LAMPy: a connected RGB lantern

[lampyz]

Hi!

I'm excited to share a small project that I just finished.
It's a battery-powered lamp made from an ESP32 board and a WS2812 LED strip. Thanks to ESP-NOW connectivity, multiple lamps can be synchronized together.

Here's a one-minute video demo: https://peertube.wtf/w/4fkG5xx9H4uidoZgCSko7b.

Since I'm so used to writing fully unit-tested code for my day job, I couldn't do otherwise for this project. I added a simple layer of mocks, which allowed me to run tests and view code coverage using standard CPython tools. I don't know if anyone else is doing this; at least, it worked for me! The source code can be found at https://codeberg.org/LAMPy/LAMPy.

As for the hardware, I tried to keep things simple so that it would be easy to replicate. I'm not sure if I succeeded... In any case, I wrote a full write-up of the build process: https://lampy.codeberg.page/.

It's a fun object to carry around! Let me know if you make one :)

[peterhinch]

I notice some of the code uses WiFi. How does the ESP32 manage to communicate when it and its antenna are sealed inside an aluminium tube?

[lampyz]

I used the flat antenna that comes with the Seeed Studio XIAO boards, so it's actually taped outside the tube :)