• Author: Petre Dragoș
• Email: dragso.petre@stud.acs.pub.ro
• Master: SCPD

The idea for this project came as I wanted to add some backlight to my computer and desk so that it would be more cozy especially during the night. I wanted to be able to have more mods and have a finer control on the LEDs, so I chose a NeoPixels LED Strip, where I can control each LED of the Strip individually.

For the communication protocol between the ESP32 controller and my phone, I decided to use the Bluetooth LowEnergy protocol. I will use my phone as a remote control to send commands to the ESP32 controller and control the LED strip.

I used an OLED display as a way to better visualize the current status of the system, like if there is a device connected, if the lights are turned on or of, and what mode is currently selected.

• ESP32-WROOM-32: 1 x ESP32 Sparrow development board (purchased from here)
• NeoPixel LED Strip: 1 x 5m NeoPixel LED Strip (became 4m after an accident ) (300 NeoPixel LEDs for 5m or 270 NeoPixel LEDs for 4m)
• Breadboard: 1 x 830 holes Breadboard
• OLED Display: 1 x 0.91inch OLED Display
• Connection Cables
• USB-A to MicroUSB Cable

• Arduino IDE for code development and Serial Monitor
• BLE Scanner Android App for connecting my phone to the ESP32 board via BLE

Initially, I wanted to use both WiFi and BLE to control the LED Strip, but I had to limit myself to just one of them, so I chose BLE. The issue was that the WiFi library was just too big in size, taking over 59% of the text memory on my development board, so I dropped it.

By dropping the WiFi features, I had to drop the automatic time triggering as I could not set the time. To set the time to the Local Time, i would have to use a NTP server, but without the WiFi library, I could not connect to one. One other option was to pass the time as a parameter when the code is flashed on the board, but this is not optimal. Other option is to pass it as a command through my phone, but this just destroys the purpose of it being automatic.

Lastly, I found to my surprise that the ESP32 development board I have bought has not a LTR308 module on it, so I was unable to set an automatic detection of light in the room and trigger the light when needed.

First of all, buy a better development board, one that has at leas a LTR308 module on it. After that, I will implement the automatic light detection function and have the lights start automatically when it becomes dark in the room.