Motion activated LED stair lighting... without staircase modification!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- Create motion-activated LED stair lighting using ESPHome, WLED and Home Assistant, without modifications to your existing staircase!
While fancier options exists, most require modifications to the existing staircase. This option provides many options for lighting your staircase without modifying your existing stairs.
UPDATE: Since publishing, I've upgraded the type of sensors used to activate the lights. You can see a short video on the upgraded sensors here: • Improved Sensors for L...
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:08 Parts
07:39 Mounting the LEDs
08:48 Power and wiring runs
11:28 ESPHome and Home Assistant Code
13:01 Conclusion and Outro
Links:
Full build details, wiring diagrams, parts list and more:
resinchemtech.blogspot.com/20...
All ESPHome and Home Assistant entity/automation YAML code, along with more information and options for installing can be found in the following Github respository:
github.com/Resinchem/LED-Stai...
If you are not a YAML user, I have another video that shows you how to recreate the above automations via the Home Assistant Automation Editor: • Home Assistant 101: Re...
Build your own WLED Controller:
TH-cam Video: • Build your own LED con...
Blog: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/20...
WLED: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED
ESPHome: esphome.io/
If you find my videos useful and you’d like to say thanks or help support future videos, you can:
Buy Me a Coffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/resinche... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
It’s all well and good until your ghosts walk up and down the stairs at night
🤣🤣🤣
Tell me about it I'll shit myself , it's real badass but no thanks
Bruhhh im dead… as a Ghost lol
So funny and true
Ghosts are sort of invisible so they won't trip the sensor so you're good to go
people like you keep the world running! great job man
Im sure it has been said already but this was excellent! Very creative and it looks amazing. Like a "grand entrance" sort of feel. Well done.
Thanks.... even if it has been said before, I don't mind hearing it again!
Thanks for taking time to comment. I really do appreciate it!
All it needs is it to play the song "you light up my life" every time they come on.
This was the coldest entrance of all time. Well done sir!!!!
Nice.... Creativity creates Beauty.... I'd say start putting this in a ready to go kit... Once the world lays eyes on this... Thanks for sharing with such details..
Thanks! I have been asked a few times about building/selling some of the things I 've created. While I think there are possibilities there, I'm not sure I really have the time (or desire) to deal with shipping, logistics, and the physical builds themselves. It would definitely take away from what time I have to create new projects, videos, blog posts etc. My goal really isn't making a ton of money... just enough to maybe cover my expenses in sharing new projects. My primary goal is to give back to the DIY community that I learned from, promote local home automation, and to share ideas that other might adapt for their own needs. If someone really is interested in "pre-built" options, I try to direct them somewhere that they might find something similar. For example, if you want a pre-built WLED controller, Quindor and DrZZs sell pre-built controllers: quinled.info/pre-assembled-quinled-dig-uno/ (just tell them Resinchem Tech sent you!)
But thanks so much for the thought and watching!
@@ResinChemTech I understand but there are many people that don’t want to DIY it but love your idea. You could easily find a company that will take your idea and market it for you giving you some income for more of your ideas.
Amazing! Gonna make one for my future house !
Mitch? Holy crap... I haven't seen you since I left Austin!
Looks very cool. Thanks for showing.
Now this is a fantastic idea. Now I've definitely got to do this in my house
I'm so excited about this!! I need this for my scary basement stairs
I appreciate this video so freaking much. Thank you for sharing
That is so freakin cool, nice job.
Cleansing the surface and using 3m primer is a game changer for that adhesive backing
I'm just two minutes into this video And I love it already
Thanks sir, I found the details in the description.
That looks cool. Thanks for sharing this brilliant idea.
Thanks. Glad you found it interesting. It can be a bit complicated and a lot of folks may not have Home Assistant or another compatible automation system, but I followed this up with a similar system that is a bit easier to configure and works standalone... without the need for Home Assistant or any other sort of hub.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Neat! I may implement this on our stairs. I'm already familiar with all the pieces and am running HA, so it should be a quick weekend project.
Great! Let me know how it goes. If you are going to use my YAML, just assure you grab the right version of the Gist file as recent changes in HA and WLED broke the older version. If you are comfortable with YAML, I'm sure you'll have no problems but it seems that this is where most folks have reached out to me with issues... integrating my YAML automations into their particular HA instance.
Don't hesitate to reach out if you do run into any questions or problems... and good luck with your project!
