These controllers can be bought for about ~$10 from Aliexpress which makes it possible to light an entire room with LEDs for about ~$20 if you wish. Controlling them is pretty easy too, besides the available Android application, the protocol is actually fairly simple.
The controller: RGBWW LED Strip Light WiFi Controller Dimmer ESP8266 (Android WLAN Control) 1 Port Control 200 Lights Output 5 Routes PWM Data
Here’s a simple Python script to generate a rainbow:
[python]
import time
import socket
import colorsys
# Only change the 192.168.0 part, the 255 is the broadcast address which is
# what we want
IP = ‘192.168.0.255’
PORT = 30977
# Light IDs (hint, the last few characters of the wifi name: HCX_). Don’t
# forget to add the 0x before
IDS = 0x235817,
# Wait for 10ms between setting colours
DELAY = 10
# Rainbow steps
N = 0xAFF
def set_color(r=0, g=0, b=0, w0=0, w1=0):
message = [0xFB, 0xEB, r, g, b, w0, w1]
for id_ in IDS:
# The mac is in reverse order
message.append(id_ >> 0)
message.append(id_ >> 8)
message.append(id_ >> 16)
message.append(0x00)
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_BROADCAST, 1)
# Convert to characters and cut the numbers to 0xFF
sock.sendto(”.join(chr(c & 0xFF) for c in message), (IP, PORT))
time.sleep(DELAY / 1000.)
r = g = b = 0
# I like rainbows
for i in range(N):
# Generate HSV colours
h, s, v = i * 1. / N, 1., 1.
# Convert HSV to RGB integers
r, g, b = [int(0xFF * c) for c in colorsys.hsv_to_rgb(h, s, v)]
# Set the colour
set_color(r, g, b)
# Turn the lights off again
set_color()
[/python]
