Maybe you were impatiently waiting for it (or maybe not), a new article on my huge Christmas project that I told you about a few weeks ago.
Today, I will explain my project in more detail and explain the rest of the adventure.
So I bought all types of garlands on the web, most of which are equipped with addressable LEDs.
I am very happy with them, they work wonderfully.
As for the controller, the "master of operations", it will not be an Arduino Nano, but an ESP32.
The ESP32 can manage more pixels, has much more memory (RAM and flash) and has a WiFi/Bluetooth chip, perfect for controlling it remotely, especially for testing LEDs.
As not all my decorations will be addressable, I also ordered a batch of twenty WS2811 chips that I plan to connect to a relays control card.
Only, I only found them in SMD version (or CMS for the anti-englishmen), and they turned out to be much smaller than I imagined.
So small that their pin spacing is half that of the board I had initially planned to solder them on.
After some thought, I decided that the best option would be to order a custom PCB for the project.
Having never opened KiCad in my life, I installed it and tried it (it's so intuitive!) in order to create a design for my boards.
I haven't completely finished designing the PCBs yet, so I'll let you know as soon as it's done.
As for the decorations, there will be three addressable arches on the front, with LED snowflakes between each one, four stars at the top of the house, and a singing christmas tree in the center.
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See you soon!