Smart Stairs Now Exist...But Should They?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- Flipping stairs is easy - but I took it to the next step by adding Arduino controlled LED lights to make them SMART STAIRS! Let’s get these stairs LIT!Learn electronics with our new course! 👉 arduinoformakers.com - And get 10% off with the code: MAYFORMAKERS
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About I Like To Make Stuff:
We have lots of projects including woodworking, metalworking, electronics, 3D printing, prop making and more!
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The First STEP to Your Smart Home!
• Smart Stairs Now Exist...
I Like To Make Stuff
/ iliketomakestuff
00:00 Intro
00:25 Removing the old carpet
01:32 Stair material options
02:38 The plan for LEDs and motion sensors
03:08 Dealing with the stair skirt
05:13 Installing the risers
06:45 Wiring placement
08:58 Cutting stair treads to match the wall angle
10:14 Finishing and installing stair treads
10:59 LED light strips
13:26 Motion sensors and wrapping up electronics
16:59 Finished stairs - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
The real trick to home upgrades: just take it one step at a time 😉
Nice work! Can i see the wirering diagramm mb and what was the led type. i would like To Create create a some sort of Code aswell for it if u would like?
I could just stair at this project all day.
Could you have used the wled project code for running the lights?
@@JaydenLitolff yes u could because it has button pins aswell but it was easyer that way i think
The finished product looks fantastic, now you just need to integrate it into home automation to automatically swap to night mode using some lux sensors at your front and back windows so it knows when it's dark outside.
I ended up making a couple lux sensors with esp8266 that integrate into the home automation platform I use (OpenHAB), to calculate the average value between the front and rear of the house combined, so whether the sun is rising in the front, or setting in the rear, the house always knows the average outside lux to enable the automatic lighting functionality in certain rooms once it gets dark and never have to deal with manually coding it based on time of day (Also great for the really dark rainy days, the house automatically enables the lights base don motion and door sensors). Always fun to tinker, and even funner when you don't have to deal with a switch.
Keep up the awesome work!
Whoever buys that house next is going to have to watch a lot of TH-cam videos.
😂
Yep, if I was looking for that house to buy, that setup would be a minus for me.
@@dmitripogosian5084 not really, its a button press. You dont have to change anything. If he put a capaciter on each light strip to protect them (from overcurrent), they LEDs should last a LONG time. Likely longer than the arduino. And when he sells the house he can just make a few more strips as spares, and give them a phone number if they need more.
@@dmitripogosian5084 Why so? In worst case just remove the power cord and you still have a nice looking stairs without lights. You dont have to use the lights. Its harder to add features than to remove so for me it would been a plus.
@@adriannini7000 when you are buying a house which have custom features that you do not need, you feel that they are included in price and your are paying for them
Pro tip: ALWAYS stick your LED strips to an aluminum backing. Be it a flat strip, a profile, an angle... anything. That way the LED will not overheat. If you stick them directly to plywood or any other material that has poor heat conductivity, your LEDs will fry and start to die sooner you'd like.
Then glue magnets to them and use a steel strip for mounting.
well, the aluminum backing still needs somewhere to conduct that heat to, otherwise it will just sink it. Anyway, for a project like this where LEDs are not that bright and turned on for less than a minute, that wouldnt make a difference anyway.
As they are not permanently turned on it should not matter. I have 2x 5m led strips glued directly to wooden beams in my car port and they still work after 7 years. Only one copper trace broke over time and needed to be resoldered.
@gabrielenitti3243 the tip is for everybody, not only people who use strips for a short time. Also the aluminium backing needs to be slightly wider. Another thing is that the aluminum backing will distribute the hear evenly while LED strips on wood will create hot spots and that's what kills the LEDs. I'm not saying what I'm saying because I think it might help. I'm saying it out of experience. I've worked with those strips and had plenty die prematurely. Then we've switched to aluminium backing and they stopped dying like magic. There are dedicated channels with diffuser covers for LED strips. And guess what, they're also aluminum. :)
thank god i have rgb-led lamps
One tip I can give when cutting stair steps: start with the widest step first. If you mess up the measurements, you can still use it for a smaller step.
