Now it is time to choose suitable components that fits into this new Space in the Lamp head:

Mikrocontroller: ESP32

The Brain of the SMART Desklamp.

I choose an Espressif ESP32. The main reasons

- It comes with WIFI, Bluetooth, BLE

- It is easy to integrate without need for a lot of components

- The ESP32 WROOM is compared to other Mikrocontroller easy to solder

- It is programmable in ARDUINO IDE :-)

- You may Update/Flash the thing Over the Air via Arduino OTA

- It is relatively cheap ~ 3$ 

- It is available as well in the chip shortage situation in Q1/Q2 of 2021 (unlike STM32)

- It has a 240 MHz Dual Core with  more than enough processing power for lots of crazy stuff :-)

Light Source: SK6812 WW+RGB

- In typical office situation you want a good light source. Good means. You may change the color and the intensity of the light.

- I guess next to Cats and Dogs video the Internet is full with RGB LED/MATRIX videos. You may stumble earlier or later across a WS2812B LED. Most of the project that I have found use this type of LEDS in their project. 

Each WS2812B LED consist actually of 3 different LEDs that can be controlled individually. The advantage of this LEDs are an easy possibility to change Light color and intensity/brightness with an Micro Controller. 

But the Downside of this WS2812B is: You need a lot of power for the light you need the most time of the day/night: "White Light". 

For this type of Light all three LEDs inside an RGB LED needs to be full power. This is quite inefficient.

- During Development Phase I ran across an similar type of LEDS. SK6812. The have the same RGB LED as a WS2812B but come with an additional built in White LED. So in case of White Light is needed you may need only a third of the power compared to the WS2812B.

- The Best comes at the end: 

• The footprint of the SK6812 is the same as WS2812b. 
• With a minor change in source code you may even use FastLED Lib to control this LED

One more Connectivity Source: LORA Long range Communication

- I am a big fan of LoRa Long range communications. This nice little Wireless standard is in my opinion ideal for smart home/or smart office applications. LoRa stand for Long Range. This powerful standard can transmit data not only a few meters. We are talking about kilometers/miles. So you can control your desk lamp with a cheap transmitter from far away. If you want to know more about this standard Please have a look here: Wiki

- This RadioFrequency standard is allowed free to use on various frequencies in the world. Please choose the one that is availible in your country and double check before transmission if you are allowed to transmit.

- For easy integration there is a module called RFM95 available. This prebuilt module comes with all the Balun, RF stuff that you may need for your Long Range transmission. All you need to do is add a proper tuned antenna

- In my region there is even a public free network avalible. This network is called TheThingsNetwork. This network is free to use in the community version and you may forward your transmitted data to a http server. Right now there is a new kid in town. You might have heard of Helium. This Silicon Valley based company offers a paid service for LORA. You may use the same module to communicate on Helium LORA.

So WHY LORA in a DESKTOP LAMP?

Easy ANSWERS: 

- The S in IOT stands for Security. Not everything that can be connected to the internet needs to be connected to the internet at all time with an open port.

- I thought about the time after COVID-19: Some Company do net allow you dial in IOT Devices to the Companies WiFi due to security RISKs. Once these IOT devices have been released to the wild nobody cares about updates or security issues. So why not have a very small bandwidth free wireless standard that can transmit data