I want to add a light bar to my computer monitor, so that I can add a little illumination to my work area, and I’d also like to be able to change the color under certain circumstances (for example to indicate whether my microphone is muted or not/video is on or off while in a meeting).
I’ve seen a few discussions on a few different options, there was an Xiaomi model discussed, but it sounded like it didn’t integrate into HA. Another was a Philips Hue bar, but that was a little pricey (not a dealbreaker if it does what I want though)
Anyone have any suggestions? Big plus of it can be powered by USB from the computer so it’s only on when the computer is on (I have a lot of equipment, and power outlets are a scarce commodity in my office).
Sounds like you want to do this the hard way. (I.E. expensive).
But I like the idea of a light bar on the bottom of my monitors to illuminate the desktop. They can flash a different color when my wife presses the “dinnerbell” button in the kitchen, or any other trigger.
Here is what I would do: Start with a WLED controller, attach an LED strip to the bottom of the monitor, plug the controller into the strip and the USB connector into a USB port, then adjust WLED for whatever setup you want. Any WS2811 LED strip will work.
I’ve left out a few steps, but everything you described can be done cheaply. In fact the LED strip will be the most expensive part. You can change presets in an automation through a restful command.
Yes, but that’s a waste of a good ESP32. WLED will run on any ESP device.
I used six WS2811 LED strips (and two LED arrays) in our Halloween displays. They were all on ESP-01’s:
I “sealed” them into a baggie and ran 5V to each of the displays.
Since the yellow wire is GPIO2 I used the same module + ESP-01 to control servos to give some of our props motion.
I like the ESP-01 so much for quick, simple projects that I buy them ten at a time. You do, however, need a programmer with a UART to flash code to them:
Final note, the number of LEDs that whatever WSP you select can address is limited by the amount of RAM on the board. Three-bytes per LED. The ESP-01 usually has 1MB of flash, but some come with 2MB. You can drive a lot of LEDs with these things.
Do they get their name from the sticker shock? I could make the same thing for less than $10. $20 with the power supply. It would not be as pretty, but I don’t see $140 of value there.
It is very nice though, RGB backlight that syncs with Razer Chroma, temperature (and brightness adjustable) front white, sleek and sturdy build quality. Aliexpress got it to me cheaper of course. Comes with a wireless knob button. And someone hacked it to ESPHome already.
To save someone else a Google search, here is the ESPHome info I found for the Yeelight Monitor Light Bar:
It is a bit involved though, and requires replacing the built in ESP8266 with a new ESP32. I’m curious if it is possible to just reprogram the ESP8266 inside, but it looks like this was not attempted in this case:
As of writing, I could not find any information about which pins on the module are used for programming. I was under a bit of time pressure and wanted to use a more “future proof” ESP32 module anyways so I didn’t bother trying to program the ESP8266 module.
It isn’t mentioned, so I am assuming that the remote is no longer functional in this setup.
There is another discussion here about these light bars, and another ESPHome setup, which seems to have reprogrammed the internal microcontroller instead of replacing it. It also looks like the remote is partially functional.
Instead of ESPHome though, I see that the Yeelight integration supports the YLTD003 already. I wasn’t aware that this brand of devices supported “LAN Control”. It definitely makes them more appealing, as I had assumed you had to use some garbage cloud to control them.
A question I have though is: Given that it takes a bit more work (teardown) to setup ESPHome on this device, is there some advantage gained vs just using the stock firmware with LAN Control (and internet access blocked at the router), especially since ESPHome seems to have some drawbacks in this case (partial remote support)? Does ESPHome enable some greater level of control? Faster response time? Better wireless signal? Etc.
Or from the opposite side, is there a downside to the local control offered by Yeelight? From my standpoint, if the device is fully functional locally, and internet access is disabled, the firmware could not be changed later to disable this local access, so I would see no reason to use anything else (outside of personal preference).
ESPHome just makes it local and your own - Yeelight (if they don’t disable it via firmware update, like they did once with a specific lamp) has local lan control. To me currently flashing it is not worth it for missing:
the remote
Razer Chroma sync
various native integrations for voice assistants
I know the remote will be eventually reverse engineered, and I could do:
ESPHome → Home Assistant → Expose to Google Home + OpenRGB add-on - but that’s way too much overhead.
If it works it works. And too often my HA crashes, so lights are nice to be sync to Google / Apple natively without “sorry, I’m unable to connect to Home Assistant Cloud”.
