and a AC-DC converter. While this works, it's a bit of a rat's nest of wiring. So I decided to try …
Posted on Wed 24 April 2024 in Making • Tagged with electronics, circuitpython, python
I bought a couple of surplus LED matrix panels a while back, and I finally got around to playing with them. My panels are 16x32 HUB75-compatible panels. I planned to "stack" them to create an effective 32x32 matrix. Adafruit makes a neat little …
Posted on Tue 30 January 2024 in Making • Tagged with leds, electronics
In the first post in this series, I introduced RGB pixels, discussed the various types, and compared analog and true RGB pixels. In the second part, I covered wiring and shared my tips for reliably connecting to your microcontroller. In this third part, I will discuss the FastLED library, one …
Posted on Thu 07 December 2023 in Making • Tagged with leds, electronics
In the first post in this series, I introduced RGB pixels. I discussed the various types and compared analog and true RGB pixels. I also covered power requirements. In this post, I'll cover wiring and share my tips for reliably connecting to your microcontroller. I also include a basic sketch …
Posted on Wed 25 March 2020 in Making • Tagged with electronics, pcb
I had many troubles this year with my Christmas light electronics. Solder connections went bad multiple times. Wires got snagged and tangled during setup. It was tough re-soldering connections while sitting in a snowbank with the circuit hanging by its wires from a yard decoration.
I decided I could fix …