As a software developer by trade, I know how it can sometimes be difficult to explain technical things to someone with limited understanding of technology. DrZzs, you did a fantastic job of breaking geek stuff down for the ordinary viewer. This is an outstanding tutorial, period.
Thank you for making a video about something that can be so dull (and there are SO many videos that are just... "Bueller, Bueller...") and making it easy to follow and entertaining.
It's 4 years later, and all of this is still accurate. Well, except for the WS2815 strips, they've come down in price and are my go-to for outdoor strips. WLED is rock solid stable, and keeps adding new features. I love this video!
This is seriously the best UA-cam how-to I've ever seen. I literally had been following guides for hours trying to get my ESP8266 and WS2812B hooked up, and eventually got it all after jumping through so many hoops. I scrapped all the setup I had done just so I could follow your guide and had it all back up and running in 5 minutes.
You are my hero. I have been searching everywhere to learn how to do this. Could never find a clear explanation how to do this. Now just need to know how to protect the power supplies from the weather.
This one works well for me, I have had it up for over a year now, in good and bad weather. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T990I0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
OK deep breath......after a year or so watching as many videos on this as possible. I've decided to do it this way. So here goes..... Thank you for all the videos.
Dude! Thank you SO MUCH for putting this all in one place. You put a LOT of energy into the details, I super respect that. This is a great example of the positive side of the Internet / UA-cam..
Detachable/storeable mounting. I came up with this idea when I "inherited" a 4' x 10' sheet of Coroplast. Coroplast is essentially corrugated cardboard (the same as is used for most packing boxes) except made from a flexible plastic. (I don't know the technical details of the type of plastics used, except they're fairly UV-resistant. The material is widely used in sign-making, for everything from realtor's "for sale" signs to large "screw to a wall" advertising signs. There's a printing process for this stuff that again, I know nothing about). Anyhow, I wound up with a sheet of this stuff, slightly off-white, and 4 ft. (about 120 cm) x 10 ft (about 300 cm. This sat in my garage along with other "good junk", and then the "aha" moment. If cut into strips about 2 cm to 2.5 cm x 300 cm long (width depends on the type of lights used), it can make a very simple, modular, easy to hang and remove mounting base for LED''s. If you're using the adhesive strip LED's, cut strips of Coroplast just a bit wider than the LED backing. If using string LED's, it's easy to drill or poke holes through a strip that's maybe 2 cm wide, spaced according to you LED strings. (A cheapo 20W soldering iron is perfect for this). Coroplast is also really good for mounting small control boards or PSU's to the back side just using double-face tape. As long as it's clean when the tape is applied, it seems to stay on very well. Likewise, if you want to change to a different receiver or control unit, this mounting system makes that very easy. So cut strips lengthwise from your panel (along the line of the corrugations). Then stick on the strip LED's or poke individual LED's through. Now you have a bunch of strips of Coroplast with LED's. You can vary the length of the Coroplast strips depending on where they're to be mounted. Now, using a few pieces of snare wire, put 2-4 wire loops through the top edge of the Coroplast, (typically 1 at each end, and 1 or 2 spaced in between. NOW, you have strips that can be hung on eavestrough edges, fascia, etc. using only a few small wire hooks. At each end of the Coroplast/LED strip, you have an option. #1) if you know exactly where the strips are going, you can simply make hardwired "bridges" using 1" - 2" pieces of flexible, stranded copper wire. Method #2 is to use a set of 2-pin (or 3-pin, if require) connectors. Unless they're "universal" fit, put one "male" connector at one end, and one "female" connector at the other end. Once you hang up the Coroplast strips with the LED's mounted on them, you can just plug the ends together. There are many styles of connectors available in lots of 50 pair or 100 pair, low voltage & low current, that cost very little. A couple of caveats to using this method. 1) you'll need to figure out ahead of time the lengths of strip required. In some locations, a piece only 2 ft or 3 ft long will fit the space. If on a long, straight edge, you might need 2 or 3 stripes, each 8 ft or 10 ft long, to reach from end to end. #2) This idea assumes that you're going to put the same sections of lights in the same location on your house each year. So, it's a really good idea to (a) make a sketch showing each place where strips will be hung, and (b) mark the back side of the strips with a letter or number that corresponds to their location. This will make hanging up each strip go very quickly, and it also means that the connectors at each end of a strip will always match up, male-female. It's possible to just make up a bunch of strips of a couple of standardized lengths, e.g. 3 ft. or 5 ft. or 8 ft., and then just piece them together when hanging them up. Because each Coroplast strip has only 3 or 4 attachment points, this can be a pretty flexible way of doing things. But I've found that "made to measure" length strips for specific locations work really well, and go up very, very quickly. Also, if one section fails, it can easily be repaired or replaced. I originally used this idea for hanging up strips of incandescent Christmas lights. It was far easier to hang up pre-fabricated sections that had only two or three hooks or attachment points, compared to trying to hang the wire using cable hangers or whatever. With a male/female connector pair on each strip, everything plugged together very fast. In some cases, the strips could be joined with short jumpers made from 1 inch - 2 inch pieces of stranded insulated copper wire, and this works just as well with LED's. Aside from ease of installation, the other big advantage is ease of storage. When the strips are taken down, you're left with a bunch of "sticks" that can be bundled up with a couple of velcro wire wrappers (the kind used when coiling and storing long extension cords). This system doesn't "fill the bill" for every part of putting up LED's. But it sure speeds up many parts of the job and, using a "reaching stick" many of the strips can be hung up without a ladder. I know people have done similar things with other kinds of supporting materials. The nice thing about Coroplast is that its a) cheap, b) easy to cut (razor knife) or put holes in (drill/soldering iron), and it's very lightweight but still rigid even for long sections. If you've covered this idea in one of the many other videos you've put up, my apologies for duplicating that. I've had good results using the Coroplast material - it's stood up very well over several years of use, needs only a few hooks per section, and it doesn't cost a bomb - leaving more money to put into newer LED's and "fancy" lighting controllers.
The funny thing is that I already knew all that stuff but I watched your video anyways, I like your style of talking and explaining! Thanks for the guides,keep going! Cheers from Italy
Oh my gosh, I finally got everything to work! In case anyone is dumb like me, I mistakenly thought I could set everything up and test the lights before actually running the program on the board. However, you can't even turn the lights on without the board serving up the program. It really is as easy as this video suggests!