Exactly the tack I try to take on similar projects--because I often mess up!
That washer trick at 6:03
Oh, hi Destin! 👋
this is why we become smarter every day
Yeah yeah you watching this video checks out
I missed that first time round; great shout!
Of course Destin would notice this and understand what’s going on (I’m clueless).
For Night Mode, I'd go with all red, because dark vision.
Good call. Sith vibes too.
and play The Imperial March at the same time
or when your home takes one too many torpedoes or phaser shots so you turn on red alert
World’s First Gender reveal staircase
@@Iliketomakestuff Dark orange would be good too if you wanted to avoid the “sith vibe”
Ideas:
1. Automatic Night Mode. Use local time and sunrise/sunset routines to automatically switch from bright daytime mode to dim night time mode
2. The mains power is right next to the power supply. Run the cable inside the wall instead of plugging it in.
3. Home Assistant Integration. This would allow a lot more automations and control over the lights
@@seanembry6438 Leviton has a wall switch that does just that, you can even set an offset to deal with the time that the sun actually gets to your house.
@Sean Embry To point 3: Home Assistant is a open source (free), completely local (no cloud), privacy focused and DIY friendly solution than you can run on a cheap mini computer at home. Personally, i would make it interface with it so i can tell it to turn it on and off via other means than just the motion sensors and also be able to change settings on it. As to make it run independently so it works even if there is trouble with the Home Assistant installation. The integration can just be a nice addition for someone that already has other smart devices.
I would have considered magnets secured with epoxy to hold the light bars in place rather than friction, but I'm just glad you thought of maintenance/replacement from the start (an easy thing to forget about). Looks awesome. And you made a night mode!
was going to say this too, pop them in and out with a satisfying "snap"
I was thinking of a velcro strip to hold them in place, but magnets might be better.
Can music be added somehow to synchronize with the light show on the stairs?
Same. I was worried that the wood expanding and contracting as humidity changes would cause the friction fit to fail.
@@disjustice Yeah, and if the lights fall out as you're using the stairs, it could be dangerous.
I am a (timber) sprayer, I've sprayed hundreds of solid timber stairs with various lacquers. I have to say I love polished timber, but polished stair treads frighten the life out of me. One slip and your traversing the stairs on your back. Even with using anti-slip lacquers I always advise customers to use some sort of anti slip protection on the tread 1 inch back from the front edge. This can be either a purpose made strip "let in" to the tread or just a coat of lacquer mix with fine sand. Other than than looks great.
You should do a USB pass-through to a socket on the faceplate so you don't have to take it off to recode it.
OTA updates! ESP32 instead of Arduino
@@bogmaerkeexcept you would need more I/O than one esp can handle. You could make the arduino a low level mcu and the esp does all the high level thinking. But you would be creating your own protocol at that point.
If the leds were ws2812b and run together in serial, you could do all of that with WLED and do almost no software.
@@jeffeberl12 ESP32 definitely has enough IO for ten strips. You can always cascade them in software instead of hardwiring them in series.
Just skip the features and nothing needs recoding or replacement, now that would be smart for the longrun.😅
Epic build
I love seeing channels that I subscribe to comment on other channels I subscribe to. Hello Destin. Hope you and the family are well.
Wohoo Smarter in the chat
For all the DIYers (I just did built-in shelf lighting) Make sure to add a fuse between the power supply and lights, so if the led lights short out the fuse blows instead of lighting your house on fire. Low voltage, but 40AMPS on a shorted wire will have no problem causing issues, and a potential fire.
Wouldn't the maximum amperage be controlled by the circuit breaker on the panel for the outlet? Likely 10-20amps.
@@tyrelirwinI may have missed if he said, but he's probably working with 12v, not 120v. 10% the voltage means that the amerpgae can be quite a bit higher before tripping the circuit.
