PoE Stack Light Controllable by Art-Net and HTTP

I remember stacking lights were a big product from the company Federal Signal. Always thought it would make for a good DIY project. Gladly, someone made it.

Stack lights are indicator lights that provide visual and audio indicators in manufacturing and industrial plants to denote machine status. They can be found online and come in many colors and sizes, but some of the high-end lights don’t come cheap and generally run $100 and up. So, as with any electronics, engineers and makers have found less expensive ways to create stack lights by building their own, which Tyler Ward did with his PoE Stack Light.

As the name implies, the PoE Stack Light derives its power via Ethernet, making it controllable via networks. “The idea for the project came when I was considering using power over ethernet (POE) for another project and wanted to understand how to implement it in something simpler beforehand,” Ward writes in his blog post. “At around the same time, I came across the affordable stack light units and thought it would be useful for a few applications, so decided to merge the two and build a POE-powered version.”

To construct his PoE Stack Light, Ward used an ESP32 microcontroller and created a custom PCB outfitted with an Ethernet port and PoE hardware. Most DIYers rely on wireless tech for controlling projects, but Ward chose to go the network route, utilizing the Art-Net communication protocol and the standard HTTP API. By integrating both into a PoE solution, the PoE Stack Light can be used with existing software without too much trouble. In addition, Ward has uploaded an extensive walkthrough of his PoE Stack Light for those who would like to recreate it, complete with links to schematics and the necessary code.