设置
快速交货
免运费
国际贸易术语
支付类型
市场产品
制造商零件编号 2821
ESP8266 FEATHER HUZZAH LOOSE HDR
Adafruit Industries LLC
Floor Lamp with NeoPixels and WLED Custom Animations
2024-09-17 | By Adafruit Industries
License: See Original Project Hand Tools LED Strips Solder / Desoldering Touch Wifi Wireless
Courtesy of Adafruit
Guide by Erin St Blaine
Overview
The lighting in your home can really change the energy and the mood. This modern floor lamp uses addressable NeoPixel LEDs, a QT Py Pico ESP32 with WiFi, and the free, open-source WLED software: a wonderful and easy way to create animations, schedule programs, and take control of the lighting in your house.
This lamp also uses the capacitive touch sensor pads on the QT Py. A copper foil decoration on the base allows me to turn the lamp on and off and change modes just by tapping it with my toe.
This guide uses version 14.4 of WLED.
Materials
Adafruit sells two different controllers that will run WLED: the Feather Huzzah and the QT Py Pico. The QT Py is a little smaller and a little less expensive, so that's the one I chose for this project.
NeoPixel lights come in many different shapes, sizes, and densities. For this lamp I chose 60/m NeoPixel, but WLED will work with any of the types that Adafruit sells. The higher density 144/m pixels would also look great with this project. There are also side-light, dual sided, seed pixels and more -- take a look around the shop to find the lights you like best.
I'm using copper foil tape for the capacitive touch switch. This can be cut into shape by hand or with a Cricut vinyl cutter and will function as a decorative toe switch for turning the lamp on and off and changing modes.
For lamps with less than around 100 pixels, a power supply can be used that plugs directly into the QT Py with a USB C port. I like this one because it already has an inline on/off switch.
You'll also need some silicone wire in 3 different colors, and it's helpful to have some clear heat shrink to seal the ends of the LED strip.
- 3 x Silicone Stranded Wire
- 1 x Clear Heat Shrink
Additional Materials
I used a hot wheels track from Amazon to make the spiral support for my LEDs.
You'll also need a piece of wood or other heavy thing for the base of the lamp, and a pole for the arm. I used a hollow steel tube I found in my garage, but a wooden dowel or PVC pipe would work just as well.
Tools
- Soldering iron & accessories
- Hot glue gun
- Screws & screwdriver
- Drill with small drill bits and large spade bit
- Silicone caulk & caulking gun
Wiring Diagram
- QT Py A0 --> NeoPixel IN
- QT Py 5v --> NeoPixel 5v
- QT Py G --> NeoPixel G
- QT Py A2 --> wire for capacitive touch
The pixels are powered directly through the board since there are only a few pixels. This arrangement works for small projects of up to 100 pixels. For larger projects with more LEDs, you'll want to power the pixels directly from a 5V power supply. If you are powering more than 100 LEDs or so, see the guides below:
WLED Software
Driver Update
Some versions of the QT Py have a new serial chip which needs a driver installed before we can install WLED. Head over to our How to Install Drivers for WCH USB to Serial Chips tutorial, and download and install the new driver.
If you have an older QT Py with CP2102 USB-to-Serial bridge, use SiLabs’ driver instead.
Install WLED
These next steps require a Web Serial-compatible browser. As of this writing, that means Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Opera “desktop” browsers. Other browsers (Safari, Firefox, Explorer and anything mobile) won’t work.
Visit https://install.wled.me/
Plug your microcontroller into your computer with a known good USB cable. Click "Install" and select the port for your board.
Depending on the USB-to-serial bridge chip on the board, you might see one or two serial ports. On Mac, for instance, there might be both “/dev/cu.usbmodem[number]” and “/dev/cu.wchusbserial[number]”.
Use the “wchusbserial” one.
After successful installation, enter your WiFi network name and password when prompted. This must be a 2.4 GHz WiFi network; ESP32 does not support 5 GHz networks. If it can’t connect, then as a fallback WLED will create its own 2.4 GHz WiFi access point.
Setup & Preferences
WiFi Setup
Head to the WiFi Setup screen under Config and create a good URL so you can control your project from any web-enabled device. Call it something you'll remember, that's easy to type into any web browser on your WiFi network in order to connect to your project.
LED Preferences
Next, head to the LED Preferences tab under the Config menu.