@@ResinChemTech Will do! I've ordered some stuff to start the work. Primarily the channel, but also the PIR sensors and some D1s (I think I'm also nearly out of D1s - I've mostly been using ESP32 and ESP32 D1 Mini's of late, but the ESP8266s are plenty for this project). I have an extra LED strip so I'll start with one side to verify I like the channel I've chosen.
I imagine I'll just create my own HA automations so they make the most sense to me - I have at least 15 or 20 that I've written so far for lots of little things around the house that are motion or time or location dependent. I've got a few ESPHome devices already and I've even written WLED plugins, so I should be good with those. I just hadn't thought about putting the strips down the side (duh!) or lighting two strips in parallel from one data line - that works well?
Some of my WLED projects... I made this for our 25th anniversary (3d printed body, designed and printed by me, uses 3mm fiber optics, runs WLED) th-cam.com/video/hsc0FMRmU38/w-d-xo.html . I made this lamp for my grandson's birthday, the video shows off the plugins I made for WLED to provide on-board UI th-cam.com/video/tITQY80rIOA/w-d-xo.html .
Sounds like you have plenty of experience with HA and WLED, so I'm sure you'll figure that part out. Splitting the data signal worked out just fine and hasn't caused me any issues. I honestly didn't know at the very start if that would work, but I didn't want two separate controllers (knowing they'd never actually truly stay in-sync.. even if I used the WLED syncing feature). But with the single signal line.. and with the same number of pixels on both sides, they are perfectly in sync for all effects.
I did have to experiment with various motion detectors. I originally tried a couple of Zigbee versions (thinking that wireless would save me from running the extra USB cable), but everything else I tried had too long of a cool down period... up to 45 seconds in some case. The ones I ended up selecting had the shortest cooldown I could find... around 5 seconds.... but it did mean I had to run USB power to the one at the top. But as I showed in the video, using the flat cable pretty much makes it hidden.
Again, good luck and drop me a line when you get it done!
@@ResinChemTech Project completed yesterday. th-cam.com/video/DaU0u5YZguc/w-d-xo.html for a video. The parts I used for the project (along with links) are all in my video description. Thanks for the inspiration to finally install stair lights (I'd been considering it for a year). The missus loves them.
omg i just imagined this thing detecting motion in the middle of the night when no one seems to be there, slowly walking down ..... got goosebumps now and dont want this anymore xD
This is cool as hell...
Very cool effects. Thanks for the idea
You are more than welcome! I wish I could take credit for the effects, but they are part of the WLED firmware that I used. The effects are actually much nicer than in the video, but it is really difficult to film LEDs as they tend to overwhelm the camera (well, at least with the equipment I'm using).
Thanks for watching and taking time to comment.
Thats is my next project for sure. Thanks for this video.
You are most welcome! Note that I did a follow up video where I upgrade the motion sensors with a different (and in my opinion better) type of sensor that isn't as susceptible to false detections. You might want to take a peek at that, along with the full written version of this project, before starting you own build. This original video was done quite some time ago, so I have made improvements in the time since this particular video was released.
Let me know how your project goes... or if you have any other questions along the way.
Awesome! Thanks for the video
Great video. Thank you.
..... excellent Video. I've *GOTTA* try this.
Thanks! Give it a shot... it's really a pretty easy project to build.
Awesome ..👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼thanks for sharing 🙏🏻
Thanks.... and you are more than welcome. I hope you found something helpful or useful in the video.
WOW!!! This is really nice.
Okay, that is cool AF!!!!!! Awesome job!!!!!
I clicked on like and subscribe the moment I realised you are making all the needed information available for free!
Thank you!!! 👍
PS: I am not planning to make use of any of the information available 😇🤪
Thanks! You never know... and you might be surprised! I never thought I'd be as involved in smart home tech and automation like I am now. But then you see something on TH-cam and think "I could really use something like that to solve a problem I have in my house". One thing leads to another and before you know it, you have over 100 "smart" devices installed!
But even if you don't go down that route, I appreciate the time you took to watch and comment! Thanks again!
This is incredible!
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
That's a good idea for senior citizens and those with disabilities to help them see where stairs and flat floors are at night
And it doesn't have to be that 'chasing lights' effect either. The lights could just gently fade on to a solid color to provide lighting and then fade back off again. Since WLED has literally hundreds of different effects (and colors), all sorts of uses are possible. I know a number of other viewers have reached out and they installed this same system along the baseboards in a long hallway to provide dimmed night lighting for those late night trips to the bathroom or kitchen!
Thanks for watching and taking time to post a comment!