Wired up our NodeMCU board to a prototype board today. Fired it up and it worked like a charm!! Thanks so much. Got a "cherry picker" rented for next Tuesday to finish the outside install. We put addressable LED's on our pinewood derby car programmed with an Arduino pro mini. This was WAY easier and almost had me wishing that we'd gone this route for his car. It would have been super cool for him to change the effect at the derby. Thank You So MUCH for this video!!!
I was watching your old video for a month now, learning from the videos you recommended, buying components and making slow progress because I'm not familiar with "arduinos'' , but this video is much , much easier to follow. Thank you from the bottom of my heart ! seriously ! :)
Wow. One of your videos randomly came up on my screen and now I'm hooked. Great advice and easy to follow. Will be going through the rest of your videos over the next few weeks. Thanks.
Awesome! there are a few other LED videos but this one gathers together things I've learned. I should probably make a "getting started" playlist. That's a good idea! Thanks
@@DrZzs literally followed your video and got a trial set up and running. So now it's just having a play with the app to see what it can do. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for breaking it down into a manageable chunk. I’ve loved all the videos people have done (eg TheHookUp) but feel I need to take notes while watching the videos. This makes it MUCH easier to just jump in and do it and then get more specialized afterward. And thank you for making it an edited version. I know it’s much more time consuming than the live streams but it makes it so much easier to follow along.
Great video! Really, alot of people say they are making easy to follow and halfway through they get impatient and rush things. This vid is VERY informative and so easy to understand... You my friend can definitely teach and train! Looking forward to more of your videos. Thx 😉👍
A tip for anyone new getting into this, like me from last year. I highly recommend you stay away from the strips, unless you have a very steady hand and experience with soldering, as the soder pads are very tiny and close to each other. It's a massive headache, and honestly it was really hard to stay motivated because of how frustrating it was. It can be done, however be prepared to be extremely patient
Good video DrZ. I am doing 3 archways on my driveway with led strings and pvc pipe, 3 strands apiece with a total of 450 lights. But a wire stripping tip, do not remove the insulation all the way, try and leave it on the wires. then spin the free piece of insulation in your fingers, to twist the wires together. The insulation will slide off and the wire will have a smooth uniform twist.
I’ve been needing this exact video. I know I could do a project like this but as much as I’ve tried to search and find everything in one place, so far haven’t been able to find it. This helps immensely!
yay! I made it because I also spent a lot of time searching for all this information. I'm very very happy it's been so helpful! Come back and show us what you make!
I've been scouring youtube/internet for "permanent holiday lights" this summer. BIG THUMBS UP to Dr.Zzs, WLED, QuinLED, The Hook up. All great info. Got a bunch of material in August and installed it. Was happy with it. Upgraded with Dig-Uno in Sept. and latest WLED version. It just makes me smile. Hours of playing with effect on WLED. WLED continues upgrades and expands the effects. Wizards of LEDs. Dr.Zzs -Thanks for the tutorials. They are info packed, interesting and fun.
A finished my lower level roof line following this guide. 600 leds, 2812b strips, 5v. Running the lights on a cell phone charger. Waiting for my digiquad to inject power and replace my nodemcu. Thank you for the easy to follow tutorial
Loved this! I do wish we had a better video showing the installation of the brackets and understanding how to go around corners and whatnot. I'd love that. Can't find a video anywhere on that stuff.
This was great. I had a quote from a lighting company of $14,000.00 to put permanent, programmable lights on our house. Holy cow! We are going to try and simplify our system with inexpensive lights and learn as we go! Thanks for the simple information!
Thank you thank you thank you! I have been thinking through how to accomplish this with my non-existent programming skills and you are making it accessible!
DrZzs I put up 2 16ft WS2811s strips around the garage and then I restrung my wreath with 3 sets of LED strings. I tried running them all off the same MCUNode, but it was working out that great, so I added a second MCUNode for the wreath. All working great now. Now I’m just playing with WLED to get the best effects. I’m trying merry Christmas and colorful and switching back between those two for right now. May add some more into the mix.
Loving the videos, this is so much easier than the old video, I stumbles across these videos last week, I am planning to get this set up before xmas, Big thanks from the UK
Thank you for this, got everything hooked up last night, only thing I had to do was search and download the drivers for the Node. Now the project of figuring out the best way to mount everything. EDIT: Drilling holes in j-channel is a pain but definitely makes a clean look.
Dude! You just became my number one source for getting started with my home LED display. Over the last few years I've viewed several other fine sources where the learning curve and (most importantly) price was out of range or required outside research for the inexperienced (me) and underfunded (also me) regular dude (story of my life). You immediately broke down the price and made it easy to start designing in one short video. This video should be considered the template for all who want to help others start designing home LED light displays. I'll definitely be back. I believe your mission to bring this hobby to the masses will be accomplished. Great work!
Such a good video! Earned a new sub from me for sure. I’ve scoured forms, websites, videos on UA-cam, etc learning about this stuff for several years and this is BY FAR the best introduction that I’ve ever found. Simplifies everything in great way but still enough depth so that people can start asking the right questions. It can be daunting for someone that knows nothing about this type of stuff but wants to learn. A+ job. Can’t wait to watch more of your videos.
Perfect! Hoping to play with this tonight. Gonna slap it on a NanoLeaf clone I printed a while back as a first try.. excellent timing since it's 11/11 today.
After watching your video, I feel like I just watched a video sent from my future self telling me to invest in Apple in the 80s. The type where nothing is left out. I know everything I need to know. Amazing video! Great job. Onto your next one.
It's actually possible to damage integrated circuit chips with static electricity by touching them without discharging first. All the professionals use a wrist strap with a snap-on wire that's connected to an electrical ground, but touching a grounded electrical appliance or a plumbing fixture prior to touching a circuit board will do the trick. If you don't run a humidifier during the winter months, your furnace can dry the air enough to make static electricity a common occurrence.
I'm just going to throw in a tip for anyone watching, if you want something very simple to use and easy to set up, Twinkly makes app controlled strings of 150 to 400 adressable 5mm RGB LEDs.. They're powered by a small WiFi controller, so you just scan your house with your phone camera in the app to adress all the LEDs in the correct layout. The controllers talk to each other, so you can put together several strings with no problem. Then you can create effects as if your house was a display in its own, going from one corner to the other, across several strings. They're around $80 for 150 lights or 12 meters, and $120 for 250 lights or 20 meters. I've been using WS2811 strings and WS2812B strips powered by Arduinos for years, but I'm going to try these out this year since they're a lot more simple to control across several strings, and makes it easier to create a uniform effect across the whole house. I'm going to try the NodeMCU and experiment with it, so thanks for the introduction to it! I haven't settled on what to use for this years Christmas light display, but I'm going to try different setups.
Cool. Once you have the LEDs hung you can experiment with the controller options. Try out WLED. You can also easily sync the effects to every string. I'll show that in the next video. Thanks for the tip about Twinkly.
Thank you so much! I want to add LEDs to some of my woodworking projects but could not figure out the power. So now I know match 5v to 5v or 12v to 12v and compute the number of amps and add a few just to CYA. I just subscribes. I'll be seeing ya. Thanks again.
Help! I just got my nodes and lights and I’ve connected my node to both my Mac and pc and it won’t pop up on the serial port section on the epshome flasher. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
Martin6pack I figured out that u have to try multiple micro usb cords because some r purely power cords and others have power and data wires that connect and communicate with the computer
Chase Kessler and Ben Eisenhauer, I also found out you need to download a nodeMCU drive so that the computer recognizes the node. At least that’s what I did and I got it to work. My lights now work! Hope you two are having similar luck
First off thank you for this video! I watched the first and almost started to do my own but held off. Then after this one I took the plunge! You made it so easy! I went with a custom setup of individual led lights plugged together. I am having one issue: If I plug all 100 lights in (each light has 3 leds) everything works. If I put in a 3 wire extension in have flickers when changing colors. If I put it at the start or end issues start after the extension. I do solder the connections so that is not it. Could it be the gauge of the wire or quality of the wire? I want to run a 30ft 3 wire cable from power supply to first light and also have a 10ft and 5 ft cable that will need to be between some of them. I want to make sure that would solve the issue since it will be more $$$$. I have learned a lot of what to do and what not to do on this setup. Thanks again!
ah yes, you are suffering from data signal degradation. The LEDs are expecting a 5v data signal but the esp chip only puts out a 3.3v data signal. That's fine if the signal doesn't decrease any further, but if you have a small wire, or a long wire between the control board and the first LED then you'll get that flickering. There are a few options to fix it. If you are savvy with electronics you can get a logic level shifter, but that's a more advanced method. You can get a dig-uno controller like this: drzzs.com/shop/dig-uno but that cost $25. It's the Cadillac of LED controllers. The easiest and cheapest (hence the one I recommend) is to use a "sacrificial pixel". You put the first Pixel right next to the control board with a very short thick data wire (at least 22g). That Pixel acts as a voltage booster. Once the data signal hits that first pixel the voltage is bumped up to 5v. Then you can run your 3 wire extension between that first Pixel and the second one way far away. If you use the sacrificial pixel, there is an option in the WLED software to Skip the first LED, so it won't light up and it won't throw off the look of the effect on the rest of the lights. I could have saved myself a lot of typing and just given you this link: ua-cam.com/video/ZFO_QOBG9Bs/v-deo.html
Who would have thought it is this easy to get friggen cool LED lights. Thank you for this video and all others! I bought 3 packs of 12v string LED's and the DC converter. Neither the lights nor the NodeMCU would start up with jumper wires throughout the setup. I switched the wires going from the power supply to the converter to some 18ga I had lying around and that seemed to do the trick. With an enclosed power supply (12v, 5a) and no power injection between the three string packs there is degradation and discoloration on the last string. Fortunately, I purchased two power supplies in my order and the bare metal at 30a has no issue. I will probably order two more strings and use these for a Christmas tree. I really hope I won't need to inject power. One more tip to all, make sure you cover all the power injection wires because they are live!
I was waiting for you to mention a logic shifter for the 3.3v signal of the nodemcu to 5v normally required for the led strip signal. Was this a skip on purpose or a slip?
No, it wasn't a slip. I've never used a logic level shifter and I've not had problems because of it. If you keep the length of the data line short between the nodeMCU and the first LED, there won't be an issue.
@@DrZzs by short that can be less than 1 foot in some cases less (depending on the board and LED), if anyone wants to mount the control box and PSU somewhere else the logic shifted 5v signal will easily travel several feet / meters allowing you to mount the PSU and MCU somewhere tucked away.
please update the Win10 Exp. I had to update the drivers for the board to work. besides that, this is a really cool video! Thank you so much for putting it together! cheers!
I was in the state of knowing how to play with smaller LEDs strips but didn't know how to scale up to a full house sized show, the way you explain is so reassuring that yes what I was planning is correct.
You might have to install the drivers for Cp210x - I got them here and installed the universal windows drive v10.1.9 www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
I already had my Home Assistant stuff setup, but wanted to give WLED a try. It was super easy to setup, anyone can do it. I switched over to it, and now going to integrate into my HA setup. It's super easy, my kids can even change the lights. Thanks Doc!
Excellent! WLED is a big improvement. I don't usually undo something that's working but this is one of those rare cases when the upgrade is so substantial that I can't NOT do it :)
I'm all set and ready for the next video.... I got a 12Volt power supply, a string of Rextin 2811, NodeMCU ESP8266, 12v to 5v converter, WLED application,..... hooked it all up and gave it a try..... No Smoke!
Thank you for taking the time to do this video. It really helped me as I felt overwhelmed on where to start. I'm going to be testing out some things right away!
@@djw6490 not sure exactly what you mean. But my problem was that all the lights were flickering, and the solution was adding a 680pF ceramic capacitor. I wired the capacitor from pin D4 to a ground pin on the microcontroller.
