Breathing Life into Ornaments: The Magic of WLED, Home Assistant and ESPHome
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- Опубликовано: 7 янв 2025
- 🚀 Dive into the fusion of art and technology with me as I transform everyday objects into living, breathing pieces of smart art.
From a glass dragon that's more than meets the eye to plant pots that signal when they're thirsty, discover how to animate your decor using any data source.
In this video, I'll walk you through my approach to integrating modern technology with traditional art pieces, making them not only more beautiful but infinitely more useful.
Say goodbye to the era of sterile gadgets and welcome a world where your decor keeps you informed and entertained. Join me in redefining what it means to live with technology, and let's make our spaces smarter, one beautiful piece at a time.
LED Dragon Tutorial on my site:
handsonkatie.c...
Software mentioned:
Home Assistant: www.home-assis...
WLED: kno.wled.ge/
ESPHome: esphome.io/ind...
Yma o Hyd by Dafydd Iwan (a welsh anthem sung at Wales football matches that sums up our Welsh spirit beautifully!): • Yma o Hyd - Dafydd Iwa...
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#esphome #homeassistant #wled #esp32project #esp8266 #ws2812 #ws2812b #ws2811 #led #ledlights #ledlighting #rgblight #rgbledstrip #rgbled #smarthomegadgets #smarthome #smarthomegadgets #diy #diycrafts #diytech #maker #makers #makersgonnamake
nice to see someone that combines tech with traditional work in such a creative and sensual way, not tech against tradition but tech plus tradition.
Well, you wrote about it on your site under "thoughts". Please keep your wonderful mindset
Thank you! I try my best! 😊
Love the speech, love the text, love the project and the video production.
You pretty much keep ticking all the boxes on your content, Katie. Well done once again.
Thanks for sharing this super cool project!
Thank you Tony, that's a lovely comment - I've a complete amateur at this, so great to know it's in the right direction!!
[01:03] The Problem - Form vs Function?
[04:08] Meet the dragon 🐉 - Beauty in design
[05:35] Data Dafydd
[06:25] The hardware
[11:36] The software
[12:52] Dafydd in all its glory 🔥
_> No more (dr)agonizing_ 😉 _about phone apps that take multiple steps to open and gather data from._
Puns are worth triple points!! Love it! 😅
The convergence of art and technology is brilliant. Great video
Thanks! I have no idea why you have so few subscribers and views, your ideas are wonderful and thank you for sharing. It's perfect for a person with ADHD looking for innovative ways to make things better with novelty and style.
Thank you, that's very kind of you - I only started making videos earlier this year, hence I started at 0 fairly recently! It's great to connect with like-minded makers, so helpful spread the word! 🥰🥰
I've been using home assistant for a couple of months and esphome for a couple of weeks, so I have been watching a lot of related tech videos. This video really stands out with the whole tech-art fusion. It has given me a lot of ideas for future projects. Well done!
Great to hear! And thank you for the lovely comment, it's great to know it's helpful to people!
This is such a great channel, You have a great future ahead. Every video is informative, creative, and entertaining.
Now I know why your videos pop up within my feed. An absolutely wonderfully creative perspective of technology and its integration❣ Your perspective and understanding of the interplay of technology is beyond "out of the box" thinking. If you ever write a book, please include an electronic version🤞
Thank you! What a lovely comment, that's made my day! 🥰🥰🥰
Hey! You are super impressive! This video is really well done and your narration is smooth and polished.
Im disgusted at the amount of time I spend on my phone and I love the idea of bringing function to otherwise static artwork.
I’m also a creative and mainly do bespoke furniture. I look forward to more videos!
Thank you, that means a lot! ❤❤❤ I've got lots of other ideas, so keep watching!
Absolutely! You took a potentially dull how-to video and turned it into a captivating story.
I can't wait to see what you come up with next!
Agree 100% with Corey!
Perhaps you can also hang it up on the wall... like a clock and add an outer ring with an LED color for the hours, and another for the minutes while keeping all of your internal rings for your existing data. Just another idea :)
I love you!!! ❤❤❤ I love brilliant ideas, really like this. I could use this for another set of sensors - eg weather outside, car charge rate.... my mind is whirring!!! 😂
No problem! Keep whirring away, your videos have been great so far@@handsonkatie
Amazing work. Blending technology with crafts will make life more creative and fun. All the best.
Looking for your future videos
Is it just me or does audio cut off at about 6:25 ?
Luckily captions still worked. Loved the content and idea. You have inspired me to add some more HASS projects on the list.
I 'think' it might be just you - certainly works for me! Glad you enjoyed!!
Lol, I figured out what happenend. I was listening with only one earbud in my ear and for some reason from 6:25 there’s a part in the video that’s mono instead of stereo like the rest. 😅
That's an awesome way to elevate art, and it goes on my list for sure. Also, hearing you talk about upgrading your solar system made me think that you want Pluto back as a planet for some reason. Thanks for sharing, Katie!
Heheh! I had the same thought when I said that in the video, but that's kinda what it's called!! Still, I do feel sorry for old Pluto, we should give him a sympathy vote back in.... ;)
amazing creativity, this is where I fail. I have all the knowledge and skills but no artistic talent. No way id ever come up with this idea, its brilliant.
Of course you can, just keep watching and I'll try to infect you with some creativity!
Very interesting and inspiring. Keep the great videos coming!
Thank you, I'll try!! 😊
Ok. I watched the Luba videos and was intrigued. I thought kinda of baiting me with the shorts and shirt. I honestly genuinely think this channel is going to be great. Loved this video and the Open source home organization video. Great work for a young channel. Keep it up. I will def keep coming back.
Thank you - glad you enjoyed it!
What a creative project! I’m inspired. Also great pun on your shirt
Points for spotting the pun...! 🤣🤣
I kinda like the minimalist aesthetic of tech and prefer it over things like wooden desk, but that's just my opinion. Your creations are cool
Oh it definitely has it's place (like in hospitals and morgues... I'm just kidding 😂😂) - it can look really nice, if anything I like a blend of both - but I do wish there was much more variety in design of tech and less homogeneity! I'll make a futuristic, smooth gadget for you at some point too! 😊
In the PC case I'm building, this blend of both is what I'm actually hoping to achieve, so keep watching!
HI Katie, really like what you did here, it is beautiful, and I love how you present it as well. That really motivated me to do my own version! I am looking for the home assistant automations that make this work, however have missed where to find it - did you share it somewhere? I have been going all over the web and youtube, however cannot find the right solution.
Hey Richard, no I don't think I shared them anywhere as they're very specific to my devices (eg my brand of solar inverter, my WLED set up etc).
But happy to share any code snippets and more, just drop me an email on my site and I can get you into my discord channel and we can chat!!
@@handsonkatie - Thanks, that would be great. I left my email with a comment on your relevant page.
What a beautiful take on the smart home space, both very creative and technical. Also entertaining presentation too!
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
Two very good points at 6:26
Great video showcasing what can be achieved with a little creative spirit.
I'm not sure that it will be so easy to read the 2 "ring" displays so close together unless you go near to the dragon but the idea is definitely there!
Did you make the LED base from a string of lights or did you find a ready made circular string of addressable LEDs?
It's actually crystal clear to read - they're different colours so it really is instantly readable - the hardest thing (which I still haven't figured out!) is how to actually get the camera to show what the eye can see, it looks much more blurred on camera than in real life as LEDs are very hard to film! The LED base from from a series of LED rings that I soldered together - I posted a little tutorial on my site which shows it in assembly: handsonkatie.com/breathing-life-into-ornaments-the-smart-led-dragon/
@@handsonkatie The important thing is it fits your need! :)
Great video :) Your presentation and explanations is/are fantastic. While I knew my way around this tech, you gave all this an alive feel, rather than just providing steril explanations, like other content creators do.
One thing I don't understand, though... what exactly do you use ESPHome for in this project? WLED as the controller, Home Assistant to transfer/visualize the data... but ESPHome..?
