Project Information
As part of my bunk bed set I built for my kids, I decided to also do a light on the wall above each head board, but I couldn't do just any old light, it had to be a wifi enabled micro controller powered RGB LED strip light! My wife would describe might describe this as "unnecessary" or a "waste of money", but as you, the astute reader can see, I really had no choice, and honestly a light as bright as a collapsed sun always inspires good sleep for your children.
I'd had my eye on Adafruit NeoPixel strips for a project for some time, and just recently a new Arduino microcontroller variant came out that was wi-fi enabled, the Arduino Yun. Someday I'll probably get around to posting a How to on instructables.com, but for this audience, I'll leave out the majority of the nerdy things I had to accomplish to have a light that will let me do any color on any LED-but it does provide a nice medium for various operating modes. I have a "night light" automatically timed mode that syncs time with a web time provider, reading light mode, and a visible alarm that slowly brightens when it's time to wake up.
The primary medium for this project was a piece of 8/4 walnut I had laying around the shop, I cut a number of grooves in the walnut to allow a space for the LED strip and wiring, then capped it with Aluminum to give it a modern look.
Hope you like it!
Here's some info about the bunkbed:
I'd had my eye on Adafruit NeoPixel strips for a project for some time, and just recently a new Arduino microcontroller variant came out that was wi-fi enabled, the Arduino Yun. Someday I'll probably get around to posting a How to on instructables.com, but for this audience, I'll leave out the majority of the nerdy things I had to accomplish to have a light that will let me do any color on any LED-but it does provide a nice medium for various operating modes. I have a "night light" automatically timed mode that syncs time with a web time provider, reading light mode, and a visible alarm that slowly brightens when it's time to wake up.
The primary medium for this project was a piece of 8/4 walnut I had laying around the shop, I cut a number of grooves in the walnut to allow a space for the LED strip and wiring, then capped it with Aluminum to give it a modern look.
Hope you like it!
Here's some info about the bunkbed: