---
date: 2016-06-05
title: Wireless LED strip controller
image: /images/esp-ledstrip/glowgreen.jpg
---

A PCB that exposes the controls of an LED strip to WiFi.
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After a [failed attempt]({{< ref "music-led-visualisation.md" >}}), I succeeded in building a wireless analog LED strip controller.

![Glowing led strip around controller](/images/esp-ledstrip/glowgreen.jpg)

The most important part in this setup is a 12V-3.3V regulator that passes 12V to the transistors and 3.3V to the WiFi chip. Instead of gluing inefficient Darlington transistors on top of CD cases, I used IRFZ44N MOSFETs with a heatsink each on a stripboard. The principle remains the same as with the Arduino.

![Controller top view](/images/esp-ledstrip/top.jpg)

There are fewer long cables, which makes the controller more compact and less ugly.

![Controller back view](/images/esp-ledstrip/back.jpg)

On the ESP8266 runs a web server with a simple API to change the colors and a UDP listener that allows the Hyperion server to connect.
The Arduino sketch can be found [here](https://git.schneefux.xyz/electronics/esp-ledstrip/src/master/esp-ledstrip.ino).

![Controller attached to FTDI](/images/esp-ledstrip/debug.jpg)

A few weeks later, I spotted a mistake in my build. I used IRFZ44N transistors but I should have used IR**L**Z44N transistors instead. The difference is that the Z version needs a higher voltage at the base, so the LEDs were never bright and drew just about two thirds of the power at maximum brightness.