(btw., while this is most likely not going to happen, I still wish there was a way to combine ESPHome and WLED, so that one could build an LED controller that was also capable of, for example, act as a speaker or transmit readings of all sorts of different sensors)
Hey! Thank you so much for the kind comments, I've only started a couple of months ago, so very much still learning what the heck to do, how to present and so on - so it's lovely to get any feedback! Good point on ESPHome - I was trying to more generically talk about the three bits of software as they are basically the 'Holy Trinity' of my smart home - almost every project uses a combination of the three to act as sensors, translate data, display information and so on, but I was conscious of going down a bit of a rabbit hole if I started going into how wonderful ESPHome is as I have 50-60 sensors around the house for all sorts of things!! In this project ESPHome is actually used for some of the additional periphery features I use on lights like this - eg I have BME280s around the house to sense temperature, motion sensors and lots more. So there's an additional esp chip with temp, motion, lux sensors in the hall that triggers further actions on the dragon - eg HA switches if off when it's bedtime and turns on in the morning to not waste electricity, but a motion sensor would turn it on if I came down for any reason. This actually also triggers lots of other stuff on the ground floor (eg smart picture frame and so on) - so I thought it's probably best covered in another video, rather than trying to cram it all into this!!
I agree regarding the WLED and ESPHome - they're both wonderful creations, but closer integration would only be a good thing! On a sort of related note, one thing I was pondering doing a video about was a 'universal sensor' - I've been increasingly creating just universal devices for each room that basically do everything - ie temp, humidity, lux, sound, air quality, motion, mmwave motion etc etc. This means I can strip repetitive code and components out of devices and just use a master controller to trigger all sorts of cool automations..... could be one for the future!
Thanks again for your great comments and hope this helps!
would love to see what you would do with a laser engraver/cutter, another miracle. awesome channel and website. how about a tour of your workshop.
...funny you should say that..... 🤭 Coming soon!
I'm using the same led rings to make argb lava lamps. Excellent video
Great idea!! They'll work brilliantly for a lava lamp effect!
Great video, I agree WLED is amazing!
Thank you! Oh you're right, I love it to bits!! 🥰🥰🥰
Wonderful what you've done to give *Dafydd* _("a Welsh form of the Hebrew name David, meaning beloved or _*_friend_*_ ")_ the attention he deserves!! By creating a functional ornament like this. 🌟 Maybe in the future he could - besides telling you the status of your in-home Fusion Reactor 🤣- become even more of a (AI assistant) *'friend'* by integrating speech commands?
.
You could even give him a compliment every now-and-then, like: 🔥"You are really 'on fire' today, Dafydd!" 😄 (Although never literally on fire, I hope 🙈- maybe integrate smoke detectors into Home Assistant, in case you haven't already, Katie? 😅)
AMAZING IDEA!!!! I've added this to the list - but he'll only roar or speak in Welsh I've unilaterally decided!! Smoke detectors - of course, fully integrated and on every floor... ;) I'll be adding CO2, Chemical and PM sensors in an upcoming video too, so I like the idea of Dafydd warning me when I need him too! 😄
wait there...... have you got ESPhome and WLED running on the same single ESP32 board??????? If so...... please explain how. I really need this as I haven't been able to find any write ups on combining WLED and ESPhome.
Hey! No, I've got many esp chips running! So basically I've got a universal sensor running in the hall (on a separate esp32) that detects temp, lux, humidity, sound, movement and so on. It monitors things like movement, so at night home assistant tells the dragon to turn off, but if someone comes down, then the sensor esp bounces a message to home assistant, that then tells the dragon to wake up. I do this as I have other devices in the same room that I can trigger (eg a 40" photo frame/calendar I made), so all handled by one device.
I doubt you'd be able to get both WLED and a separate ESPHome program running on a single ESP32 - sure it's theoretically possible, but given the cost of the chips, it's unlikely to be worth the effort!
I live next door to Illinois - it's a couple hours drive from where I stand currently.