Scroll down to Hardware Setup. Put your total number of LEDs into the "Length" field and change GPIO to the pin number associated with the pin you soldered to. Check the QT Py Pico Pinout (or the Feather Huzzah Pinout if you're using that board) to find this number (it's the one in yellow).
Use It
Now you can use any computer or handheld device to control your LEDs.
Make sure your device is on the same WiFi network as your board. Navigate to your custom URL (sparkle.local/ for me) in a web browser. You'll see a color picker above a whole bunch of color palette choices.
Choose a color, choose an effect, and watch your lights animate and glow!
Save your favorite combinations as presets, create playlists, control the speed and intensity of the animations, and lots more. This web app is incredibly intuitive and easy to use.
Head over to the WLED wiki at https://kno.wled.ge/ to delve into all the particulars.
Electronics Assembly
Solder four wires to the QT Py:
- Red to +5v
- Black to G
- White to A0
- Yellow to A2
The red, black, and white wires will connect to the NeoPixels:
- Red to +5v
- Black to G
- White to DI (data IN)
One end of the NeoPixel Strip is Data Out, the other Data In. Be sure to connect to Data In which might be labeled DI or have a triangle pointing into the strip. The Data Out Pin (DO or triangle pointed out the end) will not work.
Strip a little shielding off the end of the yellow wire but don't connect it to anything yet. This will become our capacitive touch switch.
Once you've got the software installed, plug in the QT Py to power via the onboard USB-C port. Your lights should come on in a soft yellow color.
Troubleshooting
If the lights don't come on, here are a couple things to try:
- Be sure you soldered to the correct end of the LED strip. These strips are directional and won't work if you connect the data wire to the wrong end. More about how to solder NeoPixels here
- Open the WLED software and go to the LED Settings page. Make sure you have the correct pin (GPIO) entered here. Find this out in the pinout diagram in the QT PY guide).
- If it's still not working, head over to the NeoPixel Uberguide and try uploading some basic code, just to see whether the problem is with your wiring or with the software. If you can get the lights to come on using Arduino or CircuitPython, the trouble is with the software -- try reinstalling.
Once your lights are working, seal the end up with a piece of clear heat shrink. I like to squirt a little hot glue in before I shrink it down, so the solder joints are fully encased in plastic and won't pull out.
Create Presets
Animation Presets
Once your lights are working, it's time for the fun part: creating light animations using WLED presets. This is easy and intuitive in WLED. Choose a color palette and an effect, then play with the sliders at the bottom of the Effect Mode column to customize the effect.
When you find something, you like, click the +Preset button in the Presets tab and give your preset a name, then save it. You can reorder them using the "Save to ID" field.
You can create hundreds of presets using the preprogrammed effects, so take some time to play around and see what looks good on your LED strip.
Create at least 3 presets and be sure they are saved to ID numbers 1-3. Our next step will be to set up the capacitive touch switch to toggle between these presets.
Control Presets
The WLED preset interface can also be used to send control commands to the LED strip. The capacitive touch switch can be used for a wide variety of functions: change modes, change brightness, toggle the lights on and off, or a whole host of other features.
Each button in WLED has 3 options: a short press, a long press, or a double press. I want my lamp to cycle through presets with a short touch, and to turn on or off with a long touch. Here's how I set up a control preset for each of these features.
Cycle through Presets
Click +Preset and then uncheck the "Use current state" checkbox. This will open up an API command window within the preset module.
Call the effect "Next_FX" and type {"ps":"1~3~"} into the API command box. This tells WLED to cycle through presets 1-3. If you'd like to cycle through more presets, change the 3 to the number of presets you have.
Be sure your preset IDs include all the numbers -- skipping a number will break this command.
Give your preset an ID number that's above the range of your preset numbers -- I called mine 9.
Toggle On/Off
Create another preset and call it "Toggle". Uncheck the "use current state" checkbox and enter T=2 into the API command box. This will tell the LEDs to toggle between on and off. Save this one to ID 10.
On the next page we'll connect these control presets to our capacitive touch button.
Find out more about creating these control presets here:
https://kno.wled.ge/features/presets/
You can enter either JSON commands or HTTP commands into this command box, giving you a lot of control over your WLED project.
https://kno.wled.ge/interfaces/json-api/
Capacitive Touch Button
I soldered my capacitive touch wire to pin A2, which is also known as GPIO 27 (see the QT Py Pico pinout diagram, it's the number in yellow).
