ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- Waiting on some new boards from www.PCBWay.com/?from=atomic so thought I'd have a look at these interesting addressable LED curtains.
They are pretty cool - what's really interesting is that they operate with the data line in a bus mode - all the LEDs get the serial data and each one has an address burned into it at manufacture time so they know which part of the data stream is for them.
Very clever stuff.
But we're not here to praise this product - we're here to take it apart and see if we can hack around with it. In this case the answer is a definite yes!
These are the curtains that I purchased: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFQ...
"New Generation DIY LED Curtain Lights Steady Lit APP Remote Control Pattern Cartoon Text For Window Festival Wedding Decoration" - Is how they describe it...
And the interesting GitHub thread is here: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/is...
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If you'd like to help support the channel and help me buy more nonsense - I have a Patreon page: www.patreon.com/atomic14
We've also got a shop now! shop.atomic14.com
And if you're shopping on AliExpress or Amazon then if you click on these links I will get a little bit of affiliate money:
Aliexpress - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Ac05mF
Amazon - www.amazon.com/?tag=atomic14-20
You can also join us on Discord here: discord.gg/h2DDnDdjD2
There's also the Atomic14 newsletter here: atomic14.substack.com/
And don't forget about the MakerNews newsletter - makernews.substack.com/
Really neat! I have to drop everything and learn more about these right NOW! Cheers Chris!
Ive always wondered about the return data line on these, thanks for taking a look.
I spent a long time looking under the microscope thinking I must be missing something.
Ah, so another variation on these!
I got a version of these 'seed pixel' curtain lights in 2021, it used like a shift register T-connector at the top. The ws2812b seed pixels per drop were just like normal seed pixels (data in, data out).
Going forward, I'm interested to see how these seed pixels hold up. I built a 2,400 pixel tree with them last year but the quality has changed a lot. Even in the video I did on the tree you can see slight yellowing on the strings.
That’s very interesting - my initial thought on how these ones could possibly work was some kind of shift register at the top.
Thank you for sharing this vid.
#question:
1 Did you flash the standard WLED?
2.Please share the settings of the led strip in WLED (led type)?
This looks great! Should it be live 2 weeks ago, I would have bought it for Christmas house decoration :) So, until next year... ;)
They’ve been sat on a shelf for months - finally got round to taking a look at them. By next Christmas there will be even better ones :)
great video makes sence once you take it apart and having a scope really helps... is it possible to connect mechanical switches to the esp32 directly and have it change to different effects , i looked on the wled manual and there is a spot for them but im not sure how to program the pins ...
Really interesting strings of lights. That have improved so much in the last couple of years and its nice to have the remote control. I hate modern phones (I dont have one) so all the app controlled stuff is no se to me. . 👍👍
I must admit, when I was playing with it, I did think - this is actually pretty good as is - do I need to take it apart?
It must be amazing trying this hack with GEQ effect with a microphone attached to the ESP32
Interesting! But what matrix settings did you have in WLED for this to work? It's not a normal serpentine style string that WLED is "used to", so I'm guessing you need to set it up differently too?
I just picked 2D matrix and left “serpentine” unchecked. No other set up apart from telling it the width and height and that it is “vertical” to get the orientation correct.
This might be the first time I saw what the patterns are supposed to look like. I had WLED on an ESP32 board and I just left the single strand of LEDs as is, wondering how to see all these effects. I feel silly now.
In theory, you can arrange your string into a grid like pattern - just use the serpentine option. Depends on how many LEDs you've got in your string though.
What wled settings are you using to get these to work. I have a set and it just flashes awful colors connected to WLED
Can you share your config for this curtain please? I've got some on order and would love to get them going
Cool! I only very recently learned about these pre-addressed LEDs and found it pretty fascinating. It would be really neat if there was a way to re-write the address for them,, though.
Edit: WLED is THE BEST! Aircookie an the other developers, and the whole community are just wonderful. :D
That would be very cool. Seems to be no documentation anywhere on how they are programmed. Agreed - WLED is amazing.
