On a whim I decided to add LED lighting to my desk hutch. I already had a reel of LED strips but nothing to control them. As I wanted to build a controller that afternoon, I constructed it from parts which could be purchased locally. The controller I made has an on/off switch and two knobs: one to control the brightness and the other to control the color of the lights. Here is how I built it!
This project required the following parts: two 10K ohm potentiometers with knobs, an on/off switch, a project box, a 5 volt power supply, a power jack, some wire, and a small Arduino compatible microcontroller. RadioShack sells the Arduino Micro, but I used a Teensy 2.0 I had on hand as it is a much cheaper alternative. Of course, you also need some programmable LED strips. I used some 5 volt WS2812B LED strips (similar to Adafruit’s NeoPixel strips). It’s also useful but not required to have some connectors for the LED strips so that they can be detached from the controller. I used some JST connectors from my project stash.
The first step is to make holes in the project box. I did this with my trusty Dremel. Drill five holes: two for the potentiometers, one for the power switch, one for the power jack and a one for where the LED strip wires will enter the project box. Once the box is drilled out, place the power switch, potentiometers and power jack into the project box. Solder the power wires to the components.
Next, I assembled the LED strips. If you are adding connectors to the LED strips, solder those on to the strips. If you’re connecting multiple strips, be sure that you bundle the wires together properly. I’ve found that using colored wire or marking wires with different colors of tape makes it easier to keep everything straight.
Next, solder the potentiometers and LED strips. Mark the data lines for the LED strip and the potentiometers so you know which wire corresponds to a given component. It makes coding the microcontroller easier.
Next, solder the microcontroller. Keep track of the pins and their corresponding data lines. When soldering the potentiomenter to the microcontroller, make sure to connect the potentiometer data wire to pins that can support the analogRead function. These pins generally begin with the letter ‘A’.
Now it’s time to program the microcontroller. The simple code can be found here. Update the code to reflect the length of your LED strip and the pins that correspond to your components. Be sure to test everything!
Once you’ve verified that everything works, tape up any solder joints so that there are no shorts. Close up the box and you’re done!