Stunning and brave
Great video. I am going to take your ideas and implement in my house. In my case, I may be willing to make minor modifications to existing stairs if necessary to conceal the wiring even more fully. Thanks
Thanks! There are definitely things I would have done differently if I would have considered modifications to the stairs. There are some other videos out there of some really excellent stair lighting builds... even ones with lights horizontally across each tread. But as I've mentioned in a few other videos, we will likely be selling our home in the next 3-5 years and a lot of this smart home tech won't work for the next buyers (especially those that rely on Home Assistant, like this one), so most of my project installs will need to be removed. If this was our 'forever' home or if we were going to stay here in retirement, then I would have been much more likely to make modifications to hide the wiring a bit better.
I think my goal was a project that someone could do in a weekend... was easily removable if the better half didn't like it.. and it wasnt' going to leave any signs of it ever being there once was removed.
Thanks again for watching and taking time to comment.
Omfg I need this!!!! I can just picture my landlord now as I slowly walk down the stairs with these lights. Holy shit!!!!! Yes I MUST have these!!!
Very nice and straight forward. Most stair lighting has loghts going horizontal across each stair. I like the simplicity of your approach.
Thanks! I try to do projects that are not impossible to recreate or require a lot of specialized equipment... and that can be removed without having to do major restoration work! As I mention in a couple of videos, we will likely sell our house in a few years and most of this smart home tech will have to come back out unless the new owners want to keep some/all of it. I like some of the other videos with the lights across the treads, but they are much more complicated and require construction to hide wires, etc. Thanks for watching and taking time to comment!
This has to be the coolest thing since star wars! Great job buddy
Thanks! While it may seem a bit 'over the top', they actually are nice when we turn the main lights off to watch TV, as they provide plenty of light to go up and down the stairs without turning on the overhead lights. They aren't for everybody... but we like them!
Thanks for watching... and taking the time to leave a comment.
@@ResinChemTech u shud definitely market it if u can, its super cool
I have found that 3m command strips are excellent for mounting those kinds of channels without using screws.
Absolutely... and a good suggestion for anyone that doesn't want even the small screw holes. I tried a small screw in an inconspicuous location and felt it was acceptable in my case. And I did like the added ability to easily remove a section of the rail from the clips in the event that I needed to make a repair (fortunately hasn't happened yet). But you could absolutely use command strips or even other double-sided tape as long is it wouldn't mar the finish upon removal. Thanks for watching and passing on the suggestion!
This is very cool and inspiring!
Thanks! I appreciate it!
Very awesome project!
This is so cool! Thank you it gives me so many ideas
You're welcome! And in case you aren't a Home Assistant user, I did create another version that works with only wifi (no hub or automation needed), although it does have fewer effects and features: th-cam.com/video/b4s_VEtVWY4/w-d-xo.html This might give you some additional ideas as well.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
@@ResinChemTech actually I'd never heard of Home assistant before I saw your video but now I'm definitely going to dig into that and see what I can do with it:-)
Great video! You got yourself another subscriber.
Thank you! And thanks so much for subscribing... it's what motivates me to look for new ideas for additional videos.
Sir you are my hero. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years. Thanks for the video I liked and subscribed. Fellow Indy neighbor here also.
Thanks! Just curious... are you a home automation/Home Assistant user? Just before the pandemic hit, I was looking for other Home Assistant/automation users in the Indy/central IN area to judge interest in some sort of users group around Home Assistant and/or automation. I had to put that on pause... so I went out and created a blog and TH-cam channel instead! But the idea has hung around in my head... if we ever get back to "normal" some day! Let me know if you decide to tackle this project (or any others) and run into any questions.
Thanks again for the kind words... and the sub!
@@ResinChemTech no sir I’m neither home automation or assistant user. I’m a Hvac tech but I do a lot of diy to my home and always wanted to do this to my stairs but never really seen anything I like until your channel popped up.
Just as an FYI... I do have another video, if you haven't seen it, with basically the same setup but doesn't require Home Assistant, automation or any other hub: th-cam.com/video/b4s_VEtVWY4/w-d-xo.html
Of course, it doesn't have all the effects and options that the "full" version has, but it is standalone and does offer a way to recreate the stair lighting system without the whole Home Assistant/automation code portion. I did this version by request for folks that don't have Home Assistant or any sort of home automation hub.
@@ResinChemTech yes sir I just looked at it. I think I like that one
Very cool!
You need to use some flex loom covering some of your wires to go with that final finished look but otherwise you're doing a good job or you can cover it with some white heat shrink.
