Thanks. Yeah, at least at the time when I made this video, I could only find these particular LED strings with 4" spacing. Obviously, having a higher density of pixels would mean better resolution. I have a matrix made with LED strips where the LEDs are just over 1/2" apart.. but strips like WS2812b don't work well for something like a curtain. The tradeoff with more densely packed LEDs is of course more LEDs in a given space.. which needs a larger power supply and more power injection. But you are correct, the more LEDs and the closer they are, the better resolution you will get.

Thanks for the tip, but I did move completely to packages a few years back. I actually have a more updated video that covers the process for moving from a single or split configuration to packages in Home Assistant: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGfCnp-JqKaWqcU

Glad you found it helpful!

I think you are referring to the helping hands? This is the one I used and shown in the video: amzn.to/3VIk9ww If that's not what you are referring to, please let me know.

I generally 3D print my own enclosures. But before I had a 3D printer, I'd often use small electronic project boxes that you can find on Amazon and elsewhere (here's just one example: amzn.to/4cjtFgA - but you can find them in all sorts of various sizes). These project boxes are generally pretty easy to drill or cut openings for things like wiring runs, etc. But I've seen others use everything from plastic soap dishes to carry out food containers as enclosures. So sometimes you just have to be a bit creative.

As stated in the video, you can find a link in the video description to the Github repo with all the code and a complete wiki.

This is one of those projects that sorta' grew beyond its original intent. After using an old server psu to create a benchtop power supply, I wanted to see what else I could repurpose. The fan seemed like a good choice. Initially, just feeding it 12V made it too fast and noisy and 5V wasn't enough to get the blades spinning. So I need to add PWM. Then I figured if I had a controller, might as well add some LEDs for extra light. To be honest, and if I had it to do over again, I would have built something with a smaller foot print. The current fan takes up too much space on my benchtop to just leave it there when not in use. It works well... but I'd build it differently the second time around.

This project uses the precompiled WLED firmware that you can just flash to the ESP. However, if you want the source code, it can be found here: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED

I don't have a version that works with the ultrasonic sensor. As I covered in the video, I didn't feel that the ultrasonic sensor was stable and precise enough for my needs so I have no plans to develop an ultrasonic version. However, I do believe that someone may have forked my code and rewrote it to use an ultrasonic sensor. I have not tested this forked version nor do I know if it has been kept up-to-date with changes made in my version. You can see my full code (and find any forks) in the Github repo: github.com/Resinchem/ESP-Parking-Assistant I try to document within the code itself to help out with anyone trying to learn or for those that want to adapt my code. The wiki may also contain some useful information. Note that MQTT/Home Assistant is optional and not required for the system to work. So you could build the system now and then add it to Home Assistant via MQTT at a later time. I appreciate the kind words and interest. I've been asked numerous times about an ultrasonic version but feel that due to the noise, wider field of view and lower precision, I don't believe that it is a good choice for this project. It definitely would not work in my situation as my sensor needs to be near a side wall and the ultrasonic sensor would just measure the distance to that wall and not an approaching car. But it might work for others in situations where high precision is not needed and the sensor can be mounted far enough away from other walls and objects.

@@ResinChemTech Thank you for your quick reply. I can't find the sensor locally at the moment and I have the ultrasonic sensor. I appreciate it. Will do some more research. Thank you!

Actually, I do have complete control over the entertainment system with voice (primarily using an integrated Harmony hub). The missus primarily interacts with Home Assistant and devices via voice. But as I think I've mentioned in a couple of my other videos, I like to have multiple ways or methods for pretty much all my smart devices. In this case, the TV/Roku can be controlled via voice, NFC tags and a Home Assistant kiosk. Oh... and of course by the original remotes. I've found that after a few years of testing that some folks aren't comfortable with certain methods. Visitors or guests that might not have smart speakers (or even those that have Amazon when I have Google) are often hesitant to interact with the house because they 'don't know what to say'. So most of my devices, like the TV, have an alternate way to control it as well. Pretty much everyone (so far) is pretty comfortable with picking up a card and tapping it after I demo it one time. My elderly dad just won't try to talk to Google, but he'll pick up one of those cards and tap it to turn on the TV. It all depends on your needs. But I do try to always provide multiple methods of accomplishing the same task in my own home.

Yea this would have been perfect for my grandmother in the nursing home. She had a hard time changing channels. You might be onto something.. we need to bring accessibility to the elderly.. her nursing home really pissed me off with all no tech to make people life’s more enjoyable..

I don't disagree that it can be a bit mundane when playing with your own money on the line. But visitors and guests love it... as I tell them they can keep anything they win. But of course I get to keep anything they put into the machine (and lose), so for them it is a bit more entertaining! To be honest, I just like the looks of it sitting next to the arcade machine. So it really isn't truly about the 'fun' of playing the machine for myself... but I did want it to be fully functional and not just a display. But regardless, I appreciate the comment.