Hopefully your delivery has arrived in the past 2 months 😊
😂😂😂 it has indeed, to be fair they were great and it was more the UK intermediary spinning a tale! Absolutely love the CNC though, been churning away my mad creations!!
Dafydd is a very cool dragon 😃
Genius idea with the rings, you've given me ideas for each plant pot now!
I noticed you had some nanoleaf stuff on your integrations... How do you find them? I wanted to use my panels to show wind speed etc but my nanoleaf is abysmal, to the point where it's unusable. So unreliable.
Glad to have inspired you! 🥰 Nanoleafs have been fine actually, pretty reliable - although for what you describe, I'd definitely go with WLED and do it myself! I've got a cool weather station project on my to-do list that give you some ideas - so watch out for that in future!
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Exactly what I've been trying to do and couldn't explain. Brilliant.
❤❤ ... Well I'm glad it's helped you! 😊😊
Wondering what hardware are you using to run HA :)
Just a stock Raspberry Pi 4b with 8gb and an nvme drive - works super smooth!
A you share what ESP case you used on the dragon light?
Yes, I designed one myself - I can upload it to my site if you'd like it?
@@handsonkatiethat’d be awesome
Here you go!! Quick tutorial and the 3d files for the case and the diffuser are linked in the relevant part of the article:
handsonkatie.com/breathing-life-into-ornaments-the-smart-led-dragon/
Hope this helps!
@@handsonkatie thank you!!!
You're using WLED and ESPHOME on the same device? Can we get a bit more detail on that?
I just checked your guide and it seems you only need wled not esphome, correct?
Correct! You don't need to have multiple devices, HA can talk to WLED directly - I do happen to use other ESP devices to control this device too (eg motion sensor that turns it on at night if someone enters the room, home assistant schedules the lights to turn on and off depending on the time....and I've even got it flashing when my solar system is outperformed by someone I've been having a joke with in an online community!)
Damn clever.
Hopefully I'm lighting up that picture often😂😂
🤣🤣🤣
"featureless and sterile" - Ok, I came here for a beautiful CNC'd walnut PC case, not a philisophical/existential crisis 😅 (P.S. More Whisperwood?!)
😂😂 oh don't you worry, as I covered in the video - once the cnc FINALLY arrives, there'll be loads to satisfy your desires!!! (PS they've since confirmed it's coming the week after next - so soon!) But enjoy the existential crisis in the meantime... 😂😂
Hello love, I loved your video, I don't understand what you're talking about because I don't know English but just seeing you makes me happy, I really like your shirt and how it looks on you, best regards my heart 😘❤️ I love you
your beautiful
This video
"Look at all those lifeless same looking items that you have? Phones, TVs, XBOXes... they are the same. And in nature there is so many beautiful curves and colors..."
The later video
"Hey look I put everywhere standard boxes of the same size and color, this is really cool! This is called order! Not that unpredictable chaos of nature."
= ))
Ignoring the fact you've misappropriated what I actually said (ie colour with shape). This is exactly right - ie it's basic colour theory. I don't want the 'boxes' to stand out, I want them to fade into the background, hence white is an excellent colour and organising is literally about order, not art! Each has its place!
No I perfectly remember that you want them to fade. = )
So this is not a bad thing that phones are the same? The main part of a phone or a TV is a screen.
And so the screen is what we use. And everything else should fade, so you can check your emails, or watch a show. = )
@@enosunim exactly right, but now watch a video for the latest iPhone, galaxy etc.... and see how they're described 😉
@@handsonkatie Ok I opend some viideo like "wow iPhone 15'. And they show screen all the time = )) There is some text about camera and battery, that it is water resistant. That's all. What did I missed?
Oh and Galaxy ad is so nice! A girl in a bus with chocolate, seashore, old fashioned cars... I liked it = )
www.apple.com/uk/iphone-15-pro/
How many screen folds does it take before you see the screen....? Your point may be right, but it's not what the Apple Marketing team are doing, so one of you are wrong.... ;)
Catherine Tate?