Lumispark is a custom battery-powered morning light system that wakes you up in the morning.

Version 1

09/03/2024 - 01/02/2025

Components and working

• The first version used a ESP32-WROOM development board as the main controller.
• This controller controlled an LED-strip's Red, Green and Blue inputs using 3 transistors and PWM.
• To power the LED-strip and ESP32, a LiPo batery (3.7V, 2000mA) was used, converted to 5V using a boost converter (MT3608).
• This battey was charged using a TP4056 charging board.
• Two buttons were provided for "on/off" and "snoozing".
• A kill switch was provided to disconnected the battery completely.
• A potentiometer was installed in between the 5V line to the LED-strip, to control the brightness directly.
• The system was put together using a prototype PCB.
• A 3D casing was made using 3D printing.
  
  
• The user can set a time to wake up. The system will wake up at that time and slowly light up the room.
• The user can snooze during this time to postpone the wake up light.
• The user can turn off the system. The system will synchronize time using WiFi, calulate when to wake up next and go into deep sleep.

Result

Learnings

• The buttons were on accident connected to the 5V line, frying the ESP32 GPIO pins.
• The potentiometer was not grounded.
• Wires were not shielded, shorting ground and source.
• 3D printed clamp did not work as intended.
• Using a prototype PCB is very messy.

Version 2

01/02/2025 - 03/12/2025

Improvements

• Code was improved using seperate drivers.
• The wake up method can now be configured : slowly light on/off or flashing light.
• A custom PCB was printed to house all components.
• A new 3D casing was printed, much smaller, with no long wires.
• Wake up accuracy was improved.
• BLE communication was integrated and can control using nRF connect (Android App in progress).

Result

Learnings

• The power consumption is way too high in deep sleep. (16mA)
• Don't use glue near electronic components.
• Don't put ground and source next to eachother on a PCB
• Try to put buttons on the PCB, making them float is not smart.
• The potentiometer burned out, because it cannot handle the current of an LED-strip.
• When designing the 3D cover
  • Take solder studs into account
  • Very small parts break off easily
  • Don't print too thick

Version 3

30/01/2026 - ongoing

Improvements

• Use of MOSFET's instead of transistors, to improve power consumption.
• Investigate the power consumption more using a power profiler kit.
• Components are carefully chosen.
• Solid PCB with buttons on it and testpoints.
• using an external RTC to improve accuracy.
• Better 3D design, more aesthetic
• The use of a smaller ESP32-C3 from seeed studio
• Using light diffraction to ease the eyes
• The battery output will directly go to the ESP32 improving deep sleep by a lot. (40µA)
• The LED will get powered by the same boost converter, but will be switched on/off using a MOSFET