This weekend’s project was setting up an “H801 LED WiFi Controller”, or at least beginning the set up. It’s a small box with terminal blocks either end to connect it to power and an LED light-strip, and a PCB inside with WiFi connectivity and a micro-controller. Once configured with your WiFi network details, you can use it to control and automate an attached LED light-strip. What’s attractive about this model is the low-cost, hack-ability, and flexibility of how it can be used.
To begin, I pulled it apart and soldered on some pins to the board to allow me to connect a USB to TTL adapter to replace the stock firmware with “Tasmota”, which unlocks a bunch more abilities…
Something I found truly remarkable with the process is, the firmware flashing can be performed entirely within a web browser! Here it is on my trusty old Thinkpad T520. The mains power isn’t connected, as the board is being powered over USB during this process.
I then disconnected that adapter and the dip-switch on the board for the programming mode, hooked up mains power again, and joined the WiFi network that the H801 creates. I popped in the credentials for my IoT WiFi network, restarted again, and up it came.
The next step is to connect up a 4-pin LED strip I have coming in the next few days, and put it through its paces…
Currently listening: Funkadelic - “Can You Get To That”
