u/AnnukkaArtDesign

I’ve had this beautiful handmade blown glass mushroom lamp since last year.

Fancy taking such a lovely glass object and whacking a white plastic puck base on it for the battery compartment. The designer must’ve been really pleased 🤦‍♀️
It also had all of three functions: on, off, or a six hour timer.

Anyway, I decided to open it up, investigate the internals, and attempt a brain transplant.
I made a CAD design for the base so I can fit an ESP32 in there, wired the lights, and added PWM dimming control.

Now I have a mushroom light with effects and full local control. His name is FunGuy *badum tss*

This is one of my projects that makes me grin the most. Probably because, as well as being completely whimsical and unnecessary, it’s also really delightful.
Because let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a monkey statue with a bowl of flowers that glow in a breathing pattern 😁

Just a simple 12V warm white strip and an ESP32C3.
I wired the strip maybe three months ago. I think it was my third ESP32 project - after the usual weather station and the a pwm fan.
I found this surprisingly difficult to get my head around - it was one of those “why is there GND everywhere?!” moments.
ESPHome side was really simple, giving the light that breathing effect was really quite simple after all the wire wrangling.

Two Rudsta wide, both from local marketplace for total of 85€, that I turned into one double-wide cabinet for mature Alocasias.
Lights are Spider Farmer SF1000D. I reverse-engineered the dimming and I now have an ESP32 wired to them, and Home Assistant running a morning ramp up and evening ramp down.
Zigbee sensors report humidity and temperature. From those, HA does a VPD calculation. Based on VPD, humidifier is on proportional control. I hacked a regular large tank humidifier to sit outside the cabinet with a pool hose delivering moist air.
Fans are just regular Arctic pwm PC fans, chained together, with ESP32 brains attached. They’re so powerful that I only run them at 20% most of the time, and 30% when the humidifier is on.
Evening ambient lighting provided by an Aqara T1 strip with individually programmable segments. That one was just plug-n-play, in other words so easy it felt like cheating.

Decided I wanted to make two Rudsta cabinets into one long one. Picture one is where I admitted I’m now committed.
Send help (or at least good vibes), I’m doing this alone 😂

You know all those reels where people are repotting their plants on a pristine, clean, table? Wearing their posh rubber gloves?
Seemingly making zero mess?

I’d like to submit this photo as an official statement of what real life sometimes looks like.

And yes the light is actually properly bright, I just wanted to have fun with low exposure 😁

The wait is finally over!! Those three weeks took forever…
Let me explain. That new addition, Tillandsia usneoides, aka Spanish moss, aka Bearded Fella, is finally out of quarantine.
I generally dislike introducing new plants. I had some nasty pests last year, so now, a three week quarantine is mandatory.