The circuit shouldn't pop until it his about 2,000 watts, in whatever combination of amps*volts get you there.
Good point. And a MAJOR fire hazard there is the gauge of the wire heading from the PSU to the perf board. The individual wires to each strip can be relatively small because the current is split among them, but if you are talking about sending 40A over what looks like 18ga wire (before the split), very bad idea. The key as mentioned below is the input voltage is much higher than the output voltage, so the output current can be higher than input. This system really should be re-thought; likely with either a complicated pcb with ntc thermistors to prevent fire hazard or probably preferably by splitting among multiple psus for simplicity.
@@s1ocky Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. 👍
@@s1ocky He never said and actually, at 40 amps, it's likely 5v, not 12v. 480 watts (12v at 40amp) is HUGE for that small amount of LED strips.
But you're absolutely correct that the circuit breaker would never trip in this kind of case.
I would have just ran the 120 volt AC wires for the DC power supply over to the power outlet box on the *inside* of the wall and then spiced the lines in parallel (wire nuts or Wago connectors, etc.) inside of the outlet box with the wires already feeding the outlet. This would look a lot cleaner and still give you use of both outlets. Just my .02 🙂
As soon as he started talking about gluing the risers and treads to the construction-grade stairs, my heart sank for the person who eventually has to replace these stairs. If you think pulling the carpet out is a chore, imagine having to delaminate all that glue in 20 or 40 of 60 years…
It's not going to be that big of a deal...I'd have the treads and risers out and the carriages cleaned up by lunch.
60 years?? Nah he’s good.
@@calebreasons "He" is probably not the person who will have to deal with it in decades hence. I'm empathizing with *that* person.
@@erniemenard7727 Cool. So your estimate is 4 hours. You happy to be paid for 4 hours, however long it takes 🙂?
@@DMLand “he” is the theoretical person I’m speaking of. “He” (or “she” if you like) is good. Coming from a home renovator who’s dealt with 40 year old adhesive, it’s not all that difficult.
This is an awesome project and thought about doing this in my home, but using a single strip of LED lights instead of one per step.
One thing to note: LED strips are best backed by aluminum as it acts as a heat sink and can increase the longevity of the LEDs.
Of course your stair lights probably won't be on long enough for this to matter too much, but it's good to know for those who want to have LED lights on for long periods of time.
Good Idea.
I sourced aluminum LED light channel on Amazon and other places that is ridiculously cheap and surprisingly good value for the money. I bought 30 meters of channel (including diffusers, end caps and mounting clips) for about US$1.00 per meter. I used them for over/under cabinet lighting lighting in our kitchen. Worked really well.
At 15:58 I am slightly worried about the gauge of your wire. The individual circuits going to the LEDs should be fine, but the worry lies in the single wire used to connect the proto board and power supply. I would definitely replace those with a larger wire as they could be seeing 40A at full load.
I was going to make the same comment. Bob mentions a few times about using a 40 amp power supply but only uses wire that can handle 5 or so amps
If he is lucky the wire will burn out like a fuse rather than burning down the house.
Mind you perhaps that’s his plan to generate more content…
Almost certainly those wires will not be seeing the full 40A load and the power supply is that large more for redundancy than actually needing that much power, but concerns about power delivery to the protoboard with such small wires is definitely valid
@@reaganharder1480 They are all in parallel, so if any stair short-circuits,it'll see the full 40A
I'd be concerned about the 40A supply he just buried in his wall too. Air vent was a nice idea but not really any recirculation happening.
Same the top part will see the full current load. Looks too small even for 20A
This channel, team and fan base are amazing. Bob and the entire ILTMS team, you keep going and making this world a better place.
That top riser not having a light would bother me...this is cool though
You could start the light up sequence of every LED-Strip in the middle and let it spred to both sides like sliding doors. For the turn off animation you could invert the animation. You could also connect it to a aastro clock (e.g.: Eltako S2U12DDX-UC) to let it change between day and nighttime function on it's own.
Or if he used the ESP32 he originally said he would then it has an RTC and has the ability to connect to wifi to use NTP to get the time a few times a day to adjust the RTC. Or he could just connect an RTC to the arduino, although he would have to manually set it.
It would be much cheaper than what you suggested.
@@conorstewart2214 My RTC can be set with software. ;)
Add a speaker and have the lights start at the railing end and light up towards the opposite side with a speaker in the background playing the Lightsaber Igniting sound file...
When they turn off, they just reverse the process from one end to the other playing the Lightsaber shutting down sound...
Yes, I admit it...
I'm a HUGE Star Wars Nerd...
😄😁😆😅😂🤣
Where can we get the wiring and code?
I added smart LEDs to my stairs in 2018. One of the coolest and most unique upgrades that really sets my house apart. Everyone who comes over comments about how much they like it. I used Arduino with a wifi shield for my first iteration, but the damn thing kept crashing. I ripped it out and went with esp8266 and it works so much better, plus it's a much smaller form factor. Also, the esp8266 allows for programming OTA (over the air) which is HUGE when there is some small tweak that you need to make. Same code, more or less, but smaller and more reliable, YMMV. I also tied my code into my home automation system via MQTT so I can change the colors and modes from my main control panel or my phone. Really cool project. Love seeing more people do this and seeing how they solved some of the same issues that I faced, that anyone who undertakes this project will encounter. Kudos and thanks for the video!
That programming sequence. 😂😂😂
They make edge firing, diffused led strips that would have worked perfectly here. They also work great for imitating neon signage. We used one to go on the door gap inside a pantry after taking the trim off. Now when you trigger the PIR inside the pantry, you get gorgeous uniform lighting to easily see what’s on every shelf, and none of it is shining at you.
I’d love to see a waterfall animation on this.
Being the plug was right next to the box why didn't you feed the power wires into the power box from behind the wall. Then use a small switch to disconnect the power if necessary.
Code violation most likely.
@@hadengibbons3539 The way he did it is a code violation. But the other way would also be a code violation. The whole thing is a code violation.
I think this idea is fantastic, and I would totally be okay with seeing this become a common addition to houses.
There's a fairly inexpensive stair tread jig you can make or buy for around 30$ that makes laying out treads very fast and easy. Just be sure to add about a 5 degree undercut to make your treads suit nice and tight to your risers&walls
Looks awesome! I would add an option to only light them up only if it is dark, either by looking at the current time (evening, night, early morning), or use a sensor for that 🙂
Fantastic project! There’s so much to be proud of here.
As with any project that any maker shows to another, there are some things I would consider doing differently, but that’s just how it goes. Please take them as having fun discussing ideas, not as any criticism of what you did.
1. With the darker flooring on the landing, and the darker handrail, a stain or tinted poly for the treads could help it all be more cohesive.
2. For the control box, you could add a pigtail inside the outlet box next to it, and run a wire inside the wall into the control box to avoid the cord and plug coming out of that nice walnut faceplate. Just add a master power toggle switch if you want to kill power to the whole system.
3. Speaking of that nice walnut faceplate, with the proximity to the visible treads, handrail, and landing, a wood that matched could help it blend better.
Again, this was a great project with wonderful execution. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
I love the project. In Europe you can find aluminum channel with difuzer. It makes the build less complicated. You can use double sided tape to fix the aluminum to the wood. The aluminum also disipates the heat of the led.
As a carpenter who has remodeled a lot of houses I love seeing other peoples tricks for little things, that riser to have the stair tread at its install orientation while cutting was brilliant!
Wonder if you could do vibration sensors on every (or every other) step instead. Could make your stairs into a piano and trigger whatever other fun animations you want ("splash" effects, for example, that span adjacent steps). You could even make it into a simple game you play on either end of the stairs if you had that resolution.
Piezoelectric Sensors
*homeowner insurance enters the chat*
↑↑clearly the type of person that leaves the batteries in on toddlers toys
deserves a pet that loves to run up and down the stairs
you don't need pressure sensor on every /other stair
only needed on the topmost and bottom most stair
we need full illumination of all the stairs for better judgement / balance for climbing up/down in a staircase.
