u/Full_Opportunity8116

Built a cyberpunk-style ESP32 smart desk companion from scratch.

Features: • OLED analog + digital clock • Date, temperature & humidity display • Firebase-powered remote dashboard • Push notifications to the OLED • Timer + alarm system • RGB ambient lighting modes • Offline MP3 music player using SD card • Real-time synced lyrics display (.lrc support) • Browser-based music control UI • Wi-Fi AP mode for offline control • Dual-core ESP32 task handling • Automatic/manual time sync fallback

The whole thing runs on a single ESP32 with:

• SH1106 OLED
• DHT11 sensor
• RGB LED
• Buzzer
• SD card module
• custom web dashboard hosted on GitHub Pages

One button controls:

• clock face switching
• music mode
• alarm/timer stopping

Long press enables a completely offline music player mode where the ESP32 creates its own Wi-Fi network and streams songs directly from the SD card to your phone.

Probably the most overengineered clock I’ve ever built 😭

Built a cyberpunk-style ESP32 smart desk companion from scratch.

Features: • OLED analog + digital clock • Date, temperature & humidity display • Firebase-powered remote dashboard • Push notifications to the OLED • Timer + alarm system • RGB ambient lighting modes • Offline MP3 music player using SD card • Real-time synced lyrics display (.lrc support) • Browser-based music control UI • Wi-Fi AP mode for offline control • Dual-core ESP32 task handling • Automatic/manual time sync fallback

The whole thing runs on a single ESP32 with:

• SH1106 OLED
• DHT11 sensor
• RGB LED
• Buzzer
• SD card module
• custom web dashboard hosted on GitHub Pages

One button controls:

• clock face switching
• music mode
• alarm/timer stopping

Long press enables a completely offline music player mode where the ESP32 creates its own Wi-Fi network and streams songs directly from the SD card to your phone.

Probably the most overengineered clock I’ve ever built 😭

I got a ₹8 LED strip with only 2 wires (+ and -), connected it to Arduino UNO pin 9, and started experimenting with HIGH/LOW timing using "digitalWrite()" + "delay()".

Surprisingly, different ON/OFF timings trigger completely different LED animations/patterns. The strip has a tiny IC on it.

Here’s the data I collected so far:

HIGH (ms)| LOW (ms)| Result 5| 50| none 10| 50| 3,4 50| 50| 3,4 100| 50| 1,2,3,4 150| 50| 5 → (4,3) → (2,1) 200| 50| 5 → (4,3) → (2,1) 300| 50| 5 once → (4,3)x2 → (2,1) 500| 100| 5 → (4,3) → (2,1) 800| 50| 5 → (4,3) → (2,1) 100| 500| 4 → 1 250| 500| 1 ← 3 → 5 200| 700| 3,4 → 1,2 → 5 200| 1200| 3,4 → 1,2 → 5 150| 900| 3,4 → 1,2 → 5 60| 900| 3,4 for 5–7 frames, then 1,2 for 1–2 frames (observed using slow-motion camera)

Extra observations:

• PWM fading with "analogWrite()" only works properly at 255.
• Lower PWM values are mostly ignored.
• Seems like the controller IC detects power interruption timing / voltage thresholds.
• Different LOW timings seem to switch between different animation “families.”

Has anyone reverse engineered similar 2-wire LED strips before? Could this be some kind of power-line timing protocol or RC timing detection inside the IC?