Cheap WiFi LED dimmer (~10$)

[ThinkPad]

For people not handy enough to build this projec themselves, KaKu released a comparable product a while ago: http://www.klikaanklikuit.nl/shop/nl/pr ... cm-lv24-1/
That one is not over WiFi, but is controlled over 433Mhz (by RFXCOM).

However, i prefer building Quindor' version, much more fun!

[Quindor]

I have updated the first post with new articles I wrote and a new much smaller and better board design. Check it out!

[thecosmicgate]

Maybe it's an idea te sell some complete sets ?
Or is there somebody interested tot buy the needed parts together with me, i dont need 10 PCB's or 20 voltage regulators for example

[Quindor]

Maybe it's an idea te sell some complete sets ?
Or is there somebody interested tot buy the needed parts together with me, i dont need 10 PCB's or 20 voltage regulators for example

The boards come per 10, nothing you can do there. And they actually turn into 20 with the new v2 board. But it's " only" 14$.

But all the other components can be bought in smaller quantities, the price per piece will be a little bit higher per piece, but in total you should come much closer to the cost of building one or two boards.

Of course, if people want to buy the boards together with someone, be my guest!

[thecosmicgate]

Of course, if people want to buy the boards together with someone, be my guest!

If there are people interested , they can send me an PM

[thecosmicgate]

Maybe interesting : http://samenkopen.net/action_products/954351

[TonyFeestneus]

Ingenious does this disturb the wifi speed on your laptop for example? Due to many signals in the air (i remember when ziggo opened up all routers to mobile ziggo users, I had to change channel due to too much competition resulting in slower speeds)

[ThinkPad]

Today i built the dimmer and seems to work fine The fade between dimlevels (instead of jumping from 20% to 50% for example) is also very nice, makes it look like a expensive dimmer.
Unfortunately my NAS doesn't have the 'nc' (netcat) commandline utility. It can be installed, but requires a sort of 'jailbreaking' of the NAS. Don't want to do that.

The NAS has 'telnet' available, so i modified the script a bit to use telnet instead of netcat.
script_device_LEDstrip.lua

Code: Select all

commandArray = {}

DomDevice = 'LEDstrip'

IP = '192.168.4.184'
Port = '43333'

LEDtarget = 'LED1_Target='
Fadetimer = 'Fadetimer1='
Waittime = '2'
FadeTime1 = '2000'

 if devicechanged[DomDevice] then
   if(devicechanged[DomDevice]=='Off') then DomValue = 0;
   print ("Turning off " .. DomDevice);
   runcommand = "echo " .. (Fadetimer) .."" .. (FadeTime1) .. "," .. (LEDtarget) .. "0  | telnet " .. (IP) .. " " .. (Port) .. " ";

   print (runcommand);
   os.execute(runcommand);
 return commandArray
   else
    DomValue = (otherdevices_svalues[DomDevice]);
   end
   CalcValue = DomValue * 33;
   print ("Value received from Domoticz was " .. (DomValue) .." ");
   print ("Calculated value for ESP is " .. (CalcValue) .." ");
   print ("Dimming "  .. (DomDevice) .. " to " .. (CalcValue) .. " ");
   runcommand = "echo " .. (Fadetimer) .."" .. (FadeTime1) .. "," .. (LEDtarget) .. "" .. (CalcValue) .. " | telnet " .. (IP) .. " " .. (Port) .. " ";
   print (runcommand);
   os.execute(runcommand);
 end
return commandArray

Also changed the fadetime, 8sec is a bit sloooooow for me (i want it to respond faster).
It seems that 'telnet' doesn't support a timeout parameter.


Now only the bug needs to be fixed that if you turn the device 'On' (by clicking on the bulb in Domoticz) it doesn't light up the attached light. As soon as you click the slider to a position it does....

[ThinkPad]

It seems the unit becomes unresponsive after a while (a day or so). I'm not sure if it responds to ping.... unplugging power and plugging it back in again gets it working again.
Any tips for this? Maybe it would be possible to create a .sh script (to be called from cron at the Raspberry) to reboot the unit every night at 4:00 ? (and then also go to brightness 0).

[Quindor]

It seems the unit becomes unresponsive after a while (a day or so). I'm not sure if it responds to ping.... unplugging power and plugging it back in again gets it working again.
Any tips for this? Maybe it would be possible to create a .sh script (to be called from cron at the Raspberry) to reboot the unit every night at 4:00 ? (and then also go to brightness 0).

No clue, I have several that have been running for months now, without a reboot or problem whatsoever? Odd? What are you using to deliver power, is that stable?

I'm not sure a scheduled reboot will help in your case. Especially if you would initate it remotely, better then make the code on the ESP do this.

But even better, try and figure out what is going on. Is the module crashing, does the WiFi disconnect, etc?

[ThinkPad]

I'm using a beefy 12V 5A adapter (from old TFT screen or so). It is strong enough, if i unplug the plug from the wall the ESP red light stays on for another 5secs or so.
I think (wild guess) that is has something to do with the fact that i don't use 'netcat' but 'telnet' (because netcat is not available on my NAS).

Next time it won't respond (light won't turn on) i will see if it still responds to ping. I think so, i haven't seen the module reboot (when i do that by hand the LED strip flashes to a high brightness and then stays at a very dim level) which i would expect if the module crashes

[Thomasdc]

Of course, if people want to buy the boards together with someone, be my guest!

If there are people interested , they can send me an PM

Hi!

I am planning on buying some "cheap wifi led dimmers" with Thecosmicgate
I already sent a PM to him, I know we are with 3 now for this (and I'm planning on buying 3)
But so we are still looking for some guys who also want to buy this with us! So please sent him a PM if you are interested.

[Thomasdc]

Hi!

I am looking for something to control my led-strips with (i dont have rf or anything, only wifi so this seems nice!

But what is the max power/current of the dimmer?
(so I know how many meters ledstrip i can connnect to one dimmer)

[ThinkPad]

Depends on the specs of the MOSFET you use...

Quindor uses the STP16NF06L which can handle 16A according to the datasheet. So that is quite a length.
If you know how much your LED-strip uses per meter, you can calculate it.... 16 / <amps per meter> = max length that can be connected

[domotico]

Hi,
I'm having some problems with the dimmer and I can't get it to work corectly.
When i send the comand : echo LED1_target=1000 | nc ip.ip.ip.ip 43333 to the dimmer via serial connection
I only get :
stdin:2: '=' expected near 'LED1_target'
The dimmer doesn't respond to commands from domoticz.
Can anyone help me to find out what i did wrong?

[ThinkPad]

So, the Chinese people are now using the ESP8266 in commercial products: http://hackaday.com/2015/08/25/esp8266- ... -products/
Direct link to product: http://aliexpress.com/item/rgb-WiFi-con ... 23622.html "Huacanxing H801 WiFi"

[alexcd]

Hi guys,
Anyone tried successfuly the fqp30n06l ? I've tried from two batches (ebay) total of 15 fqp's and just one worked, the other ones just barely lit up the strip when applied 3.3v to gate but when i've tried applying 5v to gate the strip fully lit up

[alexcd]

Just tried IRLZ44N and this works great for a full 5m 3528 led strip

[thecosmicgate]

Is there anybody who's got some PCB (and parts) left ? I just want to build 1 dimmer for now
I just want to dim normal led , no RGB for this one

[thecosmicgate]

Is there some updated LED dimmer available @quindor ?