After clearing out some junk, which included an old halogen desk lamp, I was thinking about putting in an LED light behind the PC monitor.
Then I remembered I’d bought a ring of 24 RGB LEDs from Aliexpress last year & hadn’t used it in a project.
I also had a spare Arduino Nano, and all the things I’d need to allow me to hook up a dial (potentiometer) for the light level, and button to cycle through different colour modes.
Here’s a quick video of it in action..
Parts
LED Ring – £2
Arduino Nano – £1.75
Breadboard & bits – £1.25
Wiring it up
It’s an easy one to wire up.. I took a few basic examples and mashed them together to get what I wanted from the design.
I’m not an electronics expert, and approached this like I approach software development; write it in manageable/testable chunks, which I can implement and test individually, then bolt it all together.
The code for the project is pretty simple.. I think the most complicated bit is handling the button, which needed debounce functionality.
And here are a few pictures of it in place behind the PC monitor..