Here in Germany carpet is nearly always glued down, mostly with double sided tape.
Also while i like the idea with the project box, would'nt it be better and more clean to power it from inside the wall instead of with the plug outside? There is an outlet right next to it which should give you AC.
With this concept I could finally make my dream a reality, _piano stairs_
It would make falling down the stairs so much more musically palatable!
Those stairs look amazing. After all this time, you still impress me.
Good work, Bob! I've seen this before with LED's and wondered how it was done ... now I know at least one way that it's done. Thanks!
Why didn’t u use diffuserbars and hold them with clips below the staircases?
LOVE the lights!
Safety note: Hardwood steps can be slippery. Socks, or something on your soles (moisture, oil/grease etc.) can be dangerous.
This is why you often see carpeted stairs even in homes with all hard floors.
While talking safety. The top step is unlighted which might be a safety issue at night.
@@b4time718 No more of a safety issue than not having the lights to begin with. Especially considering almost anyone who lives in a house with stairs can probably navigate those stairs with little to no light.
Respectfully disagree. Falls on stairs represent one of the biggest household hazards. Not lighting the top step will alter perception in the dark and is a hazard similar similar to having one riser of a different height.
Agreed. We added texture strips to our hardwood steps after every single one of us biffed it at least once.
Additionally, Some places have a very thin red carpet that goes down stairs down the middle of it to try and prevent slipping. I don't know why you'd do that though, instead of carpeting the whole thing!
I honestly applaud you for finishing the stairs before the LEDs - I could never do that because my bad luck indicates that I would mess up something on the wiring, and need to redo it
Turned out nice! I thought you were going to use pressure switches for the lights
ya i was thinking this would be a good solution
I thought that too but eventually as the wood shrinks to contracts it will mess up the movement of the wood. Or if he cuts the risers tight to the skirt then it could get stuck down
Awesome!
I’m keeping this one in mind for upcoming stairs renovation of my own ^^
Nice! Add an easeInOutSine to the on/off transition of each light to make the transition between each stair seem smoother.
Great looking stairs !
Honest question, is that gauge of wire sufficient for 40A? It seems thin.
My knowledge is coming from 3D printer heater beds that often use much less amperage
Well each wire won't have 40A running through them. At most it would be 40A/10, but those aren't well populated LED strips, so they won't draw that much, even at max
Okay, so I continued to watch it. Yes, those are VERY thin. Definitely needs to be beefier.
40a can take over 9kw
I love LED's added to pretty much anything....but it hurt watching you make a diffuser for all those sections when I know they make better LED strip lights now with a built in diffuser and the LED's are smaller and closer together so you can't see individual bulbs
Sure, But many of those aren't individually addressable.
The stairs definitely needs a cylon/knight rider red mode. :)
I did the winding stair treads in my house with my uncles help. We templates every step with strips of 1/8 plywood and hot glue. So helpful for getting the treads right.
I like how this guy takes it ONE STEP at a time.
Awesome project! I'd recommend mounting the LED strips to something like aluminum, something that will help them dissipate heat. If you're not running the LEDs at full power, it most likely won't be an issue, but allowing LED strips to get rid of any heat they generate can really help expand their lifespan.
That's probably not a huge issue in that application, the lights aren't going to be on for very long most of the time, but even when they are, those strips really don't get hot enough to cause any issues. I had a smart light strip mounted to my headboard a few years back and even at full brightness the entire thing didn't even pull 10 watts, and the strip itself didn't even get warm enough to notice the heat
While I love the aesthetic of hardwood, I feel a little wary of hardwood stairs. Although they're fine barefoot they have less friction with socks, and the idea of slipping and hitting the wood sounds painful. I slipped on my stairs a while back, and the carpet honestly saved me. I banged my butt, but the extra cushion meant that I came out of it totally fine, if rather startled. If that had been hardwood I could easily have broken something
40 amps and 22 gauge wires sounds like a potential fire hazard in the event of any short circuit
It looks great! Perhaps a whole staircase “breathing” mode or slow pulse waves
and playing the imperial march
With the correct timing, it could even make sober people think they've had to much to drink.