Very well done! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks! I hope you found something useful.
@@ResinChemTech Yes, i like It! I will look at your blog later for more details!
Oh my GOD! WOW!!!
DAYUM good stuff homie
Love it it should be a standard
Amazing video 💪
Good job !
This is amazing! I ordered absolutely everything for the project. My only question is that I have a landing w/ 90 degree turn at the bottom of my steps so 1 side would need more LEDs then the other. Still a way to program that to work? Could you point me in the right direction for programming help?
Hi Tim. I responded to your post over in the blog, so please check there. But in short, yes, this will work with different number of pixels on each side... you just need to configure WLED with the max pixels on the "long" side of the stairs. Again, I tried to provide a little better explanation over in my blog response. Good luck with your project!
This would be a nice feature to a drive way...
That is an interesting idea, and it could be adapted from the stairs fairly easily. Of course, everything would have to be weatherproofed, but I could even see combining it with a distance sensor (like I did in my parking assistant vid) and have the lights indicate when the car is parked in the desired position.
Thanks for the idea... might be worth investigating at some point.
Looks very cool :)
Built one of those in 05. Was so cool at the time .
Very cool... staircase cuts so much room off...
Amazing…perhaps you should manufacture and sell it!
That is cool!!!!!!!
Great man!
Great video! (I landed here from the update you did later).
Did you consider using one esp for all functions? Addressable lighting effects aren’t the easiest to write in esphome, but the defaults may cover what you need for this purpose. I’m considering the same project and I wonder if I could use a single esp for all 3 functions. I’m thinking maybe run a line inside the channel, behind the lights, for the sensor that is furthest from the power supply. I’m not sure about any issues with a long line between the sensor and the controller.
Keeping it all in esphome could allow for automations that work without having to go to home assistant.
Just wondered what your thoughts were. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Well, you could probably do it with a single ESP but at least when I built mine, it would have meant giving up WLED on the primary controller, along with all the various effects and options that go along with it. Yeah... ESPHome has a handful of LED effects, but nothing to the extent that WLED offers.
But newer versions of WLED have support for up to two 'buttons' that could likely be used for wired motion detectors but I don't believe any connected buttons are accessible in Home Assistant (yet), which would make the automations difficult, if not impossible.
But if you are OK with the effects that ESPHome offers (or are smart enough to figure out how to add your own through lambas), you could probably do most of it in ESPHome and a single ESP. Of course that would mean that you'd also have to run three wires from the controller location to each of the sensors... +V, GND and signal... as opposed to just a single USB power cable. But that's a personal preference and depends on either your ability to hide the wires or deal with more exposed wiring. With the aluminum channel that I'm using, I don't think you could hide the wires anywhere other than in front of the LEDs, which would make them visible through the diffuser... I tried that method with the USB power line and could have laid the flat USB cable under the double-sided tape and the LEDs on top of that... but chose to run the flat cable on the underside of the aluminum channel. It's basically not visible unless you get down on your hands and knees and look for it! I don't know about signal drop with a long wiring run for the sensors, but I suspect it would be fine as long as you used large enough gauge wiring. But of course larger wiring makes it harder to conceal!
There are probably other hybrid methods that could be used as well. For me personally, I didn't want to give up all the features and options that WLED has... so that means I need to use independent motion detectors for all the automations to work how I want. But thanks for watching and sharing a good idea that some might prefer.
Nice job 👍
Nice!
Hi, thanks for your great video. I really would love to build your project but unfortunately due to my lack of knowledge in this field its difficult for me to follow your steps as in your video the built part was unfortunately missing.
Thats actually pretty cool looking.. brightness could be lowered a lil bit though..
I simply use a USB mini PIR sensor and USB LED strips for the living room and bathroom, for the stairs i use a motion light i modified powered by 18650s or a USB power bank to recharge the batteries.
Thanks! I think it looks a little brighter than it actually is because LEDs simply "overwhelm" the camera... but the brightness is controllable via WLED. I'd be interested in your battery-operated versions. Someone else was just asking about that a few comments ago. I tried a short 20-pixel LED strip in a closet, activated by a door sensor powered by a USB power bank (12,500 mAh I think) and could never get more than a couple of days before needing to recharge. Probably due to the constant power draw from the microcontroller, but using an ESP32 with deep sleep took too long to wake up and respond when the door opened. I just haven't had any luck with battery-powered LED projects.... but I'm not saying it can't be done!
