I was finally able to integrate my first pixelblaze nano V3 directly into a bedroom ceiling. It works really well. I used NodeRed to integrate it into HomeKit and it works fine. However, I need your advice. To turn it off, I’m currently reducing the lightning to zero.
The first problem is that the led strip continue to emit some light at very low level. Not something you can notice except if you are in a deep dark (my wife noticed).
The second problem is that the processor continue to compute the pattern.
Can I fixe that or should I go with a relay in front of the nano?
Thank you and sorry if my question is too basic.
Not too basic a question, it’s a real good question and was discussed as recently as last week.
I think the consensus was adding something in front of the PB/Power to turn it off (and thus have no power consumption at all) was the easiest. Could be any number of simple 110V switches, easily controlled by your Homenet.
That said, without doing that, to stop the light coming from the device when it’s “off”:
Make a pattern that is no lights on.
cover/hide the power led on the PB itself.
If that doesn’t solve it, can you show us how much light is left?
Thank you. Sorry, I tried to find my answer using the search engine but did not found the thread you are referring to.
What. a great product and smart community. I will had a switch in front of the power unit to limit power consumption and really turn it off.
To create a pattern with no light, may I go with something very basic such as
export function render(index) {} ?
The power led in not visible (hidden in the ceiling + Heat shrink tube so I don’t think it comes from the unit itself but really from the strip (first led I would guess).
Thank you again for your precious help.
PS : sorry Pico, non Nano, but very small anyway.
The problem with your pattern suggestion is that you should probably turn off all LEDs to avoid any having been left on from previous patterns. (LEDs continue to do their last command, so you want to explicitly turn them all down/off)
That might be harder with the Pico, less pins exposed and you’ve wrapped it in shrink-wrap (covering pads you’d have to solder to if one would work) and that also assumed you’d have a way to digitally power off the power and then somehow to turn it back on, separately.
So I’d add a real relay that Homenet can control. No pattern needed, cause no power.
There is no “off” control. Adding a relay sounds simple, but in reality, WiFi controlled mains relays are large - so while you can fit the pico in a light fixture, once you add a PSU and a WiFi mains relay, it’s getting pretty big.
I have added a relay controlled by GPIO26 to my PB standard - which works well, but I have to control it with a slider, as there is no switch control.
I also have a “blank” pattern that sends all 0’s if I want to turn the strip off, but leave power on (testing etc - when I don’t have the whole hardware set up).
Maybe this should be in suggestions, but what about, in addition to the global brightness slider, there was an on/off switch, which just sent all 0’s, then stopped writing the strip when set to off, and started up again when switched to on (with the current pattern).
