Tag Archives: canispaterchristmas

Some Good, Some Bad, Some Ugly (2018)

I had some time this past weekend to work on one of the props bothering me a little. The new frame did what I wanted. After reaching a stopping point, I noticed something really bad.

Home Assistant RGB Pixel Pathway Lighting (2018)

This is a slight departure from my normal RGB pixel display videos. We look at using strip lights as pathway lights and controlling them through Home Assistant. I go through setting up Home Assistant and programming the NodeMCU modules using Ben’s code on GitHub.

SD Card Formatter: https://www.sdcard.org/
Etcher Image Writer: https://etcher.io
Home Assistant: https://www.home-assistant.io/
CloudMQTT: https://www.cloudmqtt.com/
Arduino IDE: https://www.arduino.cc
Multi-sensor GitHub Page: https://bit.ly/2GUnSmQ
Pixel controller GitHub Page: https://bit.ly/2IKBLR7

Parts Lists:

Multi-Sensor

Pixel Controller

My YAML configuration for this:

# Binary Sensors
binary_sensor:
  - platform: threshold
    name: isdark
    entity_id: sensor.light_level
    lower: 100
    hidden: true

# Regular Sensors
sensor:
  - platform: template
    sensors:
      rgbtemp:
        friendly_name: RGB Temp
        value_template: >-
          {% if states('sensor.temperature')|float > 79.9 %}
            Hot
          {% elif states('sensor.temperature')|float < 70 %}
            Cold
          {% else %}
            Just Right
          {% endif %}

Automations

- alias: Stair Pathway Lighting On       
  trigger:                               
    - platform: state                    
      entity_id: binary_sensor.isdark    
      to: 'on'                           
    - platform: state                    
      entity_id: sensor.rgbtemp          
  condition:                             
    - condition: state                   
      entity_id: binary_sensor.isdark    
      state: 'on'                        
  action:                                
    - service: mqtt.publish              
      data_template:                     
        topic: "mqtt/topic"         
        payload: >-                      
          {% if is_state('sensor.rgbtemp', 'Hot') %}
            {"state":"ON","color":{"r":255,"g":100,"b":100},"brightness":6,"effect":"solid"}
          {% elif is_state('sensor.rgbtemp', 'Cold') %}                                     
            {"state":"ON","color":{"r":100,"g":100,"b":255},"brightness":6,"effect":"solid"}
          {% else %}                                                                        
            {"state":"ON","color":{"r":100,"g":200,"b":100},"brightness":6,"effect":"solid"}
          {% endif %}                                                                       
                                                                                            
- alias: Stair Pathway Lighting Off                                                         
  trigger:                                                                                  
    - platform: state                                                                       
      entity_id: binary_sensor.isdark                                                       
      to: 'off'                                                                             
  condition:                                                                                
    - condition: state                                                                      
      entity_id: light.stair_strip                                                          
      state: 'on'                                                                           
  action:                                                                                   
    - service: mqtt.publish                                                                 
      data_template:                                                                        
        topic: "mqtt/topic"                                               
        payload: '{"state":"OFF"}'                                                          
                                                                                            

Using Music in Your RGB Pixel Display (2018)

This is an update to my RGB Pixel Basics series about using music in your display. We cover FM transmitters, finding an open frequency near you and uploading a video of your display to YouTube.