@@mwagner1996 my lights flicker random colors even when its on solid color. My question is would putting the capacitor on there help when my data travels four inches from my nodemcu to my light strand
@@mwagner1996 also do you know why this works does this help stop like interference or something I'm not very knowledgeable in this area so if you could tell me much appreciated
@@djw6490 it's possible it could work for your short cable as well. Although, mine had a 10ft long cable going to the first led. As for why this happens, Im not certain, but my best guess was that the string of lights had some inductance that was distorting the signal, and that adding the right amount of capacitance canceled that out. I discovered this solution by simply touching the bare metal of the data wire with my fingers. Since our skin capacitance, touching it was enough to get results for me. Then I used a cheap ceramic capacitor set I bought on Amazon and tried different values until the flashing stopped. We also had flashing colors when it was set to a solid color too btw, so I'd give touching it a try. If that works then you know a capacitor will fix it. If it doesn't work, a different value capacitor could still be worth a try.
LOL...these type displays are far more work then that. Heck putting the lights up and wiring it up is the easy part. Custom programming your music to end up with your desired result is the difficult and Very time consuming part.
Hey there, great stuff! I am just starting to plan my setup now and wanted to see if you have any key information that should be updated based on time passed? The vinyl j-channel you show is no longer available, so I am going to explore other options. I will post some details with my solve and pros/cons when i get it going.
Awesome video for beginners... would love to see how you have powered each portion on your house... showing how many strips, voltage type, and how/where you connected power. also would give a great view on how many NodeMCU's you used.
I am a licensed electrician in NY and work with a lot of standard LED strips (single color) ive been trying to teach myself how to work with the different types of multi color ones and how to advertise for things like you're explaining in this video and this is an amazing video really simplifying the process, well done!
Ordered parts last week, arrived today. Up and running in under 30 minutes. This video was excellent! Thank you very much for getting me started in the world of WLED!
DrZzzzs, thanks again for helping me with my lights a few years back. My lights are still working great and my neighbors enjoy all the different patterns on the holidays. I've even programmed a few new patterns myself. Looking forward to seeing your next set of videos. Keep them coming... I'm still looking for that Scarlett and Gray pattern to show up in one of your videos ;-)
THANK YOU!! My family bought a holiday symphony tree, and it has a bunch of rgbs ... and last December the circuit for it bit the dust. My mom was so sad because we couldn't return it. Luckily I'm good with technology, maybe I can program it and bring it to life once again.
The WS2811 strips are the best, they are individually addressable unless you buy them from a cheap Chinese supplier. And like you said, minimal voltage drop.
I haven't seen ws2811 strips that are individually addressable (just strings) but I don't doubt you've found some. It sure is nice to be able to use 12v.
This gets the basics of connecting the parts to get a string/strip lit up. 👍💪👍 If memory serves, viewers can springboard from here to a video or 2 on how to actually get the patterns to follow roofline features. It's not as simple as just stringing LED segments together. There's a bit of planning involved.
Excellent step-by-step tutorial. I did have an issue getting the serial port to show up when trying to flash the nodemcu. After trying 3 nodemcus, 2 laptops and several micro-usb cables, I finally realized I didn't have the driver installed. Once I got that, it was smooth sailing.
As a software developer by trade, I know how it can sometimes be difficult to explain technical things to someone with limited understanding of technology. DrZzs, you did a fantastic job of breaking geek stuff down for the ordinary viewer. This is an outstanding tutorial, period.
couldn't had said it better..
i was looking for this video for a person just like you are describing lol
yes GUILTY lol
Thank you for making a video about something that can be so dull (and there are SO many videos that are just... "Bueller, Bueller...") and making it easy to follow and entertaining.
It's 4 years later, and all of this is still accurate. Well, except for the WS2815 strips, they've come down in price and are my go-to for outdoor strips. WLED is rock solid stable, and keeps adding new features. I love this video!
Just finished, it is the easiest lights i have ever done. Everyone should try it. Thankyou to everyone who developed this.
This is the standard all DIY videos should be held to! Thank you so much for the help.
This is seriously the best UA-cam how-to I've ever seen. I literally had been following guides for hours trying to get my ESP8266 and WS2812B hooked up, and eventually got it all after jumping through so many hoops. I scrapped all the setup I had done just so I could follow your guide and had it all back up and running in 5 minutes.
You are my hero. I have been searching everywhere to learn how to do this. Could never find a clear explanation how to do this. Now just need to know how to protect the power supplies from the weather.
This one works well for me, I have had it up for over a year now, in good and bad weather. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T990I0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
OK deep breath......after a year or so watching as many videos on this as possible. I've decided to do it this way. So here goes..... Thank you for all the videos.
did it work out?
This is one of the best tutorials I have ever watched. Thanks man!
I do not comment much on videos but I must say your Humor is what kept me watching. LOL
Dude! Thank you SO MUCH for putting this all in one place. You put a LOT of energy into the details, I super respect that. This is a great example of the positive side of the Internet / UA-cam..
Detachable/storeable mounting. I came up with this idea when I "inherited" a 4' x 10' sheet of Coroplast. Coroplast is essentially corrugated cardboard (the same as is used for most packing boxes) except made from a flexible plastic. (I don't know the technical details of the type of plastics used, except they're fairly UV-resistant. The material is widely used in sign-making, for everything from realtor's "for sale" signs to large "screw to a wall" advertising signs. There's a printing process for this stuff that again, I know nothing about). Anyhow, I wound up with a sheet of this stuff, slightly off-white, and 4 ft. (about 120 cm) x 10 ft (about 300 cm. This sat in my garage along with other "good junk", and then the "aha" moment. If cut into strips about 2 cm to 2.5 cm x 300 cm long (width depends on the type of lights used), it can make a very simple, modular, easy to hang and remove mounting base for LED''s. If you're using the adhesive strip LED's, cut strips of Coroplast just a bit wider than the LED backing. If using string LED's, it's easy to drill or poke holes through a strip that's maybe 2 cm wide, spaced according to you LED strings. (A cheapo 20W soldering iron is perfect for this).
Coroplast is also really good for mounting small control boards or PSU's to the back side just using double-face tape. As long as it's clean when the tape is applied, it seems to stay on very well. Likewise, if you want to change to a different receiver or control unit, this mounting system makes that very easy.
So cut strips lengthwise from your panel (along the line of the corrugations). Then stick on the strip LED's or poke individual LED's through. Now you have a bunch of strips of Coroplast with LED's. You can vary the length of the Coroplast strips depending on where they're to be mounted.
