Smart Houses

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disq
Yesterday I was browsing the internet for a "backlight" to reflect off the wall (it will show the fugly/floral wallpaper though, so it will only alleviate the physical eye strain of working in the dark)

It went like this...

4.30pm: "It's gotten so dark so early. I need a backlight."
- IKEA tertial lamp. Hang on, I don't have an edge to clamp that on that side of the desk to be useful. It's not on sale except on IKEA, or some $$$ ebay sellers
- Better/longer clampy-clamp lamp to mount at the back. No, it will conflict with the monitor arms
- A lamp with a stand. I can hide the stand behind my oscilloscope (which sits at a 30 degree angle to my right) but didn't like the stands
- Philips Hue Play projectory things. Hmm it's reduced price at BezoShop.
- Used Philips Hue Play x5 set + HDMI box on eBayou. I could use the first 3 with the box in the living room (had enjoyed an ambilight TV in a past life) and take the other 2 to mount behind the monitor. Alas the bidding starts at 200 quid and will go on for a week, probably won't get it.
- Hmm a double pack Philips Hue Play projectory thing is cheap on eBayou.
- But it will be limited and looks like single colour on each "thing".
- Ooh Pimoroni has nice LED strips. And they've released a new 2040-based-RasPico-like-LED-controller (Plasma 2040)
- Let's measure a rectangle behind the monitor. 165cm, ok.
- 144 LEDs per metre... That would give me 240 individual LEDs to play with
- Each "pixel" would draw up to 60mA, but the USB-C can supply only 3A. Would need a PSU
- Oooh look at this 5V 15A power brick over on BezoShop. Not that expensive, not that large...
- Why do I need the "Plasma" 2040 if I'm supplying the power with a brick anyway, could easily do that with a bog standard Pico or Pico W
- Let's order 5x Pico W (I have 3 Picos already, but would need those for the eventual HA integration), few bits and bobs and 2 x 144 Pixel 1 meter strips... 100 quid, ok.
- 1 am, in bed: Researching AWG calculations with phone brightness at 1%. Giving up and ordering 18AWG (copper/silicone obvs), planning to do multiple power runs to separate parts of the strip, with a single signal wire.
It will probably fail in flames and I'll end up paying for that double pack Hue LED thing in the end.

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Stonehedge in reply to @disq

double pack Hue LED thing

We liked the Hue Play units so much we ended up with five of them. Three for our telly and two for my main PC. Spendy but if you like stuff that just works really well...thats the way to go.

6 years of Hue lighting in our flat. Zero technical problems.
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NotThamesWater in reply to @disq

I run 5m / 300 (SK6812 / WS2812B) RGBW LEDs from a 5V 20A 100W switching PSU*, which also powers a Pi-Zero as a controller - not actually as a backlight, more as an "ooh pretty colours thing", but the setup is the same.

I'm using Hyperion at the moment (which is basically Raspbian), as it is a nice OTB solution, but will be changing later. It does have an HA integration, albeit not particularly sophisticated.

By itself, though, it can be used as an ambient back light, taking HDMI input to reflect what is on screen.

The only real problem that I had with set up was, as ever, permissions for various IO pins.

* actually two of them, because it's in a long line and the voltage drop at 5V means it doesn't play as nicely with just one

Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

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