NodeMCU v3 MQTT RGB LEDs Using JSON for Home Assistant

This project is primarliy a fork of corbanmailloux's repository esp-mqtt-rgb-led with a means of controlling LED Strips or neopixels.

After making my own RGB led lamp with a WS2812B Ring, a NodeMCU V3, some hot glue and half a bird feeder I wanted to intergrate it with home assistant.

I first tried with using a REST approch with HTTP requests but there wasn't an intergration in home assistant, so I was linked to corbanmailloux's repository.

Installation/Configuration

To set this system up, you need to configure the MQTT JSON light component in Home Assistant and set up a light to control. This guide assumes that you already have Home Assistant set up and running. If not, see the installation guides here. As well as these you also have to install the appropriate libraries in your arduino IDE

In Home Assistant

1. In your configuration.yaml, add the following:

   light:
     - platform: mqtt_json
       name: mqtt_json_light_1
       state_topic: "home/rgb1"
       command_topic: "home/rgb1/set"
       brightness: true
       rgb: true
       optimistic: false
       qos: 0

2. Set the name, state_topic, and command_topic to values that make sense for you. Make sure these are unique to every light unless you would like the lights on the same group.

3. Restart Home Assistant. Depending on how you installed it, the process differs. For a Raspberry Pi All-in-One install, use sudo systemctl restart home-assistant.service (or just restart the Pi).

The Light Side

For this I used a NodeMCU v3 which used a ESP8266-01 microcontroller. The NodeMCU is bigger than a raw ESP8266 but it has a voltage regulator and is breadboard friendly. You'll need an ESP set up to work with the Arduino IDE. This needs to be added to your boards manager, you can read here for instructions on how to do this.

1. Using the Library Manager in the Arduino IDE, install ArduinoJSON, PubSubClient and FastLED. After downloading all the zipped libraries you can install them with "Sketch" -> "Include libraries" -> "Add from ZIP"
2. Open the mqtt_nodemcuv3_rgb.ino file in the arduino IDE
3. Configure FastLED using the Data pin, color order, chipset and led number variables.
4. Configure the MQTT broker using MQTT server, MQTT username, MQTT port (optional) and MQTT password.
5. Configure your wifi connection with your SSID and Password.
6. Set the client_id variable to a unique value for your network.
7. Set light_state_topic and light_command_topic to match the values you put in your configuration.yaml.
8. Upload to your nodemcu board after selecting "NodeMCU 1.0".

Future Changes

As described in this adafruit tutorial they say that their LED manufacturer recommends using 70% of the 5v required. The best way to do this with a NodeMCU would be to use a logic level shifter for 3.3v to 5v

Wiring

With v3 of the nodemcu the RSV pin has been changed to be 5v, we can use this to power the WS2812B directly. Watch out because I don't believe that pin has voltage regulation to prevent a surge.

We can also wire it with a barrel jack and power both the node and the light strip with common positive and negative's BOTH MUST BE 5V COMPATIBLE