RGB Catear Build Instructions

C3CAT with a cat ear headband around the 'A'

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This guide aims to explain in simple terms how to assemble the c3cat catear build kit. To follow it, you need soldering equipment, a heatgun, a pair of striping pliers as well as one of our build kits.
If you did not get a hold of one of those kits, take a look at our BOM.

The general project assembly looks like this where each of the components must be connected via soldering points.

┌─────┐                          ╭───╮
│ ESP ├┄┄╼ ╾┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄│   │
└─────┘
         ╱ ╲         ╱ ╲          ╱ ╲
     pluggable      long         catear
     connector      cable        & leds

Inside this guide, you will find the following content

Flash the microcontroller §

We recommend to use WLED as a firmware on all our catears. It offers a wide range of features for display and animation and can be controlled comfortably from your smartphone.

Take the microcontroller out of its packaging and connect it to your computer.
Depending on your choice of linux distribution, you may need to ensure that you have appropriate permissions to interact with the serial device. Check your distros documentation if you are unsure or things are not working as expected.
Go to WLED-Install and follow the instructions there.
If your browser supports the Web Serial API (i.e. is Chromium based), you can flash the microcontroller directly from it by pressing the Install button.
After flashing, you will be prompted to choose a WiFi connection. You can skip this step in which case the controller will open its own hotspot to connect to later.
Flash WLED using the web installer.

Solder cables to LED strip §

One of the most important steps is to electircally connect the microcontroller to the LED strip. We will start with the LED side.
Basically, the LED strip has three connections. One for data, one for ground and one for voltage. Each of these three functions requires a separately soldered connection.

Picture of the backside of an LED strip with its contacts exposed. Three labeled arrows explain which connector carries what

Picture of a three-core wire with its insulation stripped off. The three cores are labeled similarly to the picture of the LED strip

Prepare the long cable for soldering by removing its insulation.
Strip about 1cm of insulation from one end of the long cable using your striping pliers. There are three cores inside it which are individually insulated. Use something less hard (e.g. your fingernails) to carefully remove the indivudal insulation as well and expose the blank connectors.

Picture
Solder the three cable cores to their corresponding connectors on the LED strip. We use these combinations:

Red
+5V

Green
Data

Black
Ground
Put a heatshrink over the connectors. TODO: Specify which heatshrink
Cut a TODO cm long part off the heatshrink and pull it over the soldered connections. Once it is centered, apply heat with your heatgun to hold everything in place.

Picture

Solder Cable to pluggable connector §

The other side of the long cable now needs to be connected to the pluggable connector.

Remove the insulation from the free side of the long cable as well as one of the connector cables.
Solder all the cable cores together in pairs. We use these combinations:

Red (long cable)
TODO (connector)

Green (long cable)
TODO (connector)

Black (long cable)
TODO (connector)
TODO: how long of which heatshrink
Put a heatshrink over the connection.
Make sure that you wrap each cable core in heatshrink individually and then put an additional heatshrink over the whole connection as a whole.

Solder Pluggable Connector to Microcontroller §

Now you need to solder the other part of the pluggable connector to your microcontroller.

TODO: Replace picture with actual ESP

Picture of the microcontroller with labeled arrows pointing to the relevant contacts

Solder ground (black core) to the microcontrollers ground rail.
Solder charge (red core) to the microcontrollers +5V rail.
Solder data (green core) to the microcontrollers GPIO 2 connector.
You can actually use any GPIO port but number two is the default configuration from WLED so for an easier setup experience, we recommend just sticking with it.

Test It! §

Test the whole assembly by connecting the microcontroller to USB-C power. The LEDs strip should turn on and glow in a warm orange tone.

Test that LEDs turn on when power is connected to the microcontroller.

Finalize the Assembly §

Place the microcontroller in the included case.

Picture
Attach the LED strip onto your favourite pair of catears. The end of the LED strip should align with the outer corner of one of the ears.
The strip contains its own glue strip on the bottom. To use it, peel off the protective cover (without also removing the glue coating) and start attaching it to your catears.

Picture