@@ResinChemTech GE Wireless Motion-Sensing Moveable LED Light Bar (Walmart) is the style im currently using but any similar style could be modified in the same way. i use a TP4056 module, i have it outside of the unit as how it looks doesnt bother me, the 18650s (2) sit nicely on the back of it. When the battery voltage gets low the Light itself blinks a red LED as an indicator, but instead of waiting for it to blink i just click the power bank every now and then to charge it back up.
I can go a month or so before it naturally needs to be recharged, if you have it in a closet then it should last even longer, assuming you use decent 18650s with low self discharge, i use the WESTINGHOUSE 2000mAh 18650s that you can find in store, the Hyper Tough batteries also sold in store do the job also, but the WH ones are better.
Hope this helps :)
Dude this is sweet.......I cant to buy a house now!!!
My cats would have a hell of a good time with those.
SPOT ON......TRUE INNOVATION ....................AMERICAN INGENUITY AT ITS' FINEST! ! !
I couldn't help but want one, kind of jealous, but I have a long hallway.
Will consider this.
I actually had another viewer that did install these lights down a long hallway instead of on stairs. Since WLED has hundreds of different effects, you could simply install these along the baseboard and simply have the lights gently fade on a solid color to light the hallway when motion is detected at either end of the hallway. You wouldn't have to use the chase or wipe effect I used here (but you certainly could). The general design is a concept could be used in a lot of different ways, in addition to stairs.
In fact, if you are not a Home Assistant user, I did do another version (with not quite as many features and effects) that works with only wifi... no home automation system or hub needed. You might check this out as another alternative: th-cam.com/video/b4s_VEtVWY4/w-d-xo.html
Very interesting project. I am curious, though. You said that the lights turn on when one sensor is triggered, and off once the other is triggered. How does the system handle situations where someone might come up and go down at the same time? Is there a “minimum” amount of time needed between sensors trips?
There is an inherent "cool-down" time of about 2 seconds on the motion detectors that I used. I also use input_booleans in Home Assistant to know which sensor triggered and can code around "most" situations. But it is possible that multiple people using the steps at the same time can occasionally lead to either the lights shutting off prematurely, or even running in the wrong direction for the last person to enter the stairs. Doesn't happen often (there are only two of us and we are rarely both on the stairs at the same time). There is also a 'failsafe' that automatically shuts the lights off after 15 seconds in the event that a starting motion was detected, but the ending motion never occurs. All this is handled via the Home Assistant automation and really isn't part of the controller or hardware.
I sincerely appreciate your quick and precise response. Yes, you helped me a lot.
This is by far the best light system I’ve seen ! Do you sell the kit? I would love to purchase one ASAP
No, sorry I don't. To be honest, since everyone's stairs would be different and the location of the AC power would be different, any sort of kit really wouldn't save you much effort over creating the DIY version I showed in the video except for maybe building the controller. You can purchase a prebuilt controller from Quindor on his site if you don't want to build your own: quinled.info/pre-assembled-quinled-dig-uno/. Plus the size of the aluminum rails would make both packaging and shipping costs prohibitive.
But thanks for watching and asking!
Good stuff.
Got it and it works
Outstanding! Thanks for dropping me a comment to let me know another viewer got the system up and running.
So so cool. I'm jealous my friend
Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and they have been very reliable.
I LOVE IT !
Thanks! And thanks for taking time to post a comment.
Man I like that!
Awesome
Good job 😁👍
It's like walking off a flying saucer in the middle of the night!
Very nice. Do you know of a motion sensor that could be used as a touchless button for something like this? Something where maybe the range is very short, somewhere around 1/2" to trigger it? My idea is to "tap" it with your foot to get it go on.
My first thought is to use an ultrasonic or lidar sensor (like I used in my parking assistant and car detection vid). That way, you'd be measuring distance instead of motion. When something (like your foot) moved in front of the sensor at less than a predetermined distance (say < 2"), that could trigger the lights on/off via Home Assistant. Using this method, someone passing by the sensor at a 'normal' distance would not trigger the lights. I think the challenge here might the the speed of reactivity of the sensor (how quickly it reports a distance change). But it might be worth a shot!
@@ResinChemTech Thanks, yes, that's a direction I was looking at. It might work. I found these just now also and it seems like it might be the answer: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T91JXHW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@@ResinChemTech This is interesting too. Looks like what you were talking about and it goes down to 2cm which is the feature I couldn't find in other ultrasonic sensors. I ordered this too and will see what works best. www.amazon.com/dp/B088R3V9X8?psc=1&smid=A2SNA9AH12A511&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp
Great! I haven't worked with either one of those options, but let me know how it works out.
