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WS2812B LED strips are pretty cool. They are string of individually addressable RGB LEDs. This allows control of the color and brightness of each LED.
Fireworks are also pretty cool. On the downside they can be dangerous, scare wildlife, start fires, be expensive, illegal, etc. So, until we can afford our own fleet of drones we settled on this alternative. Like many projects, we stand on the shoulders of giants mentioned in the Ardunio source code below. Our main issue with their code was the effect was never changing so we improved mainly on that aspect; a few other things as well.
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Result:
The hardware is an ESP8266 and a WS2812B LED-strip with 300 LEDs (16.5 feet). We wanted to use a Ardunio Nano (because we had one), but due to the amount of memory needed to define the arrays for the 300 LEDs we went with an ESP8266 (because we had one).
You are also going to need a big pole.
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/*
* LED Fireworks Simulator
* WhiskeyTangoHotel.Com
* JAN 2024
*
* To vary the effect experiments randomizing variables
* within acceptable limits was done. Otherwise the effect
* just looks to same 'shot after shot'. Other mods as well
*
* Leverage from https://www.Daniel-Westhof.de and
* https://www.anirama.com/1000leds/1d-fireworks/
*
* Hardware:
* HiLetgo 1PC ESP8266 NodeMCU CP2102 ESP-12E Development Board and a
* WS2812B LED-strip with 300 LEDs (16.5 feet).
*/
#include <FastLED.h>
#define NUM_LEDS 300
#define DATA_PIN 5 // Labeled a D1 on the board.
#define LED_PIN 2 // This is the BLUE LED on board
#define NUM_SPARKS NUM_LEDS/2 // OG: NUM_LEDS/2
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS]; // sets up block of memory
float sparkPos[NUM_SPARKS];
float sparkVel[NUM_SPARKS];
float sparkCol[NUM_SPARKS];
float flarePos;
float gravity = -.008; // m/s/s
int launch_delay; // we later randomize seconds between launches
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, DATA_PIN>(leds, NUM_LEDS);
pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
// Delay untill next launch. Blink BLUE on board LED
Serial.println(" ");
launch_delay = int(random(5,30)); // Min>=5. Randomize secs between BOOMs.
//launch_delay = 5;
for (int i = (launch_delay - 5); i > 0; i--) {
Serial.println(String(i + 5) + " seconds to launch...");
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // ON
delay(500);
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); // OFF
delay(500);
}
// Slower timer done . Fast blink for ~5 seconds to warn of BOOM
Serial.print("5 seconds to launch!!!");
for (int i = 50; i > 0; i--) {
Serial.print(".");
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // ON
delay(50);
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); // OFF
delay(50);
}
Serial.println(".");
Serial.print("BOOM...");
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // LED ON
// send up flare
flare();
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); // LED OFF
// explode
explodeLoop();
}
void flare() {
flarePos = 0; // 0
// flareVel is how hight the BOOM is. 2.2 is max height
float flareVel = float(random(180, 215)) / 100; // Start: (180, 195)) / 100; trial and error to get reasonable range
Serial.println(" with flare height of " + String((flareVel*100)/2.2) + "%"); // How high is the BOOM?
float brightness = 5; // OG: 1
// initialize launch sparks
int blast_base = random(5,20); // number of sparks at blast base.
