nodeLED

Here is a picture of the parts that will go into mounting the nodeLED and the LED strip on my desk. It will be attached to my desk’s shelf with two mending plates and four small L-brackets. Originally I wanted to avoid screwing into the wood of the shelf. My idea was to flip the L-brackets so that they hang on the sides, but they aren’t stable or even long enough with my drawers on top. So after fandangling them around, I will now screw them in from under the shelf. Hopefully the screws can handle the weight, which shouldn't be too much. After that’s done, I’ll attach the aluminum corner L-strip which will support the LED strip and rest on a screw and nut on the end of the mending plates.

I went ahead and took the plunge and flashed a new nodeMCU. The replacement works just fine but I hope after a few hours it doesn’t do it again. Afterall, there are only so many extra nodeMCUs and it takes forever to order more. The only thing I can think of is that I left the heatsink off the regulator since it was running off 7.4v battery instead of the normal 12V supply. But the regulator would have been damaged, I would think. It’s a strange one!

This past weekend I had a chance to demo the nodeLED at the MakerFaire Hackaday meetup and at OSH Park’s Bring-A-Hack. I wasn’t sure if I would have power, so I decided to use a 7.4V LiPo I had from an old project. It wouldn’t be full brightness but enough to demo. During the first meetup, I left it running on the table but after some time passed, I noticed it was off and the regulator was quite toasty. I quickly unplugged it. Dead battery was my initial reaction. Especially after I had plugged it in again, the esp8266 LED seemed to flutter and go out. But by using the handy USB Tester with the DC Tester, I could tell the battery wasn’t dead because it dropped straight to <1v when plugged into the nodeLED. So something else was going on if the battery cutoff was triggering. Also, I didn’t get to demo it at the Bring-A-Hack! Bummer!

I can’t leave a problem unsolved so upon arriving home from the weekend away, I tested the nodeLED with a 12v wall-wart. Um yeah, I about burned myself on the regulator! I should've known better, especially if the battery was cutting out. I also noticed if I plugged the nodeMCU into my computer, the onboard user LED would only illuminate very dimly, also becoming a bit toasty.

The PCB has finally arrived and I can start testing and writing code. Here are some pictures of the PCB and a simple LED color test.