Smart Bedframe

Recent gap in posts is due to moving. Now going from a 1 br apt to a house, there are plenty of new things to automate. First project is to make a light controller for the bedroom. 

I want this device to control: 

- RGB led strip under the bed

- White led strip under the bed

- 2 dimmable lights connected to the headboard

I had planned to just use a nodemcu but due to the mosfets and 2 AC dimmers all requiring a PWM signal. I had to go with an Arduino nano paired with an ESP01. Sounds easy enough... but I vastly underestimated how much extra code that added to the project. In retrospect I would probably go with a bigger espressif board. Here is a pic of how I layed out all the boards in fritzing and then physically layed out.

And here it is fully wired up. Code is 95% ready. The ESP can connect to the MQTT server and relay commands to the Arduino Nano.

And now it is installed on the bedframe under the mattress. The 3d printed box pictured is a housing the cover up a screw terminal for the AC and 12v lines.

Biggest hiccup in this project is the AC dimmers library uses internal timer 2, which prevents you from using 2 of the 5 PWM signals. I solved this by just using a digital signal for the RGB mosfets, so I just can't dim the RGB colors anymore. Not a big deal.

Lighthouse wire sculpture

hackaday.com is one of my goto blogs to see cool projects others work on. This project was inspired by a Circuit Sculpture Contest they had hosted on there website. I had bought all the materials in preparation to enter it into the contest, however 1 month after the contest ended I had not even started CAD'ing the sculpture. Nevertheless the project was completed and managed to mesh it into the ongoing home automation project.

The sculpture is, if not obvious, a lighthouse. There is a power circuit and a 555 timer circuit triggering a transistor controlling a BIG led. The intent was to make it fade in and out, but it really just blinks.

The second part of the project is how the sculpture is integrated with the home automation server. Currently it sits on a shelf I made out of spare pallet wood and lumber from the farmhouse table project. I painted and stained it to match the coffee table. And light the coffee table it has a RGB led strip on the back for some ambient lighting. I used a Magichome RGBW Light controller reprogrammed with Tasmota software to control the RGB led strip, then wired the extra white output to a barrel connector which plugs into the circuit sculpture. Look at my earlier RGB light controller post for pics and info on the led controller I used.

Future plans will be to create a set of openhab rules to turn the lighthouse sculpture on when some event happens. Could be a phone notification, phone call, ISS flying overhead... TBD

3d Printer Enclosure

This whole project began because my 3d prints were failing to stick to the glass printer bed. I think its only happening in the winter because I keep the apartment on the colder side and that doesn't treat the printer well. So to help with that you can build or buy enclosures for your printer. I pretty much followed these instructions:

https://blog.prusaprinters.org/cheap-simple-3d-printer-enclosure/

Using these thingiverse files to print the enclosure pieces:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2864118

I went with 3 white IKEA lack tables and printed the pieces in white as well. After everything is complete, i think it turned out nice but would have preferred the wood finished lack tables.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lack-side-table-white-30449908/

Below is a pic of the Led strip light controller, 2 rows of white led's and the controller are fastened to the bottom of the top table. A wemos controller is used to receive MQTT commands from the openhab/mosquitto server so lights can be turned on/off and the temperature inside can be reported back. I used a 1-wire ds18b20 temp sensor, b/c thats all I had.

I cut a hole in one of the tables, ran the wires through, and added some 3d printed brackets to hold the 3d printer controll box.

Overall turned out well, but the printer is still a POS. It will be upgraded in the future.

Wifi RGB controller

After doing the smart coffee table project, I read online that others had done the same thing in a much much easier way. And cheaper... Instead of soldering the mosfet circuits together and connecting it to a nodemcu, you can pretty much buy commercially available versions(link here). Then you just reprogram them to your liking. In my case I want it to talk MQTT to my openhab server.

I also discovered the lovely Tasmota software, a more elegant and put together version of what I made.

To do this you have to solder some wires to the labeled pads on the pcb and connect it to your usb to ttl converter. 

In my case I left the header soldered to the board in case I ever want to reprogram it in the future. I plan to use this controller with some led strip lights that I am putting above my 3d printer. 

Wifi Door Sensor

I started out by buying a NEO Wifi Door Sensor. They are fairly cheap and I had read online that they had a esp chip in them. So the theory was I could reprogram it to talk MQTT to my openhab server. The device was fairly small and runs off a cr2 battery.

So I tore it apart and saw the pads labeled vcc,gnd,tx,rx,and io_0. Thought it was a walk in the park, solder some wires and load code through the arduino ide. 

This is where everything fell apart... Couldn't get an code to load and I realized there was another mcu sharing the tx/rx lines. In the end I gave up and just took the magnet and reed switch, then built my own using a Wemos D1 Mini.

I used the schematic found from this website: http://www.whatimade.today/esp-8266-mailbox-notifier-using-deepsleep-and-blynk/. A single 18650 battery powers the unit, currently monitoring the battery to determine how long it will last. The device was then packaged up on a hand soldered pcb.

Then placed on my front door.

So now every time the door is opened, it sends an update to the openhab/Mqtt server, the server then turns on my foyer and living room lights. #nerdgoals

Code: https://github.com/kbittle/Esp8266_DoorSensor

Adding Wifi to a Dumb RGB Light Bulb

Many years ago I had bought a RGB led bulb off amazon to try out, when there really wasnt a smart bulb market. After collecting dust more many years it has found a use! I moved into a new apartment and the foyer light was burnt out, i tried like 4 different LED and non-LED bulbs, and this cheapo RGB bulb was the only one that worked.

Problem with this bulb is when you turn it on, it comes on red and you have to use the IR remote to change it to white....  I really dont want to use a remote, so time for an upgrade. Luckily I had a ESP micro laying around, specifically a Wemos D1 mini. This is also a great opportunity to add another device to my home automation system. The plan is to have this device communicate using MQTT to a raspberry pi running Openhab.

Steps to put a new brain in the light bulb:

• Pull off plastic cap, pry original PCB from aluminum housing(just glued down with some sort of thermal glue).
• De-solder the original IC, oscillator, and IR receiver led.
• Wire the original DC power wires into the wemos and add new power wires between wemos and led board.
• Add 3 wires between wemos and led board for red, green, and blue control.
• Program custom code(Github link). I used the Arduino IDE and the following libraries:
• ESP Wifi
• MQTT
• OTA downloads

Board stack showing wemos under RGB led board.

Wires soldered onto the pads of the existing IC.

Update: In retrospect I should have just used the really nice tasmota software available for free and created a custom config.