Now, using a few pieces of snare wire, put 2-4 wire loops through the top edge of the Coroplast, (typically 1 at each end, and 1 or 2 spaced in between. NOW, you have strips that can be hung on eavestrough edges, fascia, etc. using only a few small wire hooks. At each end of the Coroplast/LED strip, you have an option. #1) if you know exactly where the strips are going, you can simply make hardwired "bridges" using 1" - 2" pieces of flexible, stranded copper wire. Method #2 is to use a set of 2-pin (or 3-pin, if require) connectors. Unless they're "universal" fit, put one "male" connector at one end, and one "female" connector at the other end. Once you hang up the Coroplast strips with the LED's mounted on them, you can just plug the ends together. There are many styles of connectors available in lots of 50 pair or 100 pair, low voltage & low current, that cost very little.
A couple of caveats to using this method. 1) you'll need to figure out ahead of time the lengths of strip required. In some locations, a piece only 2 ft or 3 ft long will fit the space. If on a long, straight edge, you might need 2 or 3 stripes, each 8 ft or 10 ft long, to reach from end to end.
#2) This idea assumes that you're going to put the same sections of lights in the same location on your house each year. So, it's a really good idea to (a) make a sketch showing each place where strips will be hung, and (b) mark the back side of the strips with a letter or number that corresponds to their location. This will make hanging up each strip go very quickly, and it also means that the connectors at each end of a strip will always match up, male-female.
It's possible to just make up a bunch of strips of a couple of standardized lengths, e.g. 3 ft. or 5 ft. or 8 ft., and then just piece them together when hanging them up. Because each Coroplast strip has only 3 or 4 attachment points, this can be a pretty flexible way of doing things. But I've found that "made to measure" length strips for specific locations work really well, and go up very, very quickly. Also, if one section fails, it can easily be repaired or replaced.
I originally used this idea for hanging up strips of incandescent Christmas lights. It was far easier to hang up pre-fabricated sections that had only two or three hooks or attachment points, compared to trying to hang the wire using cable hangers or whatever. With a male/female connector pair on each strip, everything plugged together very fast. In some cases, the strips could be joined with short jumpers made from 1 inch - 2 inch pieces of stranded insulated copper wire, and this works just as well with LED's.
Aside from ease of installation, the other big advantage is ease of storage. When the strips are taken down, you're left with a bunch of "sticks" that can be bundled up with a couple of velcro wire wrappers (the kind used when coiling and storing long extension cords).
This system doesn't "fill the bill" for every part of putting up LED's. But it sure speeds up many parts of the job and, using a "reaching stick" many of the strips can be hung up without a ladder.
I know people have done similar things with other kinds of supporting materials. The nice thing about Coroplast is that its a) cheap, b) easy to cut (razor knife) or put holes in (drill/soldering iron), and it's very lightweight but still rigid even for long sections.
If you've covered this idea in one of the many other videos you've put up, my apologies for duplicating that. I've had good results using the Coroplast material - it's stood up very well over several years of use, needs only a few hooks per section, and it doesn't cost a bomb - leaving more money to put into newer LED's and "fancy" lighting controllers.
The funny thing is that I already knew all that stuff but I watched your video anyways, I like your style of talking and explaining!
Thanks for the guides,keep going!
Cheers from Italy
Thanks Ed!
:)
Ditto, I’ve been writing my own code for controlling ws2812s for a while now. Watched the whole video. Love your style 👍
Haha, same here. Nothing really new for me, but I'm a long time fan of the Doc, so watched it anyway :)
Oh my gosh, I finally got everything to work! In case anyone is dumb like me, I mistakenly thought I could set everything up and test the lights before actually running the program on the board. However, you can't even turn the lights on without the board serving up the program. It really is as easy as this video suggests!
I'm glad you got them working! Great work!
Great timing for this video. if we are all smart, We'll put lights up now while the weather isn't full of snow and -15deg (Celsius!)
Amen!
So many hours of work to get to this level of simplicity. Great job and thank you!
:)
it has taken 2 years for me to make it this simple :)
at 3:32 you promised to update the video description if a certain LED strip fell off of your house. I'm curious!
Came here looking for this info myself!
This is one of the best led tutorials out there. Thanks, this will save people lots of time and stress!
That's what I was hoping for!
Thanks for the feedback. :)
I am in love with this guy already, great work, great tutorial, easy to understand and very cool attitude
Wired up our NodeMCU board to a prototype board today. Fired it up and it worked like a charm!! Thanks so much. Got a "cherry picker" rented for next Tuesday to finish the outside install.
We put addressable LED's on our pinewood derby car programmed with an Arduino pro mini. This was WAY easier and almost had me wishing that we'd gone this route for his car. It would have been super cool for him to change the effect at the derby.
Thank You So MUCH for this video!!!
I was watching your old video for a month now, learning from the videos you recommended, buying components and making slow progress because I'm not familiar with "arduinos'' , but this video is much , much easier to follow.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart ! seriously ! :)
You made my day :)
Thanks!
I agree! I was following the old vid and was getting ready to try but nervous. After this one I said, oh this is a lot easier than I was thinking!!!
@@HelpMeFlyIt Same here, purchased everything I need and just waiting for them. This videos is great
Wow. One of your videos randomly came up on my screen and now I'm hooked. Great advice and easy to follow. Will be going through the rest of your videos over the next few weeks. Thanks.
Awesome!
there are a few other LED videos but this one gathers together things I've learned.
I should probably make a "getting started" playlist.
That's a good idea!
Thanks
@@DrZzs literally followed your video and got a trial set up and running. So now it's just having a play with the app to see what it can do. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for breaking it down into a manageable chunk. I’ve loved all the videos people have done (eg TheHookUp) but feel I need to take notes while watching the videos. This makes it MUCH easier to just jump in and do it and then get more specialized afterward.
And thank you for making it an edited version. I know it’s much more time consuming than the live streams but it makes it so much easier to follow along.
Excellent!
I did it for you man! :)
this is by far the most easy to understand tutorial
Thanks!
Great video! Really, alot of people say they are making easy to follow and halfway through they get impatient and rush things. This vid is VERY informative and so easy to understand... You my friend can definitely teach and train! Looking forward to more of your videos. Thx 😉👍
flattered.
thank you
Thank you finally someone doing it right, how to show others how to use these. Thank you
Dude! This is so awesome! Found your video on Sunday, supplies came today and I am already up and running! Thanks Mucho!