How did you configure wled?
Thank you for sharing this vid.
#question:
1 Did you flash the standard WLED
2.Please share the settings of the led strip
(As a hint, its better to share the setup in a the vid for DIY geeks ;-) #WeAreLazy
For the curtain link in the description, I get a "too many redirects" error. It would be great if there was a textual description of the product also so it can be manually looked up.
Try this one: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DcGljw9
And if that fails:
"New Generation DIY LED Curtain Lights Steady Lit APP Remote Control Pattern Cartoon Text For Window Festival Wedding Decoration" - Is how they describe it...
On mobile I took the redirect part off the end of the link and it worked fine. Luckily the capture was just a slide and not identifying if a few pixels were to be considered as part of a traffic light...
cool video, love LEDs :D
Me too!
Did you still have it connected to mains power, also are you getting the 3.3v from the oem controller to run the esp32?
The ESP32 board I was using lets you connect an external 5V to a pin so I powered it that way.
What happens if you append a normal LED strip to a column? Does it display starting at index 0 or does it display the next columns data?
It would be cool if we could chop off the 2nd row of LEDs to replace them with higher density strips.
It will always display the last set of data - so if you added on 20 normal LEDs you would get the last column displayed on them.
Is it possible to put two of these next to each other, and have wled control them as one big curtain, using two pins to control them from the esp32?
I think so - you can set up WLED to control multiple LED grids.
Did I miss the bit where you discovered/explained how these were passing the data between the different "legs" of the strings? What was the LED config you used in WLED?
As far as WLED is concerned it's just a string of normal WS2812 LEDs. The way it works is that each LED "knows" what it's position on the string should be. So the serial data is sent to every LED simultaneously, and each LED picks out the data that is for its position.
@@atomic14 Have you found a current working link for buying these LEDs is "raw" string (unprogrammed) format? I can't see anywhere that is selling anything described as pre-addressable, pre programmed, etc...
@@paulbritton187 No luck on my side. Probably only available in China direct from the factory.
Have you used the "segments" thing in WLED to do this
I just used the 2D grid setup. I think segments is for switching between different animations - though I must admin, this is the first time I've even used WLED!
@@atomic14Ive used WLED for some time, there is so much you can do with it just need to learn how to get the best out of it
How does this matrix work ??? You stated that the last LED in each string must be connected to the top of the next string. Did you add a wire on each string to get the data back to the top ??? How ??
Your shop still incorrectly says “Note - the bell is fitted to the right hand brake lever as standard although it can be fitted to the left hand lever” for the large bell. I’m happy with my upgrade though, mounted on the right.
Only downside I've experienced with the WLED software is that it's gotten so big you have to be careful which chips you choose to flash it on.
Would WLED need a pretty rigid amperage limit set when running off the board's 3.3V pin?
I usually use WS2812B 5V leds powered separately from the board. I take it the LEDs won't run at 5V?
I left the LEDs powered by the original power supply which outputs 5V. So the ESP32 board was just driving the data pin.
Amazing. I still don't get how they are preprogrammed on the string. Reading that thread, it seems the ICs are built in order on the string with known pixel locations upto n+X, then repeat. You must be able to request string lengths of x-strings in a continuous reel from the factory...??
That's the only way I can think of it working. I don't know how manual the assembly of the strings is - maybe they program them one at a time before they solder them onto the string.
@atomic14 they must preprogramme the chips 1-100 in the die, and they all get fed into numbered hoppers to make up a string from 1-100? Must be a finite length of these strings, too... surely??!!
That does make the most sense. All the ones I can find have 400 LEDs - so I guess you could just a single string with 1-400 - or 0-399 :) - on it and then chop it into the sections for the curtain.
@atomic14 it seems crazy - but that's probably it, and it's just a case of 400 dies, and 400 hoppers feeding a continuous string.... some startup work, but clearly, it's clever - as everyone hated the return wire on curtains!
