After seeing this tutorial on YouTube, I ventured out to Five Below. They are a retailer in the United States that sells things for around $5. I was surprised to discover how many tech items were on sale. I found tablet stands, speakers, and Bluetooth-controlled RGB lights. For $5! That’s incredible. The Lumin+ is a battery-powered, Bluetooth RGB light for $5. Did I mention that it was $5?
Stuart Patterson, maker extraordinaire, figured out the Bluetooth protocol that the lights are using to set the colors on the light. You probably figured out what happened next… Stuart connected the light to the latest CheerLights color using a Bluetooth bridge built from an ESP32 microcontroller. The ESP32 has both a Wi-Fi radio and a Bluetooth radio and is the perfect device to bridge the CheerLights API to the Lumin+ light. Stuart shared the source code and a video tutorial so you can replicate this build.
Here are some features of this project:
- Real-time color updates using MQTT
- Easy Wi-Fi setup using AutoConnect library for ESP32
- Wi-Fi to Bluetooth bridging (a great project for other Bluetooth things around your house)
I really like how plug-and-play this project is. For $5, you could build a CheerLights display for someone in your life.
Thanks for sharing, Stuart!
