Adding colored LEDs

Hi Jessica,

Awesome job - thanks for sharing with us! From your pics, did you flip the original white LED's upside down? So now you should be able to run both them and your new RGB setup?

Bruce

I did flip it upside-down! I just assumed that since you had put them at the top, that was the right place for the to be to get the best contrast. 🙂

I could theoretically run them both, but I ended up leaving the original lights unplugged for three reasons: 1) The lifx z has the ability to do any white that I want, so there wasn't really a good need for the original strip, 2) you can see the strip clearly if you are low (i.e. laying on the couch, so I thought that might be distracting, and 3) I would have had to have made my hole even a tiny bit bigger to get the original cable back through once I threaded through the lifx z strip.

It is still there and completely intact if I ever need it; I just tucked the table end behind the hoop and the computer end over the support bars beneath the table. 

The lifx z strip is fully programable with the app, so I can have it turn on in the morning, dim at dusk and turn off when the table goes into night mode. The multiple zones of color and the move effect make it that much more incredible to watch. 🙂 

Jessica - does the strip have some type of standard connector to connect it to the Circuit board of the table?  Or is it no longer controlled by the table computer?

It is not plugged into the computer, so it runs entirely separate from the table. That said, it is very easy to program it for all of the same functionality (and more) as the original strip. And as a bonus, you can control it with a variety of smart home apps like HomeKit. 🙂

As the first person (that I am aware of) who added colored LEDs to a table, this is nearly identical to the approach I used to modify my end table.  The silicone sealant was loose enough for me to partially separate the drawing surface from the rim, and that's how I threaded the LIFX Z connector through.  I didn't do any drilling.  But with this approach, there wasn't enough space for both the LIFX Z and the original Sisyphus LED cable to thread through the slot, so I disconnected the Sisyphus LED cable.  But it can always be reconnected if desired.

Another comment I would like to make is that if you're going to cut the LIFX Z strip, you must make sure to do so only at certain points, as described in this support document:  Cutting LIFX Z.  If you do, you'll void the warranty on that particular strip, and the unused part of the strip becomes useless--to my knowledge, you cannot connect it in reverse, although I've not tried.

Finally, the operation of the strip does get a little weird because the LIFX app expects the strip to be complete when it is not.  Like a phantom limb, the app allows you to change the settings on the cut section, but it doesn't do anything because that section is gone.  But all these caveats aside, I will say that among all the solutions I've researched, the LIFX Z strips are the best.  They're extremely bright, the color is rich and saturated, and after a year of usage, I've not noticed any degradation.

There is a reboot process for the strip so it can figure out how long it actually is. 🙂

1. Unplug the strip power adapter from mains power.
2. While unplugged, add your strip extensions.
3. After adding strips, plug the power adapter back into mains power.
4. Press the button on the LIFX Z controller, for 1 second. The strip will flash, and 'chase' from the connector, down to the end of the strips.
5. All the strips will light up, and you can control the whole strip.

Jessica,

I cannot believe that I've been running the cut strip like that for a good ten months...  Thanks!  I modified my 3 foot table last night, and your photos were extremely useful.  I used a Dremel in two stages--first, to make a hole large enough to pass the original cable through.  This was the hard part, because you don't want to nick the cable as you're drilling.  While working, it helps to peel the fabric cover away and temporarily hold the corners down using tape.  Then I drilled out a hole just large enough to pass the LIFX Z connector.  The result was fairly clean (but I didn't take photos).  It is also superior to the way I modified the end table, since the drilling of the hole allows enough space for both connector cables to thread through, so both the original and LIFX strips are controllable.  I thought about reapplying silicone sealant, but decided against it, as everything is staying put already and there's no need; if any components break, I want to be able to replace them with minimal fuss.

The last modification I want to make is largely cosmetic, but my idea is to fashion a hoop out of a long strip of thin translucent (frosted) white plastic, and use that as a diffuser for the LED strips.  I'm thinking of placing it about an inch away from the strips, in the empty space around the sand field.  It might cut down on the light intensity a little, but if I ever get around to it, I'll report back with my findings.

Hi @Heropup (and @Jessica),

Thanks to both of you - Heropup for first posting this hack, and later, Jessica for reminding me of this color option hack and documenting your steps. I've by been playing with LIFX Z strips for more than a week now, and am pretty impressed. At first I was a bit skeptical - the whole "colored LED thing" has been around for a while, and it's usually done in a way that I find lacks subtlety (to put it mildly). I still don't think adding color to Sisyphus is essential, or even better - but the clincher (for me) is that the LIFX strips are capable of producing an awesome white (which you can dial in to your heart's content) - so you get full choice without sacrificing white. At this point, the downsides:

1.  added cost: ~$90 for the end table, ~$120 for the coffee table
2.  having to use another app to control your table's lighting
3.  needing two power supplies connected to your table

While #1 will always be a factor, we are now talking with LIFX about the possibility of getting special quantity pricing so we can offer it as an option for new tables, and a retrofit kit for those in the wild. #2 may not be for long, as LIFX has a full API (and we have an awesome community of coders, hint, hint...). And #3 may also be unnecessary, since except for our standard white LED's which are 12V, the tables run fine on 24V. (And there's really no benefit of running both the standard white strip with the LIFX).

