(Just a side note, I had most of this written about a month ago now, and those that attended my virtual concert tour have seen the LEDs in action, but I figured I'd post about it still. The application of the clothes pins are much more obvious now.)
Like most people, being stuck in doors means finding things to do. So I dug around my electronics crap and found some stuff I could put together. I had some left over LED strip and figured I could add a little bit of extra lighting to my room. I already had a RPi that functioned as an over the top light switch, and I could hooked up a second switch too to control the LEDs.
But first I needed to mount the LED's. Because I rent a place I didn't want to put holes in the ceiling, and moreover, I have a gross old popcorn ceiling. so it's not exactly easy to mount to. So I decided to print a custom bracket that would be able to go up against the ceiling, where I could leave just enough space to slip a piece of card board in. I added an additional feature of attaching a clothes pin to the bracket as well. with a few of these clothes pins I could hang up a sheet to use as a projection screen or a plain backdrop. These brackets use 3M command strips to adhere to the wall, so they wouldn't leave holes in the wall.
After the driver was finished, I was able to mount the LEDs to the cardboard and slid the cardboard into the bracket against the popcorn ceiling.
I then put all the required connections together inside my original light switch, and VOILA!
Like most people, being stuck in doors means finding things to do. So I dug around my electronics crap and found some stuff I could put together. I had some left over LED strip and figured I could add a little bit of extra lighting to my room. I already had a RPi that functioned as an over the top light switch, and I could hooked up a second switch too to control the LEDs.
But first I needed to mount the LED's. Because I rent a place I didn't want to put holes in the ceiling, and moreover, I have a gross old popcorn ceiling. so it's not exactly easy to mount to. So I decided to print a custom bracket that would be able to go up against the ceiling, where I could leave just enough space to slip a piece of card board in. I added an additional feature of attaching a clothes pin to the bracket as well. with a few of these clothes pins I could hang up a sheet to use as a projection screen or a plain backdrop. These brackets use 3M command strips to adhere to the wall, so they wouldn't leave holes in the wall.
While the brackets were printing and such, I move over to the electronics of the LEDs. I hooked up a second set of cables to a switch that was not previously connected to my RPi. This was easy, but then, I needed to connect my RPi to the LEDs to control the color.
I ended up soldering a custom LED driver circuit. All it really is, is a board that takes the 12V supply source and connects it to the LEDs power rail. Then there are 3 MOSFETs that can be controlled by the RPi to either turn the LEDs on or off. I suppose I should have mentioned that these are RGB LEDs.
After the driver was finished, I was able to mount the LEDs to the cardboard and slid the cardboard into the bracket against the popcorn ceiling.
I then put all the required connections together inside my original light switch, and VOILA!
Right now I can control them only with the physical switch, but I think I could probably add some APIs or something in the future to control them with my phone or shouting at my smart speaker. A post for another time perhaps.
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