Holy cow!
That's the best success story ever!
Thanks!
Brilliant.. Just a brilliant, simple instruction that's easy to understand with ALL relevant information too.. thank you.. !
You're very welcome!
A tip for anyone new getting into this, like me from last year. I highly recommend you stay away from the strips, unless you have a very steady hand and experience with soldering, as the soder pads are very tiny and close to each other.
It's a massive headache, and honestly it was really hard to stay motivated because of how frustrating it was. It can be done, however be prepared to be extremely patient
Good video DrZ. I am doing 3 archways on my driveway with led strings and pvc pipe, 3 strands apiece with a total of 450 lights. But a wire stripping tip, do not remove the insulation all the way, try and leave it on the wires. then spin the free piece of insulation in your fingers, to twist the wires together. The insulation will slide off and the wire will have a smooth uniform twist.
I’ve been needing this exact video. I know I could do a project like this but as much as I’ve tried to search and find everything in one place, so far haven’t been able to find it. This helps immensely!
yay!
I made it because I also spent a lot of time searching for all this information. I'm very very happy it's been so helpful!
Come back and show us what you make!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. One of the best tutorials I've seen. Very, very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
I've been scouring youtube/internet for "permanent holiday lights" this summer. BIG THUMBS UP to Dr.Zzs, WLED, QuinLED, The Hook up.
All great info. Got a bunch of material in August and installed it. Was happy with it. Upgraded with Dig-Uno in Sept. and latest WLED version. It just makes me smile. Hours of playing with effect on WLED. WLED continues upgrades and expands the effects. Wizards of LEDs. Dr.Zzs -Thanks for the tutorials. They are info packed, interesting and fun.
Thanks man!
That's one of the best compliments I could ask for :)
A finished my lower level roof line following this guide. 600 leds, 2812b strips, 5v. Running the lights on a cell phone charger.
Waiting for my digiquad to inject power and replace my nodemcu.
Thank you for the easy to follow tutorial
Loved this! I do wish we had a better video showing the installation of the brackets and understanding how to go around corners and whatnot. I'd love that. Can't find a video anywhere on that stuff.
This was great. I had a quote from a lighting company of $14,000.00 to put permanent, programmable lights on our house. Holy cow! We are going to try and simplify our system with inexpensive lights and learn as we go! Thanks for the simple information!
Join us on facebook and/or discord to get a lot more help and info.
I like your presentation, like you said you keep it simple + full easy to understand descriptions, I like that ;)
mission accomplished!
You do a great job explaining everything clearly enough for true beginners to follow. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
MAN this was an absolute GEM of a DIY lighting guide, i feel way too confident now lol Thanks man you got my sub for sure!
Love the idea but what do you do when you want to paint your house? Take it all down and re-mount... tape it all off?
Thank you thank you thank you! I have been thinking through how to accomplish this with my non-existent programming skills and you are making it accessible!
Thanks to you and Rob, I now DEFINITELY have that house LED set up you speak about here. You guys lit the fuse.
Thank you Drzzs. I installed my first strip as a test today and it went great. I think I’m now ready to go full scale.
Awesome! Do it!
DrZzs I put up 2 16ft WS2811s strips around the garage and then I restrung my wreath with 3 sets of LED strings. I tried running them all off the same MCUNode, but it was working out that great, so I added a second MCUNode for the wreath. All working great now. Now I’m just playing with WLED to get the best effects. I’m trying merry Christmas and colorful and switching back between those two for right now. May add some more into the mix.
Loving the videos, this is so much easier than the old video, I stumbles across these videos last week, I am planning to get this set up before xmas, Big thanks from the UK
Excellent!
Glad to hear it!
Thank you for this, got everything hooked up last night, only thing I had to do was search and download the drivers for the Node. Now the project of figuring out the best way to mount everything.
EDIT: Drilling holes in j-channel is a pain but definitely makes a clean look.
You are great!! Thank you for your time. So glad to have found this, and so glad you’re so good at making videos, well done thanks
So did they ever fall off of the house???
i bought the exact same strip and they fell off in less than 24 hours
Awesome! Great explanation! Can you show us how to add the power injection to the 5v strips?
My husband sent me your channel as I’ve always wanted to do this.
Dude! You just became my number one source for getting started with my home LED display. Over the last few years I've viewed several other fine sources where the learning curve and (most importantly) price was out of range or required outside research for the inexperienced (me) and underfunded (also me) regular dude (story of my life).
You immediately broke down the price and made it easy to start designing in one short video. This video should be considered the template for all who want to help others start designing home LED light displays. I'll definitely be back. I believe your mission to bring this hobby to the masses will be accomplished. Great work!
Such a good video! Earned a new sub from me for sure. I’ve scoured forms, websites, videos on UA-cam, etc learning about this stuff for several years and this is BY FAR the best introduction that I’ve ever found. Simplifies everything in great way but still enough depth so that people can start asking the right questions. It can be daunting for someone that knows nothing about this type of stuff but wants to learn. A+ job. Can’t wait to watch more of your videos.
Excellent!
Thanks!
my box got wet and fell apart,, so there goes my home for a light display !
This is one of the best, most thoroughly, and easily understandable DIY into to LEDs nd controllers that I've ever seen. Thank you!
Perfect! Hoping to play with this tonight. Gonna slap it on a NanoLeaf clone I printed a while back as a first try.. excellent timing since it's 11/11 today.
After watching your video, I feel like I just watched a video sent from my future self telling me to invest in Apple in the 80s. The type where nothing is left out. I know everything I need to know. Amazing video! Great job. Onto your next one.
I need something like this for my house
Yes you do!!
What a great video. Telling al you need to know in a relaxed way and understandable for everbody. Best I have seen sofar. Great job!
This was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much. I feel much more smarter now.
It's actually possible to damage integrated circuit chips with static electricity by touching them without discharging first. All the professionals use a wrist strap with a snap-on wire that's connected to an electrical ground, but touching a grounded electrical appliance or a plumbing fixture prior to touching a circuit board will do the trick. If you don't run a humidifier during the winter months, your furnace can dry the air enough to make static electricity a common occurrence.
