Project Description

Learn about electronics while building an ESP32 controller for the lights of a christmas tree as well as outdoor christmas lights using the wled project

Goal for this Hackweek

• Build christmas lights that do nice effects in the christmas tree as well as outdoor.
• If all goes well and the project advances quickly, maybe test doing an outdoor 2D matrix that can do animations.
• Learn how to integrate 3V, 5V and 12V elements in the same circuit properly and safely.
• 3D-print a nice enclosure so all the circuits are hidden next to the christmas tree and protected from the weather in the outdoor case.

Resources

For the christmas tree I'll be using a WS2811 based 5V led strip and for the outdoor lights, I'll try with the same WS2811 driver but on a "pixel" enclosure and using 12V. The software to use in the esp32 will be wled and I'll also try to integrate that with my Home Assistant installation with the official wled integration

keywords: wled, led lights, esp32, christmas lights