Hi, Good to see your videos step by step. Unfortunately I am not able to find all parts which you mentioned in your forum. Since I dont have much knowledge on Electrical side, can build one more me and ship it. Please let me know.
I'm sorry that you are having some issues sourcing some of the parts. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to build, package, ship and track the logistics of selling devices to others. But if you are interested in purchasing a pre-built controller for WLED, I always recommend the DigiUno by Quindor. You can find his controllers at: quinled.info/pre-assembled-quinled-dig-uno/
My cat would enjoy that!
Hi, I like ur this project, what AWG size wire did you use to power led strip?
Thank you for the informative and thorough explanation. I would like to do similar outside on my pathway from the street to the house. It is going to be 40ft long, 38 inches wide, stamped concrete with led embedded on the top of the concrete(facing the sky, not the sides) along the length. Also I would like to have motion sensors every 24 inches or so, so when someone steps in the middle of the pathway still to lit. Could you please answer several questions:
1. Can I use it without Home assistant or any other platform/server because this is a foreign language for me? If it is absolutely necessary I would educate myself, but prefer not to.
2. Can I install multiple motion sensors and also are you familiar with any waterproof that can face up since I do not want to install anything on the side and higher than the walkway so I would not trip, able to mow etc
Thank you in advance for your help.
There's a lot to cover with something like that... more than I can cover here in the comments, but I'll address a few basic items:
With an install that big (and that many LEDs), you'd probably need to use an ESP32 instead of an ESP8266. You would also need a very substantial power supply, along with power injection along the LED strips. Naturally, all of this would have to be waterproof.
I do have an LED controller that works with motion detectors and doesn't require Home Assistant (or any other system). You can see a video of that here: th-cam.com/video/b4s_VEtVWY4/w-d-xo.html But it currently only supports a maximum of 2 motion detectors, so you'd have to modify the code to work with more than that.
Finally, there are commercial outdoor motion detectors, but I don't know of anything like you describe. You'd likely have to build something custom and figure out how to power it and make it waterproof.
It sounds like a neat project, but it is also a pretty complicated one to build yourself. I hope I've provided at least a little helpful information to give you some things to consider.
Nice
Hey i ordered all the parts from the list, I’m going thru integration right now. How did you run your home assistant is it through a raspberry pi? Not sure how your running the server .
My Home Assistant server? I started with a Raspberry Pi a couple of years ago, but I'm currently running HA in Proxmox on an i5 NUC. After my home automation grew, I wanted something a bit more powerful (and reliable) than a Raspberry Pi. However, for this project, any platform that will run Home Assistant will work. You will need to add the WLED and ESPHome integrations within HA to get everything to work as I showed it. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions!
You are amazing ,a very nice job indeed , I’ve nearly finished this project on my stairs too,I was wondering if It’s possible to operate this from a 5inch screen instead of my phone, if so could someone please help,many thanks Paul.
Wow, thanks! When you say 'operate this' are you talking about WLED... or Home Assistant, or what? Either way, both WLED and Home Assistant have mobile apps that could be installed on a small tablet (Android and/or iOS). Of course, they both also work in a browser if your display has that.
So, I'm happy to try to help, but I guess I need to know what it is that you'd like to control (e.g. WLED effects?) and what type of 5" screen you are talking about... and what are its capabilities/operating system?
Thank you for your reply and time,any suggestions on which screen to get?I will be installing home assistance ,I’m building your controller but got 12V strip lights, dose this alter the build of this controller please,many thanks for your help and time, many thanks Paul from the UK.
Just about any tablet will work as long as it has a web browser. I am using a couple of older Samsung tablets in different places in the house, but to be honest, Home Assistant handles most automations (like the stair lights) without any interaction, and many of the other things we interact using voice control with Google Home via Home Assistant.
As far as the 12V LED strips, you will obviously need to step that voltage down to 5V for the controller via a buck converter or other means (the D1 Mini will go "poof" if you try to feed it 12V). If you use separate power sources for the LEDs and the controller, then you must have a common ground between the controller and the LED strip or things won't function normally. Otherwise, as long as you feed 5V to the controller, the build is the same.
Hope that helps! Good luck with the project (and Home Assistant... I love what it can do!). Feel free to reach out again if you run into additional questions or problems.
Do you happen to have any of these lights pre made? Would love to buy some that I can have already assembled so that I can mount them to my stairs
The lights themselves... no, sorry I don't. I think that the length needed might vary from staircase to staircase... and they'd be a real pain to ship! If you are talking about the controller (WLED), then Quindor sells pre-built controllers (with an integrated logic level shifter) and WLED preinstalled. You can find his store (and Dr. ZZs US store) at quinled.info/pre-assembled-quinled-dig-uno/. Of course, this doesn't include the light strips/rails nor the motion detectors that I used to activate mine. There may be some retail versions available for stair lighting, but I suspect that they will have less functionality (and be more costly) than any DIY version. They really are pretty easy to build yourself... you can even avoid soldering if you aren't comfortable with that, or don't want to take the time to do so. Let me know if I can help any further.
Cool
Love it
Thanks! I appreciate it. And thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
This is amazing. 👏
May I ask if you have a video of you connecting all of this up? On to the boards?
You might take a look at the written version of this project. It has wiring diagrams and shows how all the different components and parts are wired together: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2021/07/simple-motion-activated-led-stair.html
If you have any particular questions after taking a look at that, don't hesitate to reach back out and ask.
Great great video! I have the stairs set up the same way but I have it hooked up to my raspberry pi system. Can I just copy paste the code from your description to my raspberry pi and it work the same? The last person who owned the home left it hooked up but it hasn’t worked since I moved in.
Well, there are three parts to the "code". First is WLED, which runs on the ESP8266 controller. Then ESPHome is used on the motion detectors. Finally, there is the automation code, which is in YAML within Home Assistant. You could theoretically run the whole thing on a Pi, but not directly using the code that I used. You'd have to write something that would run on the Pi, detecting the motion via GPIO pins and then sending a signal out to the LED lights. Sorry... but the code I used is pretty much designed for ESP8266 and Home Assistant. But I'm pretty sure you could write everything in something like Python that would replicate what I've done here and run standalone on a Pi.
I think the 'Pi' would not be a good choice because of the high current consumption
EPIC
This is way cool
Thanks! Much appreciated.
Thank You for the video . I followed step by step and it's up and running on my stairs. Question when walking past the first sensor it detects my first leg and turns on the lights but sometimes it detects my trailing leg and and turns off the lights . Is there any adjustments that I could make to fix this issue ?
You are using the ToF sensors and not the PIR sensors, correct? I had the same issue initially because the ToF sensors react so quickly. There are two things you can do, and it might be a combination of both that works out the best in your situation.
First, you can shorten the 'trip' distance of the sensor in ESPHome to cover about 1/2 - 3/4 the width of the stairs. That way one leg would trip the sensor but the second leg would be outside that range and wouldn't trip. But this only works reliably if you always tend to step on the first step with the leg nearest the sensor.
What worked best for me was to add a "for" clause to both the on and off automations in Home Assistant. In other words, you have an automation for both the the top and bottom sensor with a trigger that is:
from: 'off'
to: 'on'
You would add a time to that so that the sensor must remain in that state for a minimum amount of time. For me, that was around 250 ms. So you just add a "for" statement to the trigger, so it looks like this:
to: 'on'
for:
milliseconds: 250
Repeat this for the other automations that go from "on" to "off" as well, adding the 'for' statement. You may need to adjust the amount of time and/or use this in combination of changing the detection distance. It may take some trial and error, but you should be able to get it dialed in so that your second leg will rarely trip the sensor right after the first leg. Let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Hi,
This is a very useful video. I just have a question and since your more than competent at this, I'm hoping you can answer.
I have five steps from my decking to the garden. I want to put some IP65 Led strips under each step. I need to be motion activated. I can manage that. But my challenge is I want to use a solar power bank and I want to add on a PIR to the lights only come on with motion. Google assistant compatibility would be a luxury if possible
So my question is, is it possible to add on 5 steps with of IP65 RGBW strips to a solar power bank with a PIR? If so, with Google assistant?
Any and all help will be appreciated. Many thanks
Well... anything is possible! I think the challenge here will be the battery power... even with a solar charger. Both the WLED controller and PIR board will constantly draw power, even when the lights are off. You could move up to an ESP32 and use deep sleep to save battery, but the wake-up time (and time to connect to wifi) would make the motion-detection portion nearly useless. I tried the battery concept for small strip of LEDs in a closet (maybe 20 pixels) and the battery/power bank drained in two days, even with limited closet openings.
Google integration is possible if using Home Assistant. There may be other ways. WLED natively supports Amazon Alexa.