I'm just going to throw in a tip for anyone watching, if you want something very simple to use and easy to set up, Twinkly makes app controlled strings of 150 to 400 adressable 5mm RGB LEDs.. They're powered by a small WiFi controller, so you just scan your house with your phone camera in the app to adress all the LEDs in the correct layout. The controllers talk to each other, so you can put together several strings with no problem. Then you can create effects as if your house was a display in its own, going from one corner to the other, across several strings. They're around $80 for 150 lights or 12 meters, and $120 for 250 lights or 20 meters.
I've been using WS2811 strings and WS2812B strips powered by Arduinos for years, but I'm going to try these out this year since they're a lot more simple to control across several strings, and makes it easier to create a uniform effect across the whole house. I'm going to try the NodeMCU and experiment with it, so thanks for the introduction to it! I haven't settled on what to use for this years Christmas light display, but I'm going to try different setups.
Cool.
Once you have the LEDs hung you can experiment with the controller options.
Try out WLED. You can also easily sync the effects to every string. I'll show that in the next video.
Thanks for the tip about Twinkly.
Thank you so much! I want to add LEDs to some of my woodworking projects but could not figure out the power.
So now I know match 5v to 5v or 12v to 12v and compute the number of amps and add a few just to CYA.
I just subscribes. I'll be seeing ya. Thanks again.
A good place to ask this question is with the Pixelheads on my Discord Channel: discord.gg/8gvF67h
Help! I just got my nodes and lights and I’ve connected my node to both my Mac and pc and it won’t pop up on the serial port section on the epshome flasher. Is there something I’m doing wrong?
im having the same problem!
I’m having the same problem
Martin6pack I figured out that u have to try multiple micro usb cords because some r purely power cords and others have power and data wires that connect and communicate with the computer
Martin6pack try a few different cords in ur house and then mark the one that works
Chase Kessler and Ben Eisenhauer, I also found out you need to download a nodeMCU drive so that the computer recognizes the node. At least that’s what I did and I got it to work. My lights now work! Hope you two are having similar luck
This is a fantastic video. Answers all of my question/concerns. Thanks so much.
First off thank you for this video! I watched the first and almost started to do my own but held off. Then after this one I took the plunge! You made it so easy!
I went with a custom setup of individual led lights plugged together. I am having one issue:
If I plug all 100 lights in (each light has 3 leds) everything works. If I put in a 3 wire extension in have flickers when changing colors. If I put it at the start or end issues start after the extension. I do solder the connections so that is not it.
Could it be the gauge of the wire or quality of the wire?
I want to run a 30ft 3 wire cable from power supply to first light and also have a 10ft and 5 ft cable that will need to be between some of them.
I want to make sure that would solve the issue since it will be more $$$$. I have learned a lot of what to do and what not to do on this setup.
Thanks again!
ah yes, you are suffering from data signal degradation. The LEDs are expecting a 5v data signal but the esp chip only puts out a 3.3v data signal. That's fine if the signal doesn't decrease any further, but if you have a small wire, or a long wire between the control board and the first LED then you'll get that flickering.
There are a few options to fix it. If you are savvy with electronics you can get a logic level shifter, but that's a more advanced method. You can get a dig-uno controller like this: drzzs.com/shop/dig-uno but that cost $25. It's the Cadillac of LED controllers.
The easiest and cheapest (hence the one I recommend) is to use a "sacrificial pixel". You put the first Pixel right next to the control board with a very short thick data wire (at least 22g). That Pixel acts as a voltage booster. Once the data signal hits that first pixel the voltage is bumped up to 5v. Then you can run your 3 wire extension between that first Pixel and the second one way far away.
If you use the sacrificial pixel, there is an option in the WLED software to Skip the first LED, so it won't light up and it won't throw off the look of the effect on the rest of the lights.
I could have saved myself a lot of typing and just given you this link: ua-cam.com/video/ZFO_QOBG9Bs/v-deo.html
Who would have thought it is this easy to get friggen cool LED lights. Thank you for this video and all others!
I bought 3 packs of 12v string LED's and the DC converter. Neither the lights nor the NodeMCU would start up with jumper wires throughout the setup. I switched the wires going from the power supply to the converter to some 18ga I had lying around and that seemed to do the trick. With an enclosed power supply (12v, 5a) and no power injection between the three string packs there is degradation and discoloration on the last string. Fortunately, I purchased two power supplies in my order and the bare metal at 30a has no issue. I will probably order two more strings and use these for a Christmas tree. I really hope I won't need to inject power.
One more tip to all, make sure you cover all the power injection wires because they are live!
I was waiting for you to mention a logic shifter for the 3.3v signal of the nodemcu to 5v normally required for the led strip signal. Was this a skip on purpose or a slip?
No, it wasn't a slip. I've never used a logic level shifter and I've not had problems because of it. If you keep the length of the data line short between the nodeMCU and the first LED, there won't be an issue.
@@DrZzs by short that can be less than 1 foot in some cases less (depending on the board and LED), if anyone wants to mount the control box and PSU somewhere else the logic shifted 5v signal will easily travel several feet / meters allowing you to mount the PSU and MCU somewhere tucked away.
Ah ha! I had been wondering this too, and I was guessing it just tends to work; I think hobbyist electronics tend to be a bit forgiving these days.
please update the Win10 Exp. I had to update the drivers for the board to work. besides that, this is a really cool video! Thank you so much for putting it together! cheers!
Can you recommend waterproof strips I’m having a tough time figuring out the right ones for individual color changing?
Looking forward to the next video. Thanks DrZzs
Thanks. Ya, I think a lot of people want more WLED info.
wow, thanks for clearly explaining and very well put together vid
I was in the state of knowing how to play with smaller LEDs strips but didn't know how to scale up to a full house sized show, the way you explain is so reassuring that yes what I was planning is correct.
Having trouble connecting to the app my WLED doesn’t show up when I try to add it.
You might have to install the drivers for Cp210x - I got them here and installed the universal windows drive v10.1.9 www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
I already had my Home Assistant stuff setup, but wanted to give WLED a try. It was super easy to setup, anyone can do it. I switched over to it, and now going to integrate into my HA setup. It's super easy, my kids can even change the lights. Thanks Doc!