Yea it is pretty cool you have one. Just think if it was in Trumps casino :) Do like the channel and your content. I am starting out on my home assistant journey and have been binge watching your videos.. sorry if the comment seemed negative it was just an honest opinion..

Thanks! I do always try to include a written guide for any videos that show wiring diagrams or have code blocks so that people don't have to try to 'freeze frame' the video if they want to see them. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to post a comment!

Glad it worked out for you! Yeah... the scripts always have to be updated due to both newer versions of Proxmox and later releases of Home Assistant, so it's always likely that older videos may not be 100% accurate after a time. I don't have a USB dongle (my Zigbee hub is standalone), but I appreciate you letting me know that just moving the USB dongle worked out without issue. Thanks again for watching.. and the comment.

Glad you found it helpful. As mentioned, I have a separate video that goes into much more detail about using Home Assistant discovery on your own devices. Thanks for watching... and taking time to leave a comment!

You are most welcome. Glad you found it helpfu.

Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for watching... and taking time to leave a comment!

I have a setup very similar to what you describe with my matrix clock. It is dual controller... WLED for general effects, and a separate controller that runs the code for the clock, scoreboard, countdown timer and text display. A toggle switch on the frame allows me to switch the data line that goes to the LEDs from the WLED controller to the custom Arduino clock controller. For the LED curtain, I always planned on primarily using the SR controller. Really the only reason I built it with a swappable controller was for testing and for creating of the KZbin video. I still have the standard controller, but have never swapped them out since I finished the video and mounted the curtain on the wall. But I have used the dual controller with a toggle for selecting the data line with my other matrices.

Yeah... it's likely that I could have "gotten away" with a short clip of 'real' music, but it just isn't worth the risk to me. First, if a claim is made, you are automatically guilty until proven innocent. And I've heard too many horror stories from other creators about their channel being de-monetized or even shut down over copyright strikes. I just completely avoid any possibility by using whatever KZbin makes available as "public domain". Even then, I probably could have found something better than 8-bit arcade music! Thanks for watching... and taking a moment to leave a comment!

@@ResinChemTech guilty until proven innocent (No Truer words for sure)

Thanks for the tip. While I do use WLED for the examples in the video, I didn't limit the title to just WLED because the concepts apply to pretty much any DIY LED project, whether using WLED, ESPHome or even your own custom Arduino code for the controller firmware. But you are correct that a lot of folks may be looking specifically for WLED information and could potentially skip this video since WLED isn't mentioned in the title or shown on the thumbnail. I'll definitely consider modifying the title to include WLED. Thanks again!

It's a bit difficult to know exactly what is wrong from the information you provided, but it appears you have an issue with trying to use an entity name in your YAML that doesn't exist or isn't defined elsewhere. Note that the YAML that I show is just an example... it isn't meant to be used 'exactly' as shown because your Home Assistant (and entities) will be different from mine. I'd recommend that you review your YAML and check all the entity names. All entity names must already exist or be defined elsewhere if you are referencing them somewhere else, like in a templated sensor or automation.

@@ResinChemTech I understand what you say. I changed my entity in but it still doesn't work. Thank you very much for your positive feedback.

My configuration in YAML failed. switch: platform: template switches: lights_sonoff_100: value_template: "{{ is_state_attr('light.sonoff', 'brightnees', 225) }}" turn_on: service: light.turn_on target: entity_id: light.sonoff data: brightnees: 255 turn_off: service: light.turn_off target: entity_id: light.sonoff Then I added to Template section in developer tools "{{ is_state_attr('light.sonoff', 'brightnees', 255) }}" to test. I get the following response: "Result type: boolean false This template listens for the following state changed events: Entity: light.magic" I don't know where I went wrong. Please help. Thanks!

I cannot tell if something is wrong with the formatting, but one thing is that you have the word 'brightness' misspelled. Correct and replace every instance of 'brightnees' above with 'brightness' and see if that resolves the problem.

Thanks! WLED has come a very long way since I started using it. And more features and options are available with each new release. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment. I appreciate it!

You are welcome! As many have stated, you can often get away without a shifter if keeping the controller close to the strip... until you can't. Many people have experienced the same thing as you. That's why I opt to simply include a shifter in all my LED projects, whether I could get away without it or not. The low cost and minimal effort to add it is well worth avoiding any potential problems later (in my opinion anyway).

The only real difference as far as the battery is concerned, is the size of the connector. You could take the existing controller apart, note whether the current battery has the smaller or larger connector and simply order one of the batteries with the same size connector. Some batteries actually have two connectors... one of each size... that will work with either version of the controller.

@@ResinChemTech aah, ok. Thank you very much.