That ghost in the beginning starting to walk down the stairs but then realizing his mortal roommate is trying to film a video
Got these in thr house i just bought! Drove me nuts so i disconnected them!!
nice!
Thanks! There are a lot of various versions of this same thing out there, but I wanted to make one that didn't require major (or even minor) modifications to the existing stair case.
Thanks for watching and taking time to comment!
Great !!!!
Thanks... always nice to get positive feedback!
Paint those stringers white and 🤌
I would also need to hide all that wiring to meet the spouse approval factor. Fantastic project.
Well... as the title of the video states, my goal was to do this "without staircase modification". I explain the reason why in one of my recent videos ( th-cam.com/video/rKAZxDtShCo/w-d-xo.html ). Naturally, the wires could be much better hidden if you are willing to drill into the staircase, pull carpet or cut into drywall. My goal was to install this system without making any changes... and so that the system could be removed in just a few minutes and you'd never know it was there.
But I fully understand the WAF! Luckily for me, mine is pretty lenient when it comes to the basement "man cave". Now, if I wanted to install this on our main stair case to the second floor... that would be a totally different situation (and don't think I haven't considered it... but that would have a very, very low WAF!)
Btw you don't need the logic level shift with the ws2812bs, they will accept a digital signal all the way down to 1.7 volts, so 3.3 is more than adequate, if you don't believe me check the datasheet for the ws2812b itself, it'll say the same thing
You may be correct, but my references say: "The datasheet tells us that a logic high input will be detected at a minimum voltage of 0.7 * Vcc. If you’re running the LED at 5V, this means 5 V * 0.7 = 3.5 V will be needed for the WS2812 to detect a ‘1’ on the data line." Here is the data sheet I am referencing (cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf) and you can see that it also notes a working voltage starting at 3.5V. While you can sometimes get away with 3.3V (or even just a bit lower), there can be signal instability that might cause random issues. Add in the fact that I sometimes place my controller a meter or more away from the first pixel and voltage drop from just the wire resistance itself is enough to cause intermittent problems. In my opinion, it is well worth the $1 cost of the logic level shifter (or even a sacrificial pixel) to boost the signal to 5V. This allows plenty of headspace for any voltage drop due to the wiring run between the controller and LED strip. Nearly all references that I see online (or from others) recommend use of a voltage shifter or sacrificial pixel. But like all DIY projects, there are many possibilities and if you can get a reliable signal without the shifter, then by all means feel free to omit it.
Excellent video, thank you!!
Instead of stairs, I'd like to do under cabinets and shelving on each side of the vent hood - with say 6 different lines (minimum, and short runs) do you think I'd need more than one esp32? I'd ideally tie everything together in the cabinet of the vent hood... conceptually I can't visualize having a single controller
Well, there would be different ways to approach this depending on how you want everything to work and function. Technically, the ESP32 can support up to 10 different channels or pins. It can get tricky in terms of setting those up and the segments to match. You can read more about how that is done on the WLED offical site here: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/
A different option is to use multiple controllers and sync them together. That is how I approached my kitchen cabinets. I have a row of cabinets on each side of the kitchen. I technically have four controllers... two on each side (one for the top of the cabinets and one for the under side). All four controllers are synced. When any controller is set to a color or effect, then the same color/effect is synced to the other 3 controllers. Of course this does require more wiring and a separate power supply for each side of the kitchen.
So there are different ways to approach it... using either a single controller with multiple pins/data outputs on a single ESP32... or multiple controllers that can optionally be synced to act as one.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your project. My wife loves the undercabinet lighting for the additional workspace light.. and I love the ability to use colors for special occasions, entertaining, etc.
@ResinChem Tech Thanks for your quick reply and level of detail in your thoughts. The article was helpful in the idea that any pin can be used on the ESP32. When you say your controllers are synced, is that something you're doing in the WLED UI, or, an automation you're running in HomeAssistant (e.g. trigger: turn on lights at 1700, action: Turn on light 1,2,3,4, etc. with no sec delay built in each)?
I'm using the WLED sync feature. But you could use Home Assistant automations as well. The nice feature about the WLED sync is that any individual controller can temporarily (and easily) be removed from the sync group if you want that segment or strip to be a different color and/or run a different effect. Then when you want, you can easily sync up the controllers again via WLED (or HA automation). So, for example, if your controllers are normally synced, but you want to create a special theme night, you can 'unsync' the controllers and set some of the LEDs to pink and another set to blue. Then when ready to return to 'normal' operation, just enable the sync on the controllers again.
@@ResinChemTech Thank you!! Much appreciated!!