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Last active November 30, 2023 03:53
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[blog] Smartifying a dumb LED strip
---
categories:
- Hardware
- LED
- Lighting
- ESP32
title: Smartifying a dumb LED strip
slug: smartifying-dumb-led-strip
coverImage: ~
published: false

A while back, a big box store had a really nice looking neon-style LED strip that was rated for outdoor usage, with a tiny controller and remote control. I didn't like the IR control much, but for the sale price at the time ($15, iirc), it seemed like a great deal to grab two reels and link them into a continuous strip. Here's the link to the strip, if the archive link is still alive.

After fussing with the controller, I decided to tear it down and see how it worked, the build a new smart controller for it.

The Teardown

The original controller was very simple:

[
  {"src":"https://u.seanj.dev/ShareX/2023/11/NFbePt0zez.jpg",
   "alt":"board top"
  },
  {"src":"https://u.seanj.dev/ShareX/2023/11/hlgqGx3ZOU.png",
   "alt":"board bottom"
  }
]

The top side had nothing more than a momentary button and IR transceiver. The bottom was a little busier, but not by much. The primary chip-of-interest, the 8-legged bugger toward the LED (3-pin) side of the chip, was unmarked with no other identifying characteristics, so I was blind in trying to figure out what sort of control scheme was needed for the LED segments.

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