A tree topper using an ESP32 and Adafruit DotStar LEDs #DotStar #ESP32 #3Dprinting
On the Adafruit forums, Colecago posts a spin on the LED star tree topper using an ESP32 microcontroller and Adafruit DotStar multicolored LEDs. From the blog post:
This year I decided to make a Christmas tree topper for my wife as Christmas is her favorite holiday. It involved designing a small circuit board for the LEDs, reflowing the LEDs in a toaster oven, designing and printing the topper, writing code for an ESP32 to drive the LEDs, and creating a small website to easily control the lighted topper.
To start with, I wanted to use some new LEDs I hadn’t used before. The APA102 LEDs (also known as Dotstar) are a little more forgiving on timing than the standard Neopixel LED. I purchased the LEDs and a breakout board from Adafruit. Unfortunately I didn’t like the layout of the board as it had only one power and one ground connection which was not conducive to multiple LEDs as I’d have to share connections. I designed my own board with 4 connections on each side
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