Controlling LED lights with GPIO Hackerboard
Hi,
I'm getting a little lost in this, so any advice would be appreciated.
I have a MK4S. I've impulsively ordered the GPIO Hackerboard along with the MK4S upgrade kit.
The plan was to have it control a LED strip while the printer is printing in the evening.
However, it seems more and more like money wasted. I just don't see any point in using this board.
Note: I use Home Assistant, and have a bunch of devices connected to it, including the printer (there is an official PrusaLink integration for Home Assistant). I really don't see any advantage of this Hackerboard, that I can't already (and much simpler) do with Home Assistant.
I know that the printer can't power the LED strip, and it needs an external power supply. That is fine.
But at least I was expecting that this board can act as a controller for the strip. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like it can't even do that.
So please correct me if I'm wrong. All that this board can do is send out a signal on the 3.3V pin.
Since there are no 3.3V LED strips (5V is the least I've seen, but they are typically 12/24/220V), I would need a relay or mosfet between the Hackerboard and the LED strip. So the Hackerboard would just send a signal to the relay, and the relay would turn the lights on/off.
I don't see how this is useful (at least in my setup). The Hackerboard seems completely redundant.
If I need to get a relay for this, then I can just get a Zigbee or WiFi relay, and have it control the lights directly, without the Hackerboard.
They cost less than the Hackerboard, and I have much more (and easier) options for automating it in Home Assistant, than I have programing the Hackerboard directly.
Am I missing something? Is there some way to connect the led strip to the board directly (without any relays in between)?
Or should I just cut my loses, order a Zigbee relay, and forget that the Hackerboard even exists?
Btw. I don't need anything fancy, like changing the colors on different layers, or somethings like that. I just need it to turn on the lights when it's dark, and turn them off after it's done. It's a single color LED strip.
RE: Controlling LED lights with GPIO Hackerboard
Alternatively, instead of a smart relay I could just put a smart socket, so I don't have to cut the wires or solder anything.
They cost similar to relays. Both much cheaper than the Hackerboard.
RE:
If you already have Home Assistant, you could use an ESP8266 or ESP32 flashed with the WLED firmware to control the LEDs and create some automations based on the status of the printer. If you google for it, perhaps somebody has already done that and documented it. I myself am using an OctoPrint plugin for controlling the LED strips based on the printer's status in my enclosure, so I have done no research for WLED in this context.
RE:
I don't need really need an ESP. I don't need any WLED control. It's just on/off. And the ESP defeats the purpose of the Hackerboard, same as a relay or smart plug or any LED controller.
HA automations are not a problem, that I can do in no time. I have nighttime sensors, doing everything in NodeRed etc. I don't need any help on that side.
But all of that makes the Hackerboard completely redundant. I has hoping to offload HA with the board and have this automated directly, without going through the network
RE: Controlling LED lights with GPIO Hackerboard
@zolakt I think you are missing a little point: the idea of the hackerboard is to trigger actions using g-codes. Whenever in the print job you deem it appropriate, insert the necessary code and trigger an action... blink the light, start a SaturnV rocket, whatever. Of course, if you want to just control lights independently from the flow/status of a print job, then you are absolutely right, the hackerboard doesn't help much compared to the other solutions you mentioned. I see the board as a SW to HW translator, then you decide what to do with a 3v signal...
Hope this helps...
Regards