If you use a GPIO pin, you must define this pin as an output component and then include that output in a light component in ESPHome. This allows you to set the brightness of the backlight using PWM. Or you can just set the pin to high for always-on full brightness. In effect, this provides the 3.3V that the backlight needs. I didn't show that here as I only include basic snippets of code. But it covered in the full ESPHome documentation. For Arduino, you can just set the GPIO pin to output/high or define PWM as well. Sorry for any confusion. Time simply did not permit me to fully cover either the ESPHome or Arduino code for each display, but the links I provide in the written guide do contain complete examples. But as you found, you can also just use 3.3V for the LED backlight if desired... there just won't be a way to turn the backlight off as opposed to using a GPIO pin.

@@ResinChemTech just got it working this way, thanks for your help thinking of adding motion sensor to turm back lifgt on and off

If you want to add anything to WLED, you need to install a custom mod (or write your own). While I haven't tried it myself, there is at least one custom mod for RTC in the WLED mods folder: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/tree/main/usermods I think this is similar to what you are wanting.

Thank you for your response and answer. I will try it

You are welcome. Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the comment.

I didn't try either the Arduino code or ESPHome code with the D1 Mini (or any ESP8266 for that matter)... but a few things come to mind. First, you may need to check the libraries and assure that they are even compatible with the ESP8266. There's a possibility that the libraries I selected simply aren't compatible. But you may be able to find alternates that will work. Next, assure you are using the proper SPI pins. Unlike the ESP32, there are only specific GPIO pins that can be used for the SPI bus on the ESP8266. Finally, I had a few instances when the board didn't initialize properly when the ESP was powered on. This was most often when I was using multiple displays with a single ESP, but assure you have a clear or resst display call in your setup() function. You can also try pressing the reset button on the ESP after it is powered on to see if that resets things.

True. Someone else just recently asked why go to all the trouble of building a WLED controller when you could just buy a Govee retail product. As I said to him, the reasons may be different for others, but I enjoy the DIY aspect... and challenge of trying to build my own version of a retail product... that is completely mine and doesn't rely on a vendor's cloud, firmware or what they do or don't decide to make available. And as you mentioned, reusing or repurposing old components is an extra bonus (not to mention a potential significant cost savings). Thanks for watching and taking a moment to leave a comment.

I can't speak for others, but for me personally I enjoy the DIY aspect. Plus I don't have any reliance on a vendor's cloud service or need to install any potentially questionable apps with unnecessary permissions on my phone. My device/installation can never be bricked or shutdown and quit working based on some manufacturer deciding to suddenly stop their cloud servers... or start charging a subscription to continue to use it. History is full of examples of vendors that just stop their cloud servers, rendering their devices useless. In addition, features aside, WLED is open source and extendable. I can make my own custom mods to the firmware to support whatever needs I may have... I'm not limited to just what is provided to me. Others may have their own reasons, and some may be perfectly happy with Govee or other prebuilt retail versions... I don't fault those for what they are. But for me, I like knowing that it is "my" device, built and configured by me and all control (including my data) remains local.

You're welcome! Glad you found the video helpful.

You are welcome. Glad you found it helpful.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you found it helpful.

WLED doesn't really have any sort of timer like you need here, or real automation engine built in. I think you could get somewhat close to what you want to do, but you'd probably need something like Home Assistant or NodeRED to handle the automation or create your own user mod in WLED to deal with the 1 sec. delay. You could certainly light up one pixel at a time with the built-in effects and segments and turn them off with a button push. But the effects repeat and don't 'stop' with all the LEDs on. And again, there isn't a stock way to pause or halt the effect for 1 second and then have it continue... not without a mod, outside automation engine or writing your own code.

I haven't tried one, but you can find a list of officially supported WLED boards here: kno.wled.ge/basics/compatible-controllers/

@ResinChemTech Ok. Thanks for the feedback. According to Copilot, my ESP32 mini is actually an ESP32 C3. It has an Espressif S3 chip, but it also has a little red chip with C3 on it. WLED does not yet support or is not yet compatible with the C3, but it is a work in progress.

Thanks so much for the super! I greatly appreciate it and it will be used to help fund future projects and videos. As far as the relay, yes you would need to kill the power to all the injection points, but there are multiple ways to accomplish this. First you can run the power from your supply through the relay before you split it off to the three different power injection points. That way you have a single relay that is controlling all the power to the LEDs. Just be sure that the relay is rated to handle the current you expect for the LEDs. While you can use multiple relays, do note that standard WLED is only designed to use one relay. There is a user-mod that supports multiple relays, but you'd have to add that and compile your own WLED. You can find more info on that here: kno.wled.ge/features/relay-control/ As far as the buck converter, yes you could power multiple relays but the same rule applies. Just be sure the buck converter is rated for the maximum amps that would be needed to power all the relays. Thanks again for the support...and the kind words. Let me know if I can help out any further.

@@ResinChemTech thank you for the quick response! After I sent my comment I did some research and came across that very idea, put the relay between the power supply and controller (in this case an ESP32). But I’m running the board from the same power supply so I’ll need to power that separately which is easy. I have a small 5v, 3amp plug which I can use to power both the ESP32 and relay (it’s a 5v relay since they don’t seem to make one for higher amps for 3.3v). I’m using a 20 amp power supply with a 30 amp rated relay so I’m good there. I hope this makes sense and I’m on the right track. Your videos are an inspiration to me, so well produced. Thanks again!

Sounds like you are on the right track! The only thing I'd mention is that if you are using different power supplies for the controller and LEDs, make sure you create a common ground between the two (one easy way to do this is just run a ground wire from your controller along with the data line to the start of the LED strip). If you don't have a common ground, the LEDs may misbehave do to possible ground potential differences between the controller's power source and the LEDs' power source. You may have already done this... but I thought it was worth mentioning!

@@ResinChemTech common ground! That always throws me off. My LED’s are wired straight to the 20amp power supply. So I need to connect the same ground out from the 3amp power supply (to the relay and controller), the 20amp power supply (on the output side of course), and the controller? Sorry for all the questions.

Not a problem! You just need to establish a single common ground connection somewhere between the controller and LEDs. You can make this connection wherever it is convenient, but on the few occasions where I've done it, I just run a ground from the controller along with the data line to the start of the LED strip. Since I'm already running a line for the data signal, it is pretty easy to just include a second ground connection here. In fact, I have a number of standard wiring diagrams in one of my blog articles that shows this: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2023/01/wiring-diagrams.html Look for the example that shows dual 12V and 5V power supplies. This same wiring can be used for two separate 5V supplies as well. If you need additional assistance, I'm glad to help but it is a little restrictive what I can do here in the KZbin comments. If you like, feel free to contact me via email (you can find my email address on the 'about' section of my KZbin channel page... I don't publish it here because it gets picked up by spam bots). Or if you have a Discord account and want to shoot me over your Discord user name, we can connect over there as well. Otherwise, best of luck with the project. Let me know how it turns out!

Thanks Dave! While most the stuff we do can always be displayed on a Home Assistant dashboard, have a local display can be nice for many things as well. Oh... and thanks for noticing the t-shirt!

Thanks. You can certainly add static text after the value. In fact, if you go back and watch the section where I am using the temperature from the DHT22 sensor, you'll see that I added a static °C after the value from the sensor. The formatting can be a bit tricky, especially if you aren't familiar with using printf in Arduino. But you can add static text before or after a format string (or both). For example, again using temperature as an example, I could do something like: printf(.... , "The basement temperature is %.1f °C", id(sensor).state); The value (or state) of the sensor would be dropped into the format string that begins with "%" and the output to the display would be: The basement temperature is 21.9 °C Just make sure you leave a space after the format string and before any trailing text. Otherwise, your static text will be seen as part of the format structure... and this will likely cause a syntax or other error. Hope that info helps!

You should not need to download anything just to get a split configuration working. However, what is 'panel_custom'? Have you already split out some of your YAML to split files? If so, it is likely one of these files that is causing the configuration check error when you include them in the main configuration.yaml via the split option. The configuration check passes when you don't have the split statement because these other YAML files would not be included. Check your YAML and see if you can find somewhere that a custom_panel is defined. It is likely the error is resulting from including that YAML.

yeah no luck at all for me.

Thanks! I appreciate the comment.

Most of my projects that use a display of some sort are Arduino-based as well, but I have a few that use ESPHome. ESPHome is nice when you need something with native integration into Home Assistant, but Arduino generally give you more advanced features. Thanks for watching!

Honestly, I use the fixed rails much more often than the variable side. But most of my projects are ESP based so pretty much everything runs off of 5V or 3.3V. Occasionally, I'll have something that needs 12V. About the only time I use variable is if I need something that represents a battery... like 9V or 7.4V. But the majority of my projects use one of the three fixed voltages. But the nice thing I like is that I have the flexibility with this type of supply... including the ability to provide up to 3 different voltages simultaneously on the very rare case it is needed. But it could be made smaller if desired by just creating a variable output.

@@ResinChemTech I'm looking at using one of these "LTC3780" buck/boost converters I seen in another video. I really only need current limiting, so I can track down short circuits on other boards with voltage injection.

When using a larger power supply or a larger number of LEDs, you should connect the power in parallel... running from the power supply directly to the LEDs and then in parallel to the controller. I have both a video and blog article that covers this. In both cases, look for the sections on powering your LED project: Blog: resinchemtech.blogspot.com/2023/01/wiring-diagrams.html Video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYvZZo2qn5ucbKs

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