Caretaker RGB Dimmer (Spoeka)

This is a RGB light made out of a hacked lamp from IKEA(TM) called SPOEKA(TM)

I don't know if it is available anymore at the time you are reading this, but you can make a RGB light out of anything, at least if it contains PWM controlable red, green and blue lights. SPOEKA TM exists in two versions, one with a green/blue color and another one with a red/orange color. So to get a real RGB light, i needed to replace some of the LEDs. In the final version, i also removed the built-in rechargeable batteries. This mod is based on the hack by Dan Trandi . The original micro controller is removed and the three LED control lines are connected to an ATmega328. As with all Caretaker projects, remote control is established through a WiFly WLAN module.

I am using this lamp as a status display. Different colors can tell you if you have new mails or voicebox messages. If you are a software developer, you can use it to display the status of your last integration build.

Caretaker Spoeka 2 Caretaker Spoeka 4

Caretaker Spoeka 10 Caretaker Spoeka 5

Board and Schematics

Caretaker Spoeka Board Caretaker Spoeka Schematic

The circuit is quite simple. WLAN module - ATmega328 - Voltage regulator. To make it fit into the SPOEKA TM light, it is designed as a two layer SMD board. If you got some SMD hand soldering experience, this board is not difficult to build.

Download the Schematic PDF

Software

The firmware is currently quite simple. There are two comands MSG_RGB_WRITE and MSG _RGB_READ which let you write and read the color by specifying the red, green and blue color components.

Github octocat Project Files

The Caretaker source code is hosted at GitHub:

https://github.com/grappendorf/caretaker-devices

Subdirectory:  caretaker-device-dimmerrgb

It contains the source code and all Eagle (V6) PCB layout files.