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Why

I love coding at night, but I couldn't find any cool lamp to place behind my laptop for some ambient light. So, I decided to create my own (inspired by Infowski at Warsaw Hacker Space).

What do you need?

Materials

• Old lamp (I bought mine from olx.pl, but eBay or your mama's basement should also work)
• ESP32 microcontroller
• WS2812B LED strip (length depends on your design; for my project, I used ~2.5m of 60 LEDs per meter strip)
• Power supply (capacity depends on the number of LEDs. Generally, you need 5V. For my project, 10A was more than enough)
• Micro-USB cable (to connect the ESP32 to your laptop)
• Jumper wires

Tools

• Laptop
• Soldering iron and accessories

Setup & Learning

There are many tutorials online on how to set it up, so watch them carefully to avoid some stupid mistakes. I followed this tutorial. You can also watch this Soldering Tutorial if you are new to this topic.

Building

Now, what you need to do is rip apart the old lamp and put inside it the LED strip, ESP32, and power supply.

Connecting

Then, you need to connect your ESP32 to the internet. Follow this tutorial.

Enjoy Night Hacking 😉

Your hacker light is ready :) Have fun building some amazing things with good lighting!

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