Excellent!
WLED is a big improvement. I don't usually undo something that's working but this is one of those rare cases when the upgrade is so substantial that I can't NOT do it :)
This is SO well done! Thank you so much for putting it together. New years day 2021 and my resolution is to have this set up for halloween.
My man!!!!! Perfect video brotha thank you for the understanding and info!!
This is gonna be my 2021 project!
me too
Amazing intro to the world of customizable leds. Easy to understand and excellent information i need to do this now, no excuses.
Awesome!
I'm here to help. I'll be doing videos and streams about LEDs the rest of the year I expect. Get started and come back if you get stuck.
My wife just looked at me like this -_- and walked away. I don't think she likes your channel, but you just got a sub from me! =D
I'm all set and ready for the next video.... I got a 12Volt power supply, a string of Rextin 2811, NodeMCU ESP8266, 12v to 5v converter, WLED application,..... hooked it all up and gave it a try..... No Smoke!
What 12V power supply did you buy for just one string of the 2811s?
If someone is really serious about this a falcon controller (www.pixelcontroller.com) and xlights is the way to go
That is very true. This is pretty simple compared to all that.
Yeah, the extra cost is will worth it for the Falcon controller
Thank you for taking the time to do this video. It really helped me as I felt overwhelmed on where to start. I'm going to be testing out some things right away!
i only have to say for this : Awesome , you are like a yoda but for hassio
Ha!
Too kind you are, yes.
Add a decoupling capacitor to the data line. We were getting a lot of flickering without one. Took us hours to figure out what the problem was.
Does this solve flickering even when data is going 4in before first led in strand?
@@djw6490 not sure exactly what you mean. But my problem was that all the lights were flickering, and the solution was adding a 680pF ceramic capacitor. I wired the capacitor from pin D4 to a ground pin on the microcontroller.
@@mwagner1996 my lights flicker random colors even when its on solid color. My question is would putting the capacitor on there help when my data travels four inches from my nodemcu to my light strand
@@mwagner1996 also do you know why this works does this help stop like interference or something I'm not very knowledgeable in this area so if you could tell me much appreciated
@@djw6490 it's possible it could work for your short cable as well. Although, mine had a 10ft long cable going to the first led. As for why this happens, Im not certain, but my best guess was that the string of lights had some inductance that was distorting the signal, and that adding the right amount of capacitance canceled that out. I discovered this solution by simply touching the bare metal of the data wire with my fingers. Since our skin capacitance, touching it was enough to get results for me. Then I used a cheap ceramic capacitor set I bought on Amazon and tried different values until the flashing stopped. We also had flashing colors when it was set to a solid color too btw, so I'd give touching it a try. If that works then you know a capacitor will fix it. If it doesn't work, a different value capacitor could still be worth a try.
RIP people who can't hang christmas lights or have a computer or fingers.
LOL...these type displays are far more work then that. Heck putting the lights up and wiring it up is the easy part. Custom programming your music to end up with your desired result is the difficult and Very time consuming part.
Hey there, great stuff! I am just starting to plan my setup now and wanted to see if you have any key information that should be updated based on time passed? The vinyl j-channel you show is no longer available, so I am going to explore other options. I will post some details with my solve and pros/cons when i get it going.
Holy shit dude, when it was still October, there was alot of Christmas stuff on sale in America, like seriously man. 😂 (I'm from America.)
I know. it comes out before halloween over here. it's nuts.
Awesome video for beginners... would love to see how you have powered each portion on your house... showing how many strips, voltage type, and how/where you connected power. also would give a great view on how many NodeMCU's you used.
Cool.
I can do that.
Remind me if I don't include it in an upcoming video or stream.
Brilliant video......really easy to follow....thank you.
I am a licensed electrician in NY and work with a lot of standard LED strips (single color) ive been trying to teach myself how to work with the different types of multi color ones and how to advertise for things like you're explaining in this video and this is an amazing video really simplifying the process, well done!
Excellent!
I love getting endorsements from real Sparkies
Ordered parts last week, arrived today. Up and running in under 30 minutes. This video was excellent! Thank you very much for getting me started in the world of WLED!
DrZzzzs, thanks again for helping me with my lights a few years back. My lights are still working great and my neighbors enjoy all the different patterns on the holidays. I've even programmed a few new patterns myself. Looking forward to seeing your next set of videos. Keep them coming... I'm still looking for that Scarlett and Gray pattern to show up in one of your videos ;-)
More videos will happen.
The Scarlet and Gray will NOT happen ;p
Is this still relevant or is there an updated version??
THANK YOU!! My family bought a holiday symphony tree, and it has a bunch of rgbs ... and last December the circuit for it bit the dust. My mom was so sad because we couldn't return it. Luckily I'm good with technology, maybe I can program it and bring it to life once again.
The WS2811 strips are the best, they are individually addressable unless you buy them from a cheap Chinese supplier. And like you said, minimal voltage drop.
I haven't seen ws2811 strips that are individually addressable (just strings) but I don't doubt you've found some.
It sure is nice to be able to use 12v.
Saw this vid some time ago, ordered everything on Aliexpress and just finished the set up.
Thanks a lot!
Do you need a controller for each strip?
This gets the basics of connecting the parts to get a string/strip lit up. 👍💪👍 If memory serves, viewers can springboard from here to a video or 2 on how to actually get the patterns to follow roofline features. It's not as simple as just stringing LED segments together. There's a bit of planning involved.
You got it right Amigo!
Video 2 is in the works. :)
Voltage drop has to do with resistance in the wire.
Yeah, the LED itself is irrelevant, the voltage drop comes from wire length.
Can you do a video in depth on the power injection. That is what keeps me from doing this. I don’t understand how to keep the voltage from dropping.
Nice tutorial, do you have something that shows you how to use the setup you just finished?
For the ESP32 it's the RX2 (GPIO16, IO16) pin for data.
Excellent step-by-step tutorial. I did have an issue getting the serial port to show up when trying to flash the nodemcu. After trying 3 nodemcus, 2 laptops and several micro-usb cables, I finally realized I didn't have the driver installed. Once I got that, it was smooth sailing.
Where is the driver for it? I have the same issue. What is the driver called?