LL. LED lighting controller

LED lighting controller

Low voltage LED lighting controller offers numerous new and innovative possibilities of home lighting control and automation. Lighting may be controlled from a smartphone, tablet or home computer via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection, or via a IR remote controller.

Control module

ESP32 module with plenty of onboard RAM and flash RAM is more than suited for all the tasks mentioned above. If you are handy with soldering iron you may use it as it comes from the factory, otherwise I recommend buying one for development modules that include the module, USB to RS232 bridge and easy to solder contacts. I used a two sided prototyping PCB with standard 2,54 mm hole placement, which requires an 1,27 mm to 2,54 mm spacing SMD adapter, or you may alternatively glue an ESP module to the prototyping PCB to expose the module’s backside and then use pieces of wrapping wire to manually solder and route the contacts on the module to the contacts on the prototyping PCB, as I did.

IR controller and IR receiver

A universal IR receiver enables IR signal reception and decoding from various IR remote controllers. You may buy one at your local or internet electronics shop or reuse a controller from a broken or obsolete electronics device. I used a remote from an old but rarely used analog portable TV-set that had been rendered obsolete with the ending of analog TV signal transmission in our country, years ago. However, it is important to know that not all of the IR controllers would work with all IR receivers, or decoding software.

Dimmer and switcher

Though one may connect all the LED tracks in a room directly to a 12 V power supply connected to the power grid through an old-fashioned 230 V~ wall switch, such a solution is rather rudimentary and offers no brightness (and color) control. It also lacks ability to switch parts of the lighting on or off separately without adding more wall switches.

A microcontroller module is needed to provide brightness and LED segments power control functions to LED lightning installation. ESP32 module is powered with 3,3 V, but LED tracks need 12 V power supply at approx. 1 A to 3 A of current (18 W – 48 W) or more, of course depending on the length of a particular LED track, or if more tracks are connected in parallel. However, my amplifier is designed for max. 5 A of current. Though 2N3055 bipolar NPN transistor max. current is 15 A, its base current also needs to be increased and sufficient cooling for this must also be provided for BD243 driver transistor and LN317 voltage regulator to allow for higher than 5 A current.

See more technical details in the schematic below. You can download ESP32 firmware here.

How to start?

Build the circuit and connect the track lighting. Setup and upload the firmware from Arduino IDE. Get your IR remote codes and enter them into the demo code. Recompile in Adruino IDE and upload. Test the lighting. 

Disclamer

This project is a demo project, which I used for my implementation of LED lighting that I use every day. However, if you decide to implement it yourself, you take full responsibility for your implementation. The author is not responsible for any kind of damage or injury that might occur from using this build instructions or the attached firmware.