for (int i = 0; i < blast_base; i++) { // OG: int i = 0; i < 5; i++
sparkPos[i] = 0; sparkVel[i] = (float(random8()) / 255) * (flareVel / 2); // OG: (float(random8()) / 255) * (flareVel / 5); the / xx); is control value for BURST
sparkCol[i] = sparkVel[i] * 1000; sparkCol[i] = constrain(sparkCol[i], 0, 255);
//Serial.println(String(i) + " " + String(sparkVel[i]) + " " + String(sparkCol[i]));
}
// launch
while (flareVel >= -.2) { // OG: flareVel >= -.2 when to explode after peak BOOM. Bigger neg val means more fall before sparks
// sparks
for (int i = 0; i < blast_base; i++) { // OG: int i = 0; i < 5; i++
sparkPos[i] += sparkVel[i];
sparkPos[i] = constrain(sparkPos[i], 0, 120);
sparkVel[i] += gravity;
sparkCol[i] += -.8;
sparkCol[i] = constrain(sparkCol[i], 0, 255);
leds[int(sparkPos[i])] = HeatColor(sparkCol[i]);
leds[int(sparkPos[i])] %= 50; // reduce brightness to 50/255
}
// flare
leds[int(flarePos)] = CHSV(0, 0, int(brightness * 255));
FastLED.show();
delay(5);
FastLED.clear();
flarePos += flareVel;
flarePos = constrain(flarePos, 0, NUM_LEDS-1);
flareVel += gravity;
brightness *= .99; // OG = .98
} // while (flareVel >= -.2)
} // end void flare
void explodeLoop() {
int nSpark_var = random(2, 10); // Bigger number is less BOOM sparks
int nSparks = flarePos / nSpark_var; // OG: nSparks = flarePos / 2
//Serial.println(String(nSparks));
// initialize sparks
for (int i = 0; i < nSparks; i++) {
sparkPos[i] = flarePos; sparkVel[i] = (float(random(0, 20000)) / 10000.0) - 1.0; // from -1 to 1
sparkCol[i] = abs(sparkVel[i]) * 500; // set colors before scaling velocity to keep them bright
sparkCol[i] = constrain(sparkCol[i], 0, 255);
sparkVel[i] *= flarePos / NUM_LEDS; // proportional to height
}
sparkCol[0] = 255; // OG: 255 This will be our known spark
float dying_gravity = gravity;
float c1 = random(80,130); // OG: 120
float c2 = random(1,30); // OG: 50
//Serial.println("c1 is: " + String(c1));
//Serial.println("c2 is: " + String(c2));
while(sparkCol[0] > c2/128) { // OG: (sparkCol[0] > c2/128) As long as our known spark is lit, work with all the sparks
int decay_rate = (random(0,50)); // Slow to decay the blast sparks. (0,50) seems right. Bigger is slower. OG: delay(0);
delay(decay_rate);
//Serial.println(String(decay_rate));
FastLED.clear();
for (int i = 0; i < nSparks; i++) {
sparkPos[i] += sparkVel[i];
sparkPos[i] = constrain(sparkPos[i], 0, NUM_LEDS-1);
sparkVel[i] += dying_gravity;
sparkCol[i] *= .975;
sparkCol[i] = constrain(sparkCol[i], 0, 255); // RED cross dissolve. OG: constrain(sparkCol[i], 0, 255);
if(sparkCol[i] > c1) { // fade white to yellow
leds[int(sparkPos[i])] = CRGB(random(0,255), random(200,255), (255 * (sparkCol[i] - c1)) / (255 - c1)); // OG: CRGB(255, 255, (255 * (sparkCol[i] - c1)) / (255 - c1));
}
else if (sparkCol[i] < c2) { // fade from red to black
leds[int(sparkPos[i])] = CRGB((random(200,255) * sparkCol[i]) / c2, 0, 0); // OG: CRGB((255 * sparkCol[i]) / c2, 0, 0);
}
else { // fade from yellow to red
leds[int(sparkPos[i])] = CRGB(random(0,255), (random(200,255) * (sparkCol[i] - c2)) / (c1 - c2), 0); // OG: CRGB(255, (255 * (sparkCol[i] - c2)) / (c1 - c2), 0);
}
}
dying_gravity *= .99; // OG: dying_gravity *= .99; As sparks burn out they fall slower
FastLED.show();
} // end while(sparkCol)
delay(5);
FastLED.clear();
delay(5);
FastLED.show();
Serial.println("Effect Complete!!!");
} // end void explodeLoop()
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