In the LED Settings screen, scroll to the button setup section and set button 0 to use pin 27, with the type set as "touch".
Next, head to the Time & Macros config screen. Scroll down to the Button actions area.
For button 0, enter the number assigned to the two control presets you made on the last page. My Next_FX preset is number 9, so I entered 9 under "short press", and my Toggle preset is number 10, so I've got that set up as a "long press".
Test your setup by stripping a bit of shielding off the end of your capacitive touch wire and touching the bare wire. You should see your LED strip scrolling through presets with a short touch, and the strip turning on and off with a longer touch.
If your strip is not reacting the way you expect, here are a few things to try:
- Try touching the copper pad on the board instead of the wire. If it works when you do that, change the Touch Threshold number on the LED settings page until the sensitivity is right. With a 5" wire I found that a threshold of 52 seems to work well.
- Double check both the LED preferences page and the Time & Macros page to be sure your settings are correct and have saved.
- Be sure your presets are correctly numbered. WLED gets confused if the presets have non-sequential IDs (so make sure they're numbered 1, 2, 3 rather than 2, 5, 7).
- Try soldering to a different GPIO pin, and make sure to update the pin number in LED Preferences. I originally soldered to A1, but there was a short or some interference from A0 so giving a little space between the soldered wires on the board seemed to help.
Build the Lamp
I used a scrap piece of wood that is around 10" square and 7/8" thick for my lamp. I used a spade bit to drill a hole in the center. My lamp arm is made of steel and has a screw mount inside one end, so all I need is a way to secure it to the base and I can screw it together from underneath.
I added some EVA foam rubber feet to the bottom of the base, so there's room for the cord underneath.
I ended up drilling a second hole (not shown) next to the center hole for the USB cord to come through. I did it after the lamp was built, but this would have been a better moment.
I drilled three holes in my steel lamp arm: one at the top, middle, and bottom to attach the track to the arm with screws.
Sand the track lightly to help with paint adhesion. Paint really doesn't want to stick to this stuff! I had the most success when I started with a plastic primer spray paint and then did a few topcoats of metallic black.
I screwed my lamp arm to the base and did a test-fit with the track to be sure my screw holes were in the right places. This took a little trial and error but I'm happy with the result.
I took the track back off again to mount the LEDs and diffusion gems.
For diffusion, I'm using these plastic crystals from Amazon. They are fairly lightweight and have an interesting texture. I'd considered using glass pebbles but they'd likely be too heavy and pull the track out of shape. These crystals are perfect. I ordered the 16x22mm size. One bag was the perfect amount for my 5' track.
I used clear silicone caulk to fix the LED strip and gems to the track. It will stick to the silicone casing around the LED strip, and also give me a firm setting for the gems. It dries clear, so won't block the light.
This brand takes 5-7 days to fully dry, but I had a decent hold after 24 hours and was able to assemble the lamp by moving carefully.
I pressed the LED strip into the caulk, then added more on the top and pressed the gems firmly on top, making sure they were all stuck down. Be generous -- really goop it on there.
These gems make a truly wonderful diffusion material. I can't spot individual lights at all.
Once the caulk was dry (enough), I screwed the track back onto the rod at the top, bottom, and middle. I had to do a little adjusting because a fully loaded track weighs quite a bit more than the empty track weighed, but it worked out well in the end.
I put a large piece of black heat shrink over the QT Py to keep it from shorting, and also to hide it from view. I hot glued it to the back of the track near the lamp base, with the capacitive touch wire and USB port facing down.
For the capacitive touch sensor, I decided to use copper tape. I cut some pretty shapes out of a copper tape sheet using my Cricut vinyl cutter. I chose the Adhesive Foil setting and cut one large starflower to use as the main button, and a few more smaller ones just for decoration.
I stuck the big star to the lamp base with the capacitive touch wire underneath, pressing down firmly and smoothing with a straight edge to get a good electrical connection.
I tested touching it with my toe and it works to control the lamp, even though my socks!
Capacitive Touch Trigger Warning
My original idea had been to hook the capacitive touch wire up to the metal pole so I could touch the lamp anywhere on the stem and control it. However, the amount of metal in the pole was just too much for my microcontroller. The current fried the QT Py (not once, but twice!). This may be fixable with a resistor, but the copper foil method works just as well and after being burned twice, I didn't want to keep experimenting.
Have questions or comments? Continue the conversation on TechForum, DigiKey's online community and technical resource.
Visit TechForum
