New HA user, but I’ve been considering hacking my gemstones for some time, as I’ve done it with multiple other smart LED strings. I got access to a couple gemstone pucks at one point and confirmed they can be controlled with WLED via an ESP controller. They worked with the following settings:
Chipset: SK6812 RGBW (order: RGB) 12 volt. I’ll attach the little diagram I made myself of the orientation of their connectors.
My plan- haven’t tried it yet- is to someday just splice into the outgoing cable from the gemstone control box, and basically put a switch on the data line so I can flip back and forth as wanted between having it controlled by the gemstone box, or by an ESP WLED controller. From previous experience with other products you need to keep the gemstones on their native power supply (+), put the controller on it’s own 5V PS, give them both a common ground, and then just have the data input switch from one to the other with a physical toggle. This also keeps the gemstones supplied by their existing power injections. As I said I haven’t tried it, but in theory I don’t think there’s any reason that won’t work, and it avoids digging into the brains of the control box.
That looks promising. Since the Gemstone has both wifi and bluetooth, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an ESP32 in that white case that could potentially be re-flashed with new code. But I like your plan to make a new controller rather than hack the existing one, so the Gemstone can be restored if things go wrong.
Can you tell if the white unit is outputting data at 3.3v ?
Interested to see how this goes. Would love to be able to program my lights to certain animations for different holidays and when sports teams are playing…etc
Internal Pictures
The white connector shows 24v
There’s also holes for a pin header at the top (near the micro usb port) that could potentially be used for reprogramming the board
On the internal pictures you can see the chip used:
you might be able to get some clues from the Chinese knockoffs. I’m willing to bet you can use another controller for the Gemstone lights, but one that works with HA is another question:
specifically, the LED lights are USC2904. So anyone know of a controller that has this control and integrates into HA?
EDIT: From what I read, WLED can support UCS2904 with the SK6812 RGBW - RGB preference. WLED is natively supported in HA since its ESPHome based. I might be able to try this on a small Gemstone Light setup I have on my shed (about 18 pixels).
This is interesting, I wasn’t even aware that there were knockoffs or that this might even be the manufacturer. I wonder how easy the controller would be to flash or what firmware the device comes with.
Have you spoken with the seller to see the price they are selling it for?
will take about 2 weeks or less to come. I’m going to try this on my shed Gemstones, its a small system with no controller, but 18 pixels only 1 colour, blue.
Basically, im banking on the fact that people are saying that you can control USC2904 lights via WLED with the SK6812 RGBW setting in WLED. I
Oh please post back after you try it as I am really curious if it works. I am guessing it will be wired so that the power and ground is spliced in around the controller to prevent it from burning out?
I might have to try a WLED controller I have around the house to see if it will work with the controller I have. I want to try to see if I can find a female version of the plug the Gemstone lights use here so I don’t need to cut the wire should I want to revert back to the original controller.
This is a dual channel one, but you can get the single channel one (or any other WLED controller).
Gemstone lights are 3 wires, 2 are power and one is data. If you wanted to try this, all you need is that data wire. Remove the data wire from your controller and put in the WLED controller. The controller also needs power so youll have to power the WLED controller. The one I bought can do 5 to 24 VDC. For your house, which may have hundreds of lights, use the existing power supply that Gemstones installed. All you need is the data wire.
This would replace your existing controller, i dont think you can use both.
Also, once you install this, the Gemstone app is no longer required, so thats gone and and so is all the patterns, folders etc. You’ll have to use HA and/wled stock patterns (there are thousands) or make the patterns customized yourself.
Another thing i wanted to mention, this particular model WLED controller has a built in microphone for audio trigger. You can use music to control the lights, too BUT it seems its not supported by WLED yet, so perhaps a future update will allow that.
so i now converted my main house to WLED (i first did my shed as a test with the dual controller). My home has 300 pixels and 2 power supplies. So far so good! Here’s some before and after photos:
I got my Gemstone lights 5 years ago, they didnt have the fancy case as they do now, but its dead easy either way because all you need to unplug the wires from the Gemstone Controller and plug into the WLED controller.
I did have to cut the a wire so that I can screw it on the WLED controller, so if I ever want to go back to the Gemstrone Controller, I would have to ask my dealer for that wire connector.
EDIT:
I have another update for you I can now get my gemstone lights to work with music! Just like the new Hub 2.
WLED is releasing the music or microphone compatibility software pretty soon but you can actually use it now as a release candidate software.
Here’s for example patterns that have a musical note on them will respond to any noise that the microphone picks up.
This is great. We just had Gemstone installed because I didn’t want to do all the crawling around on the roof, but I like the idea of using their lights with WLED.
Mine looks just a bit different from yours, I don’t have separate power going into the Gemstone hub. I’m honestly not sure how that hub is drawing power, I haven’t disassembled it yet because I don’t want to break it before Christmas and endure the wrath of wife!
I have the same two cables coming off the power supply and heading up to the lights, and I have the same 4 pin connector plugged into the hub, also going up to the lights.
I can get a better picture, but do you think it’s safe to assume that I can do what you did and then just pull additional power from the power supply to power the new controller?
Get yourself a WLED controller. If you want the sound reactive on get the LS8P. Get some 16 guage AWG wire, red and black would be great but not necessary as long your dont cross them.
unplug your power to the gemstone system, then you could cut the wire here, and just expose the copper in the wire:
label the wires if with tape by using the “output” graphic on the controller, one-by-one, and connect it directly to WLED controller, only 3 wires VCC(+), GND(-) and Data.
Then you will need power to the WLED controller, that’s another 2 wires, VCC(+) and GND(-). The Athom LS8P takes both wires on screw terminals OR barrel (like those DC adapters type).
Power it up and set it up in the WLED app, namely 3 settings:
Change LED type to SK6812/WS2814 RGBW like so:
Enable Power brightness limiter and set to 8000 ma (the Gemstone controller is 9 amps or 9000 ma)
Add the number of pixels you have
then add it to home assistant, and you’re done!
There’s quite a few patterns. I’m starting to really like the WLED app. For example, I can stand outside and play with all the setting, and if I like it, I just save it as a preset with my custom name and it saves everything i set and then it shows up in HA as a preset from a list to use in my automations.
give it a try, you’ll need to do some basic wiring (i,e, remove the old controller and install the new one).
Thanks, that does sound super simple. I’m going to see if I can find the other end of that connector so I don’t have to cut the wires and can easily take it back to “stock” if I ever have to have them come out and replace a puck.
I was planning to explore this in January, thanks for doing the experiment first and sharing your info!
Totally that’s what I went through when at first. But I just took the risk and everything is working well I don’t think I will ever go back to a gemstone controller.
Your picture doesn’t show the whole thing but you can get power directly from the power supply which is behind the controller that silver box. You’ll see at the top there’s a v+ and a v- you can use those to power the W LED controller
You should basically be connecting five wires in total, three to the power/data line and two to the power supply
Here’s the whole thing. I can’t figure out where the gemstone controller is getting power from. But there is an additional V+ and V- terminal on the power supply that I can use for the new controller.