Definitely play around with some fade settings! Fade on and off so it looks more fluid as you approach the stairs. So clean!
I had this same idea, however I wanted to install capacitive pressure sensors or something similar on each step and light up +/-2 steps from where you are standing.
The single wire going from the board to the power supply can definitely not handle all that power at full load, the gauge is too small, this could be a fire hazard. I also recommend just installing wled so you can control it from your phone, since it is an esp after all it has wifi capabilities.
You want to leave a space between the stairs and the kickboard. This will prevent squeaks in the stairs that will (I'm serious) DRIVE YOU CRAZY! Then go back over the gaps with trim and cover the gaps.
^ this. Nobody likes squeaky stairs!!!
Awesome idea, this gets on my todo-list!
However, I think the soldering on the perfboard for splitting the powersupply would not be able to sustain the 40 Amps of your powersupply! Please be aware of the risks these high-currents potentially come with.
40 Amps PSU + tiny wires = big fire hazard
@@j123b567 I came just to say that. Unless ESP is programmed to limit the power for the LEDs and compensate for tiny wires, this whole project may end very badly.
oh man... you're SO lucky...
here in Germany, carpets are normaly GLUED! and if you're unlucky... its even full-cover-glued!
Wow! I love how this turned out. Great work! 👌
What you really need is some servos and locks to turn that staircase into a ramp, keeping ruffians from getting to the cannon loaded with grapeshot at the top of the stairs. Also provides a nice boost for a three-edged bayonet stab.
Tally ho lads!
😂😂
Need a Lego? Find one by destroying your staircase carpet.
14:43 There are aluminium profiles specaly made for those LED strpis. You get them in diffrent angles and also diffrent diffusers
Remember when Bob hated the jigsaw? Pepperidge Farm remembers 😄
I think you should add a mode that makes all the stairs dim except the one your walking on so it follows you up.
I just wish the power cord didn't come out of the wall just to plug back into the wall...
I made something similar about a decade ago.
I used a uno and 2 tlc5940 ic's.
And a bunch of pnp transistors.
And 2 pirs.
I only used white led strips.
Yours looks great.
Why didn't you just cut channels In the stairs under the risers or under the toppers, before you glued them in? Plenty of space for wiring and a lot more simple.
Look cool but i feel like you need some fuse on each strip... with a 40A 12V PS , if a wire ever short or a led strip malfunction the small wire you used would catch on fire long before your breakerTrip... You should used bigger wire to go from the power supply to the distribution board, then a fuse to protect each of the smaller wire. Except that great project & video, might do something similar when I redo my stairs !
Be careful with that power supply overheating. I used those power supplies when installing cameras (12v. pulling around 10 amps) and they needed a fan because of how how they got. Now these cams were running constantly so it may not matter, but check just to be safe.
a bigger problem is those thin wires connected to a 40A supply.
@randomblogger2835
True, but each individual strip is unlikely to pull 40 amps.
@@jameswalker199 they should still have fuses or breakers
Love your channel. I am so going to try out your course. Thank you so much for all your videos.
Cool project. only potential concern is the heat output of the power supply. Are you able to measure temperature inside the box and see if a fan might be required?? unsure if arduino has temperature sensors (beyond the CPU) to be able to use that to measure ambient temps?
I don't have a flight of stairs in my house, but now I really wish I had stairs so I could do something like this.
The part I liked the most was when you applied the polyurethane which made the Oak really pop.
Similar projects are done with long hallways the are just addressed along the hall instead of each tread.
For mounting those channels, consider magnets next time. A flush set magnet on a piece of LED lighting track w magnets inside would work well. Also consider a right angle Edison plug for the HV power. Cool video!
