The CircuitPythonukiah project
Setting up the CircuitPythonukiah is simple! Using a Mirco USB C cable, plug into the microcontroller board (the square board on the front) and connect it to your computer. The device will show up as a USB drive labelled CIRCUITPY. In this folder you'll find a file named secrets.py, in which you'll need to add a few pieces of information. You can open up this file using any text editor.
The first bit of information needed is your Wi-Fi name and password, which the CircuitPythonukiah will need toconnect to your network. Please note that this must be a 2.4 GHz network, as it cannot use a 5 GHz netork. The other piece of information needed is your ZIP code, which is required in order to grab the candle lighting times for your location. An example of this filled out looks like this:
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Alec Delaney
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
"""
`secrets.py`
============
Secret information for your menorah
* Author: Alec Delaney
"""
secrets = {
"ssid": "DreidelNetwork",
"password": "bagels&lox18",
}
location = {
"zipcode": "05873",
}Notice that everything is wrapped in quotation marks and that many lines end with a comma. Make sure that you keep it like that, or the CircuitPythonukiah won't function properly!
Additionally, there is a file named settings.py that contains optional settings you can configure. See the section below for what these settings do.
After saving these file with your information, you can unplug from the microcontroller and use the USB C cable to plug into the back of the CircuitPythonukiah base and connect the other end of the cable to a power source, such as a common USB charger brick.
The CircuitPythonukiah currently has two configurable settings in a file named settings.py relating to candle "burnout". This setting controls the behavior of the device with respect to letting the LED candles go out after an amount of time to simulate the behavior of regular candles. This will also let you watch the CircuitPythonukiah fully light up the following night. If this setting is off, the candles will stay on until the next candle light, at which point anotherLED will turn on.
The BURNOUT variable turns this setting on/off. To this setting, change the line to either:
BURNOUT = True
or
BURNOUT = False
The second, related configurable setting is HOURS_BEFORE_BURNOUT, and it controls how long the candles will stay on before turning off. For example, if you wanted the candles to stay on for 3 hours, you should have the following settings:
BURNOUT = True
HOURS_BEFORE_BURNOUT = 3Please note the specific capitalization of variables and values!
When properly configured, the CircuitPythonukiah will go through a connection sequence as it connects to your Wi-Fi network. During this sequence, it will slowly light up the candles sequentially to let you know that it is operational. If this turns into a flashing of the lights, please make sure your Wi-Fi information is correct. Additionally, try unplug and reconnecting the CircuitPythonukiah to the power source to have it retry the connection.
If conenction is successful, the CircuitPythonukiah should immediately begin operating based on the current time relative to candle light.
- If it is before the start of the first Hanukkah light time, the device will not light up any LEDs until it's time, at which point the shamash LED and first candle will turn on, accompanied by a small rendition of "Maoz Tzur" depending on your sound muting settings.
- If the device is plugged in during the holiday within the configured burnout time of candle lighting time, it will immediately light up and play the song depending on your sound muting settings.
- If you plug it in between the end of this time and the next candle lighting time (so, "HOURS_BEFORE_BURNOUT" hours before a candle lighting), the device will not do anything until the next candle lighting.
- After the holiday ("HOURS_BEFORE_BURNOUT hours after candle light for "burnout" mode or 24 hours otherwise) all the LEDs will turn off and remain as such forever. This means you MUST replug it in every year.
It is worth mentioning that it currently finds the candle lighting times for the current calendar year, which means the earliest you can plug it in and expect it to function properly is January. Hence, I recommend that like your other hanukkiahs you only bring it out just for the holiday and unplug and store it otherwise.
If any point the CircuitPythonukiah cannot retrieve the time from the internet as it operates, it is programed to quickly light up the LEDs repeatedly to alert you of a problem. This can be caused by a number of issues but a likely cause is that your Wi-Fi network is down. It is programmed to loop like this forever, so if it does not persist after lighting up for only a few sequences, it's possible that one of the services required by the CircuitPythonukiah was temporarily down. If all your Wi-Fi information is correct, you can try unplugging it from the power source for a moment, and then replugging it in to have it reconnect.
Please feel free to hack away at this project! It was built with love, and you are free to make any changes or improvements you want if you wish to. I would love to hear about or see any awesome modifications you make. Whether the CircuitPythonukiah is a new staple of the holidays for you, or an opportunity to learn a new skill, I just hope you love it as much as I did making it.
The only thing I ask is that if you want to distribute those changes, you follow the licensing I've set up for the project. You can find those in the public project repositories, and while I am not a lawyer, essentially:
- Do what you want with this!
- You can share these designs and code or any modifications!
- If you do use or share this, share it with the same licensing!
This is to ensure that the project remains perpetually open source.