We've still got a fair amount of planning and work to do before implementing full support of this option for both new and old tables into our production stream, but we're pretty excited by this development. Thank you both for instigating!

Bruce

This is GREAT NEWS!! I would love to help in any additional way that I can!

I also want to add that I usually leave it on a version of white —- in particular the day tracking one that subtly changes through the day —- but color is very nice for special occasions or particular tracks. 

Bruce, the same RGB+W strips are available for far less than LIFX charges and can and should be driven directly from the rPi (using a separate app is clumsy). I do LED projects all the time (typically using Arduino) and would be happy to collaborate if you wanted. In addition to fixed and based-on-rho-theta stock lighting modes and effects, I'd like to see certain tracks be able to take over the lighting for artistic effect.

My resume:

My RGB holiday wreath:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjPOFIJPyIw

RGB+W aquarium lights:  https://goo.gl/photos/6coaDx8tux7X7g326

P.S. Since rPi is on home network, it also could have some home control added to it (Alexa, Home Kit, Google Home, etc.)

Ahh, now I get your moniker :)!  All I can say is - OH HAIL YES! I know you're right, but it'll take some work. LIFX exists, and though crude, is the best out there (on Amazon). Your stuff is great - we will definitely be talking soon! BTW, Micah showed me how I could just say "Siri, make Sisyphus blue", and she did. Wasn't as ground shaking as getting my first email, but still.

Bruce

My thoughts are:

RGB+W strip (60 or more per meter)

Built-in modes:

• Fixed color
• Animated colors (gentle slow color changes)
• Based on ball position (rho, theta)
• Time-of-day (warm in morning, cool at night)
• Combinations of above

Also, ability for a track to take over the lighting.

Like every time-based medium (I can think of), the creative space is practically infinite. The reason I like the LIFEX Z is it's a ready-made, off the shelf product. But heck yeah, it would be wonderful to have a cheaper, more capable option that can tie into the Sis API. Micah just started messing with Fadecandy and Neopixels (RGB+W). It looks like there's a big limit with that avenue - it's not made for strips with more the 64 pixels (and that's for RGB, with white it's 48). You can run 8 strips, so it is possible to orchestrate things around a table - but it's suboptimal.

Do you use Neopixels or Dotstars? I'm assuming Neo, since you show an RGBW in your example. Would absolutely love to collaborate with you! What can we do to get help you get started?

Bruce

I've used both Neopixels and Dotstars. I like that Dotstars don't flicker as much (their PWM frequency is much higher), but at the time, the "+W" was only available in Neopixels. I'll have to check if that's changed.

In terms of next steps, I'll do some prototyping and share my work with you. It's a "hobby time" project, like creating paths was, so might move in fits and starts.

But my lovely wife just helped me clean up my shop and office and maybe now I can get more things done.

In my searching, I found a 2018 post on Ada Fruit's site saying something like DotStar + W is not planned. I think for Sis, faster PWM is probably not needed (unless you want to put your table on a swing or something and create POV imagery :). Understand this is a hobby project (and thankful to your wife!) - but do let us know if we can assist (like pay for any materials you need). Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Bruce

Wondering - are you using the ALA library? (Arduino Light Animation). Micah's been messing with some options, and it looks like a decent one.

For RGBW strips I'm using Adafruit_NeoPixel.h and for RGB strips I'm using Adafruit_DotStar.h or the FastLED library (which updates faster). Then I'm calculating all the animations myself. I hadn't heard about ALA; I'll check it out.

I just started messing with the RGBW neopixels last week so I don't have a lot of experience, but I found ALA when looking for existing implementations of neopixels, arduino and Rpi for network control. The fact that ALA had built animations was a huge plus, because I expected creating all the animations from scratch could suck up a lot of time.

Here are the libraries and docs I used:

ALA library

Web-Controlled LED Animations 

After working on this, our embedded sys engineer is pushing me to experiment with direct RPi control and remove the added micro. If this works well, I assume it could make for an even cleaner implementation. The final piece would be adding a dual voltage system so we don't need two power bricks.  

For reference - this is the library that our embedded systems engineer suggested:  https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x