Very nice, love it. Youmade it look easy....even though it was a little difficult
For a fun trick you should create a mode that animates *towards* you while you're walking up or down the stairs - so when walking up the animation flows downwards and vice versa. I could see it being a little trippy
It may literally be trippy. I would suggest using such a mode as part of a burglar alarm system.
Looks great but I have a few comments. Take it or leave it. I'd never bury a power supply in the wall. I'd have put that in the basement low on a block wall with a smoke alarm in the area. I've seen those things melt down before. Fire likes to travel up so I bring the wires out the bottom and go to the side and then up. Seems safer. If I used a RGB strip (like you did) l would fuse each led strip separately with the smallest fuse I could get away with but all that could be avoided with 12 volt addressable LED's and just inject power and ground a few places if it got long. Probably on each end and the middle. More coding (maybe?) but less wiring (for sure). Then you could have used a ESP32 and had Over The Air programing. I'm running 32 feet with a ESP32 without a level shifter no problem but you could always add one if you wanted to. The only drawback to addressable LED's would be if part of the strip failed. You'd have to build it with connectors on each end of each strip. No biggie though. Comments welcome....
You can use the radar sensors similar to the one GreatScott used in his garage alarm system.
They are a great replacement for the PIR sensors.
That way, you can conceal it inside the wall, and it would still work as intended with nothing visible 😊
As the guy who employs the "Measure once. Cut Eleventeen times" technique, Your forewarnings about certain areas not guaranteed to be necessarily equal are very much appreciated.
That is really cool. Thanks for sharing.
I tend to keep stairs carpeted for safety. I know that hardwood stairs look better but hardwood stairs can kill you if you fall - and believe me sometime somebody will fall.
I have basement stairs and one of the previous owners added rubber tread to them. It's definitely something to consider. A fall on stairs is no fun.
Someone has probably already mentioned but something like the aqara presence sensor might of been suitable instead of the motion sensors. Then one at the top/bottom to detect where abouts you are on the stairs and light up accordingly.
didn't he already change the mic twice?
I made something similar using the new Aqara presence sensor and individually addressable strips. Works pretty well and can turn on when you are a certain distance from the sensor along the path of the stairs. So if on the bottom, first 3 steps light up, if on top then only those 3 turn on, middle/etc.
That is an expensive solution. You can get microwave presence detection modules that do the same thing for a lot cheaper.
@@conorstewart2214 it was even more expensive because I tried the microwave ones first but wasn’t smart enough to make those happen. The extra 40-50 for the Aqara one ended up being far easier for my non-programmer brain with the graphical interface lol.
I did a similar project three years ago (covid lockdown), but used load cells for each step. However I first did the steps and than updated the side covers and using a router I made room for a tiny U-rail. I placed the U rail (with the top of the U facing away) in the side cover, put some double sided tape on the back of the U rail and placed it against the wall, traced the outlines and than glued it to the wall. Run the wires for the load cells and in the U rail and connect them to the control board in the closet under the stairs.
The setup of placing the side covers over the step covers has one drawback, if you ever need to replace on the covers, you need to remove the side covers to get access to the full step cover. The benefit is that there is no visible seam between the cover and the step because the side covers rest on top of the step cover, while otherwise you have a small visible seam between the step and side cover.
During the night we have a night mode which sets brightness to each step to 25% (nightlight mode), once a step detects pressure (e.g. someone stands on them) it lights up two steps before and two steps after (sliding lighting technique), but will only increase brightness to 40%. Enough light to see where you're going, but not enough to wake up the whole neighborhood...
We also have a lighting keyboard mode which only lights up the step which detects the pressure. Because the load cell knows the maximum weight of the person on the step (e.g. when you take on foot off the step to place it on the next, all the (your) weight is on a single step making it a scale. The load cells have such a high accuracy I can use it to determine who is actually on the step and based on that change the color of the lighting. My girlfriend made me loose that part of the code (i.e. over my dead body you are weighing people).
In the hallway I have used ultrasound sensors (they are extremely cheap) and placed them on a 2 ft interval in the hallways, meaning I can also detect movement in the hallways. We have led spots in our hallways and use the same nightlight trick as with the stairs. But I have a several full computers in the closet under the stairs that controls (almost) everything in my house. Lighting, curtains, airco, heating, blinds, windows (I have build-in actuators in the frames that can open/close some of the windows) and it can even change our bathroom windows from transparent to translucent and vice versa because we have electrochromic glass there. Once you lock the door (lockbolt presses a button in the doorframe) it becomes frosted, once you unlock it is transparent again. I get to automate our house and my girlfriends ends up with a beautiful house (I only build, she chooses everything, I really have bad taste when it comes to interior design or clothes)...
You have to do a rainbow mode also tie it in to weather so the brightness changers with regards to what the weather is doing. But nice work really looks good
Cloud City Style
Red Steps like when Vader fights Luke
haha!
That was really cool. Lights just make things better.
Cool project! It would be cool to see that thing hooded into home assistant ;).. Oh and have you considered getting your power from the back of the outlet next to your project box? It would hide the power supply wire
I feel like you could put speakers in the stair well and do some fun sounds as people are going up or down the stairs.
artificial stair creaking noises after 12am so the kids can't sneak in
Do-do-do-do [ascending tone]
Do-do-do-do [descending tone]
Add a stair squeak but it's a different stair each time
For a lot of people, cutting away or unscrewing (and later replacing) the back of the stairs is going to be an easier way to manage cabling.
Those look awesome.
I wanted to do this with a set of metal spiral stairs in my last place, but instead of motion controls i was thinking of seeing if i could detect footsteps with piezo electric transducers.
2 sides of the stairs are "never paralel" mark my words
Cool project.
Use an ESP8266 or ESP32 and it can be tied into Home Assistant for even more automation options.
I'd ha e to use a beam break at the top so it didn't turn on when just walking down the hall.
We considered the beam break, but chose this one instead. It's a great idea.
That animation of the lights coming on is so cool
Great video Bob and team
@16:16 always great to have support! And then I loved how you went NCIS on use with multiple people using same keyboard. (there was an episode of NCIS where they did that.... that is why I consider that show a comedy)
You should consider upgrading the cables from the PSU to the distribution-board. Those are way to small to handle 40A of current. Also consider adding a fuse on the dc side in order to prevent further damage when something shorts out.
I think after watching the video, if I were to do the same thing, I'd simply put a motion sensor around the top step and another around the bottom step. Then program it to start the animation depending on which step you step on first, and then possibly program a similar animation for turning them back off when you step off of the stairs, if that makes sense.
Exactly what I was thinking. I feel as though he made it a little more complicated than it should have been. 🤷🏼♂️
coding gets very complicated if you consider someone may be going down when another person is going up. much easier to have it trigger on if you sense motion.
@@daviddonahoe1303 That's true, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe there could be some sort of abort feature that just turns them all on until nothing happens for a set number of seconds, or something like that, when more than one person is present.
I would love to see more videos like this!
Wooden steps aren't an upgrade over carpeted ones, due to increased noise.
Additionally, it's less safe since falling down a nice padded staircase is less likely to kill. Plus the guy glued the wood onto the stairs! No way anyone can get a carpet on there now. :/
How hard would it be to put a pressure sensor to each stair (instead of the ir sensor on the handrail) so that it lights up each step as you go up or down?
Search for "Piano stairs"
Sure, pressure sensors are notoriously low quality and wear out easily. Using a passive sensor of some kind like a light beam or a PIR is more reliable over time.
@@Iliketomakestuff you mean ir sensor similar to auto opener for garage doors. Only in smaller package.
@@Iliketomakestuff ir good. Maybe even some contact mics and some logic?
Do i need to redo my basement stairs right now? No, but i certainly want to. Also, when did Bob get a tattoo!?
I didn't know about you and your channel. Very interesting project! Thanks for sharing!
I love this! It looks so cool!