Michael Woodrum's MQTT-Powered Bar Lamp Takes Inspiration From Greene and Greene Architecture

Maker Michael Woodrum has built a wooden bar lamp, inspired by Greene and Greene, that's controlled via MQTT messaging from a home automation setup.

"I needed a lamp to fit a specific area," Woodrum explains of the project's origins. "I wanted to be able to control it with our home automation system and I like making things. The LED should not use energy when set to off. To do this I include a relay in my circuit that cuts the power to the LED output. Without this relay, a small amount of energy will be used at all times."

The heart of the build is a Wemos LOLIN D1 Mini board, featuring an Espressif ESP8266 microcontroller with on-board Wi-Fi connectivity. This is used to output a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal to a TIP120 transistor — "to control the power to the LED that the pin itself cannot handle," Woodrum explains — while power for the LEDs is passed through a relay to prevent "phantom power draw" while the light is supposed to be off.

Designed in Fusion 360 and inspired by the architectural work of Greene and Greene, the firm founded by brothers Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Greene in 1894 and best known for its work on "ultimate bungalow" housing, the lamp is built from walnut and cherry wood and hung suspended from the ceiling using steel cable.

"I just like that using my own designs, I know exactly what is happening," Woodrum writes of his reason not to simply purchase something off-the-shelf for his lighting needs. "Not to mention, I have better reliability with self-made lighting projects than purchasing [Philips] Hue lamps. They do not last long. Some do, some last 6 months and die."

Woodrum's full write-up, including source code, is now available on Instructables.