Easiest way to slowly ramp LED strip?

[hunterbiden]

@2112

You can change the timing to speed things up. Divide all your times by 10 to make it go 10X faster. You'll have sunrise on 3 minutes rather than 30.

I'll try the sunset this way now.

Here's the wokwi project:

clock+led test - Wokwi ESP32, STM32, Arduino Simulator

Figured I'd watch the entire 30 minute cycle, maybe colors transitions would be worse if it was forced to do it faster was my thinking. It did work flawlessly. The default sunrise time is 6 am so I set the clock to 5:59 in setup. I didn't properly research how to set clock times yet, there seem to be several places to do so in the code. The only downside I see to this code is that if the power is off at 6 am, and therefore it misses the initiation of the sunrise, it will probably stay off until sunset. If I set the clock to let's say 8 am, the LEDs are off.

[hunterbiden]

@xfpd

Using your list of items, make a drawing (pencil/paper, MSPaint, anything) of your circuit.

How does this look?

There are probably still some mistakes in there. I just used an uno for now, if I get this right I'll try a nano with the logic level shifters.

edit:
Fixed one mistake.... I think.

[xfpd]

Your WS2812 will be in one strand, so the only connections you will need to do are the power, ground, capacitor Arduino data pin, resistor, and data-in on the WS2812.

[hunterbiden]

Isn't that what I did?

[xfpd]

Yes. The labels on all the individual WS2812 looked like they were getting connections... I thought you were going to use those connections, too. sorry.

[hunterbiden]

Yeah I think that's just how they look in the program I used. So this is all good? I guess then if I build this and put the code I have on it, I have what I set out to build and more. So I only need 2 types of wire: jumper cables and 18AWG? Do I need any equipment to put 2 wires on one point like on the VSS of the first LED?

Tomorrow I will look into logic level shifters and try to make a diagram with that included.

[xfpd]

Looks right. External power to the WS2812 with capacitor bridging power. Data line with resistor. I assume Arduino will be powered by the USB.

[hunterbiden]

Oops, no I don't want to have it always connected to USB. How about this? Do I need an extra ground as well?

[xfpd]

Depends on your power supply. Draw the circuit again. Write voltages, Use 90 angle wires. Do not cross lines at angles.

[hunterbiden]

Isn't it all 5 volts if I use an uno?

[xfpd]

What does the power supply you are getting say?

[alto777]

Thanks for posting the link to your simulation.

The wokwi has neopixels strips, so you went to a bit of extra trouble there.

Don't judge colours in the wokwi, it is one of the few things it doesn't do very well - realistic LED behaviour , be it plain LEDs or smart ones. You can get the logic right and maybe the brightness and so forth close, but real life will need some tuning.

If you are running the strip at full brightness for protracted periods, you may hasten their failure. One way to help would be to keep them cool, somehow. Another is to use more pixels and run at a corresponding lower intensity. Or twice as many and switch between ony even and only odd pixels. I'm sure chatGPT could work out the code for any of those.

As I have said, neopixels are very bright. You may find full intensity to be, um, too intense. I use neutral density gel sheets to throw over real pixels on the bench whilst developing; too many times been near blinded by a programming error.

It is handy IRL to keep a short sketch handy that you can upload while you are editing. I use one that shuts off the LEDs and doens't do any serial monitor printing, or mention it even. My sketches tend to go for that hacker effect with crap tons of text streaming out - chatty code when in final deployment is just sending all that to the bit bucket.

a7

[alto777]

@xfpd

Draw the circuit again.

Haha, yes. @hunterbiden might find pencil and paper to be more effective tools.

I played with a simulator that was not wokwi and it didm't have the same good way of keeping lines straight and corners 90 degrees.

The wokwi seems to inherit from real PCD design sofware, this one (tinkercod?) was more like using a vector drawing program. I did not see if the typical modifier keys worked, I just wired it up carefully as a rat's nest with no hope of using it for communication or informational purposes.

a7

[alto777]

@hunterbiden

if I get this right I'll try a nano with the logic level shifters.

I noticed this and scrolled back. A regular Nano since quite some time is a 5 volt part.

Here's a list of "nanos", there may be even more, but it shows the confusion that can happen:

1. Arduino Nano
2. Arduino Nano Every
3. Arduino Nano 33 IoT
4. Arduino Nano 33 BLE
5. Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense
6. Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect

The Vcc of the Arduino Nano (the plain "Nano") is 5V.

So don't write just "a nano" I would say, unless you mean the good old #1.

a7

[xfpd]

@alto777

good old #1

CH340 or FTDI? : )

[alto777]

I could say whichever comes on genuine Nanos. Which I suppose is not the CH340. TBH I have purchased real Arduinos and maybe as many clones or fakes or counterfeits.

Keepin' eveyone in business.

These days the main factor is how long will something take to get here…

a7

[alto777]

chatGPT's code isn't horrible.

Along with the fact that the special circumstances lighting would not be triggered if the minute in which they can be got missed, somehow (power failure during), I can see at least one other flaw.

And the way it has spread around the logic makes the code a bit harder to follow.

There are functions but no calls to them for adjustments. Yet.

But your prompt seemed to be enough for it to go on. I tend to not say must in the belief that a plain imperative will be interpreted the same way without, but I have always oddly engaged the AI as if it were a real person, all polite and thank you and no you idiot kinda thing.

I imagine you will have fun and maybe only trouble getting it to help you fix and enhance the sketch.

I'd ask it for advice how to test this without sitting around for 24 hours. I know how I would do it, and this sketch would be amenable to that. Let's see what chatGPT says. By which I do mean to imply Good Luck!

a7

[hunterbiden]

@xfpd

What does the power supply you are getting say?

I was planning to buy a 5V power supply with at least 6A.

@alto777

Don't judge colours in the wokwi, it is one of the few things it doesn't do very well - realistic LED behaviour , be it plain LEDs or smart ones. You can get the logic right and maybe the brightness and so forth close, but real life will need some tuning.

Useful information, thanks.

@alto777

If you are running the strip at full brightness for protracted periods, you may hasten their failure. One way to help would be to keep them cool, somehow. Another is to use more pixels and run at a corresponding lower intensity. Or twice as many and switch between ony even and only odd pixels. I'm sure chatGPT could work out the code for any of those.

I think just turning down the value for the brightness ID in the code I'm using will affect maximum brightness all throughout. You're right, I am pretty sure I am never going to need full brightness.

@alto777

Haha, yes. @hunterbiden might find pencil and paper to be more effective tools.

I'll give that a go. What is the purpose of drawing only 90 degrees corners though?

@alto777

I noticed this and scrolled back. A regular Nano since quite some time is a 5 volt part.

Ah yes I checked and saw that's true for the Nano and Nano Every. The 3.3V was only mentioned in this thread regarding the ESP32. Arduino's site says the 33 IoT has 3.3V operating though. I'll give up on the idea of wifi connectivity, no need to get ahead of myself.

@alto777

And the way it has spread around the logic makes the code a bit harder to follow.

There are functions but no calls to them for adjustments. Yet.

You mean this?

// Function to set the time on the RTC (call this function with new time)
void setTime(int year, int month, int day, int hour, int minute, int second) {
  rtc.adjust(DateTime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second));
}

// Functions to set sunrise and sunset times
void setSunriseTime(int hour, int minute) {
  sunriseHour = hour;
  sunriseMinute = minute;
}

void setSunsetTime(int hour, int minute) {
  sunsetHour = hour;
  sunsetMinute = minute;

This did confuse me. Also, there is actually a problem in there, there is a 30 second delay before it starts the sunrise. Possibly also in the sunset, just got home so I will test and try to figure out why. I did learn to use Serial.print which is helping enormously. Makes it so much easier for me to understand what is going on.

@alto777

But your prompt seemed to be enough for it to go on. I tend to not say must in the belief that a plain imperative will be interpreted the same way without, but I have always oddly engaged the AI as if it were a real person, all polite and thank you and no you idiot kinda thing.

Haha, I have no idea how it interprets my tone. I tend to engage it somewhat as a normal person, my reasoning is that maybe it will help it find resources more efficiently from posts of people who talk in normal everyday language. It probably doesn't make any difference though.

If I repeat the same prompt, it often writes a pretty different code, often even with a different appraoch. I'm going to try some of the others it made and see if I can make sense of them.

@alto777

I'd ask it for advice how to test this without sitting around for 24 hours. I know how I would do it, and this sketch would be amenable to that. Let's see what chatGPT says. By which I do mean to imply Good Luck!

I think I might be able to do that by changing the delay. I'm going to mess around a little more now. Wokwi is really great, I'm so glad you guys pointed me in the right direction.

edit: changing the delay wasn't it, haha. I'll try to find a way to do it before I ask chatgpt.

[xfpd]

@hunterbiden

purpose of drawing only 90 degrees corners

Easier to read (less chance of error) than lines crossing.

[hunterbiden]

@xfpd

Easier to read (less chance of error) than lines crossing.

Got it. I'll try one in paint later.

Anyone know if the wokwi timer is supposed to be accurate to the code? I have a delay of 1000 milliseconds:

  Serial.print(currentHour);
  Serial.print(":");
  Serial.print(currentMinute);
  Serial.print(":");
  Serial.print(currentSecond);

  FastLED.show();
  delay(1000);

Doesn't this mean that there should be 1 second between each loop?
The Serial.print timer runs almost twice as fast as the wokwi timer.