Could be a OTP process when it's still in a long string (maybe at the factory?), burning a sequential number into it at this point?
How about combining this LED curtain with your ESP32 TV code to play (very low res) video on the curtain. Read in the motion JPEG frame, down convert it to a 20x20 format and then display it on the curtain. 30fps should not be a problem.
I am thinking of this as an ambient side light source in an extended reality (CR) volume with either a large TV, projector screen or an LED wall as the background. Ambient light is the light reflected off of talent, props or actual set pieces in the shot like light from a campfire off screen to the side.
Definitely possible. I've got an RGB LED matrix that I want to try it out on as well.
cool. can you share the ali item id, please?
I received my 2x ESP32-S3 boards last week. I want to make a product that uses the Wifi to serve HTML pages with CSS and JS as an async server, but not sure how to make it configurable by the user with out any input source!
How will they type-in the SSID and Password to connect to their wifi?
I thought of writing a Bluetooth app that asks for the wifi credentials, then logs in using that info so that Wifi will be up, and ESP32 can serve as a web server.
There is also, the possibility of running the ESP32 in Soft AP mode, get the data for the main Wifi, then switch over to STA mode and carry on the rest from there.
I really don't want to go down the Bluetooth rabbit hole if I can avoid it. That would introduce another hurdle to jump over.
Any ideas?
Use WiFi Manager library.
@@ChunkySteveo Ok thanks.
I keep forgetting. Whatever you're looking for, "There's a library for that"!
@@piconano always a library! Haha
I was really impressed with the WLED install process - they have a website that used webserial to flash the firmware and then it takes you into a setup mode where you configure the WiFi and then it takes you the running page on the device. Very cool.
simplest way is github.com/elshnkhll/ESP_Serial_Menu
Great !!!
Thanks
Can you share the aliexpress item id please? The redirection doesn't work …
Try this: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFSlvOZ
I still cant find a seller of just the front xed address led strings. Its a total crap shoot on what arrives, despite what the AliExpress listing says.
These ones? www.adafruit.com/product/4917 - probably a lot more expensive than what you can find (if you can find!) on AliExpress.
@@atomic14 yeah. It's actually cheaper to buy a finished product to cannibalise it than buy the Adafruit product.
But I'm assuming you can buy the strip, pre programming, then apply the fixed address simply, post fabrication of the final product (curtain, tree, icicles etc) because keeping track of them, given there is no outward markings would be impossible.
@@StuartTaylorEsquire Could buy one of the curtains and then reconstruct the original string of LEDs...
I know from someone who has been to the factory that the process of programming the addresses of these LED involves shining light at the LED, using it as a photocell, to tell them which device is being programmed via commands over the wire. Don't recall if they use a projector or a laser. I would expect the protocol is something along the lines of "If you can see light now, you are row x", and similar for Y to program a large array quickly. It may be that higher than normal voltages are involved to do the write operation.
OMFG, that's so cool. Using the LED as a photocell to tell them where they fit in the grand scheme of things. Curious if/how they can be re-programmed when assembled for project. Down the rabbit hole I go...
Android app can be de-assembled.
What is the reason they choose 3 wires and addressable leds? Especially for moving images WS2812 must be faster no? No need for addresses saving bits on the data wire. Also the cleaning / reshaping of the signal by every WS2812 is good and lacking here... I not understand the benefit... only when you want to change a few leds only it could be interesting..
I suspect it’s much easier to manufacture as you just need to solder the LEDs onto the wires - no need to cut any wires and daisy chain the LEDs together. You also don’t need to connect the last led in each column to the first led in the next column.
Unfortunately the Ali link no longer works :(
Updated the description - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFQ98jB - you can also search for "LED curtain" there's a few options.
Эти светодиоды не адресуемые, они каскадируемые.
cool. can you share the ali item id, please?
Should be a link in the video description.
@@atomic14 i was asking for the item id cause the link does redirect and is blocked in many cases
Try this: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFSlvOZ