I thought this might be interesting and/or helpful to someone. The only reason I think this is because about 3 years ago I had an idea. My old pool lights had carked it. I looked around for replacements and was going to be up for about $1000 to replace. I also needed a controller.
Of course the controller was a standalone type with a kitchy little button thing to press. I didn’t need another damn remote - nor could I justify spending that amount of money to replace lights. What’s wrong with swimming in the dark anyway?
I pulled out the old lights and following my lifelong habit - I pulled them apart to see how they worked.
It seems it was just an array of leds with three wires leading back to the power supply and controller.
A little bit of googling found some lighting projects done by people at home and they were using a thing called home assistant. Bit more googling and I was hooked. ONE SYSTEM to control everything without cloud spies - SIGN ME UP.
So the project really began then.
First I had to ensure that home assistant was installed and running and could do basic things I wanted. Plenty of hours in shed - learning rudimentary linux commands - watching guys like BURNSHA and BRUH. Loved the in car videos.
Lots of frustrating times with enough success in between - whoever thought “hello world” by mqtt could be so joyful?
Then a bit more frustration - I wanted to future proof and was hearing about plenty of rasbpi issues with sd cards limitations. On to a dedicated intel NUC. Learnt that I shouldn’ use Ubuntu server and now have a very stable system that has had no downtime in the last year. This is an intel NUC with a 120Gb ssd drive, 8Gb ram, running Ubunutu 18.04 and docker with hassio installed.
Anyway - the pool lights.
So - how to recreate these lights.
The original in-wall lights fit into a recessed 65mm pipe. The light housign has a shape like a mushroom with a body that slips into this cavity and the head then is siliconed against the pool wall. It is not necessary for this to be watertight as the lights are supposed to be fully encased. On inspection of the old ones i could see where their manufacturing process allowed water to seep in (eventually this is why the lights destroyed themselves and the controller)
What king of light to use? I eventually decided that a 12 led neopixel ring would do the trick. Simple 3 wire control. The length of cable run worried me (about 8-10 metres for the longest wire run). I was assured by the people I purchased from that they will still work - maybe they may lose some brightness due to voltage drop.
Now how to control them. I was just discovering and playing with esp01 at this time. I liked their small form factor. I did not however imagine the amount of hours of frustration these buggers would give me. I tried to read up on how to use them and soon got lost in the myriad of threads about flashing and serial commands and all sorts of electronic mumbo jumbo that was way over my head. If I can say here that I am past 50. I have some knowledge of computing and undersand basic electronics - connect red to red and black to black.
The ESP01 swear bubble continued for about 1 year. Then I researched more and found people branching into similar lighting projects (not pool ones) and they were using more advanced esp modules being nodemcu among others. Back to ebay and more chinese parcels were on thier way.
WORD OF ADVICE FOR NEWBIES - ensure that if you see a good project online and they have success with switching lights using their device - BUY EXACTLY THE SAME BLOODY DEVICE.
The myriad of versions of esp modules out there are amazing. Each board has there own idiosyncracies and when you start flashing and trying to use input/output pins you want the ones you choose to be the same as the guy who made it work.
I was now totally absorbed now and knew that I would conquer this thing. Given the amount of money I have sent to China it better bloody work. (I was still way under the original horrific budget though)
As I was proceeding HA was growing up. Better versions and more integrations appearing each month. I was really getting into this. I sidetracked at this point. Bought some sonoff devices. Flashed them with espeasy (another 3 month project room slugfest - helped by beer). I was then able to connect them to some outdoor lights and hey presto - HA turns on lights. Inow had the backing of my wife who loved that lights turned on when she came home. Simple things…
Of course being me - I have about 30 projects on the go at any one time. One of these became essential to my electronic discovery and that was brewing my own beer. That’s another forum.
Back to the lights.
I now had some neopixels. A working knowledge of flashing both espeasy and tasmota onto esp devices.
What device to use? I ended up using a nodemcu as I wanted to be able to control 3 lights in total in the pool. Multiple pinouts required.
Espeasy or Tasmota - each has their own benefits and issues. I ended up with Tasmota. It just seems to be more solid on the wifi connections and the new tasmotizer is a godsend.
Now to the housing. I thought I would just encase the neopixel ring in resin. I need a certain size mould though. Dr google led me to a great video on making your own mould using just builders silicon and cornflour. This worked a treat and I was able to make a mould by encasing one of the old lights I’d taken out of the pool.
I then inserted my neopixel into the mould. Poured in my resin and waited about 3 days for it to set. Took it out of the mould and saw some little bubbles inside but didn’t think much about them - it was going to be underwater anyway. Here is a piccy.
Connect back to nodemcu and test - damn the thing wasn’t lighting on all led’s. Some discussion with others led to the conclusion the heat given off by the curing of the resin or some twisting of the neopixel ring by the same curing has affected some of the led’s.
So next plan.
I then thought - I’ll encase the neopixel ring and connections in clear builders silicon. This encasement will then be set in resin to the final shape. I had enough clearance from the edge of the neopixel ring to have a layer of silicon and about 5mm resin.
IF YOU DO THIS - ensure that your silicon is set. when it is applied thickly - covering a neopixel - it may take 7 days to fully cure inside.
I then set this into resin. Waited 3 days and took it out.
Now for the final test.
Used the old classic pc power supply conversion to give me a working voltage. 5v feed into the nodemcu, pinout to the data in on the neopixel, 5v feed to the neopixel (going through a capacitor to lessen voltage spikes) , all gnds connected.
Power up - add to hassio through tasmota. The light is just loose in the pool at the moment with a lead coming over the edge.
WOOOHHOOO - pool light.
It switches instantly. it has now been going for about 3 days. i’m waiting for about two weeks before I pull the cable back through the existing conduit. Then tidy up the switching box (all in a sealable clipbox at the moment).
Knowing what I know now - I can build more pool lights for under $50 each. $18 nepoixel ring. $6 nodemcu, $10 resin, $3 silicon. A few bucks of solder, capacitor and that’s about it.
Boy I love this electronic gadgetry when it works.
sorry for the length of this. I’m happy to answer any questions.