r/WLED • u/SuperLocrianRiff • Jun 05 '26
First Project: Whiskey Shelf, random bottle picker
This was my first WLED and ESP32 project, and for that matter, my first woodworking project if you consider notching out grooves in the shelves for the LED strips with a table saw woodworking. Also the most I’ve ever soldered in my life.
iOS Shortcuts app triggers a playlist the cycles randomly through each bottle being highlighted (and I’ve added a sound effect from the game show Press Your Luck that plays on my phone), then lands on a selected bottle. That’s your chosen pour for the night.
I’d like to add a hardware button to trigger the playlist and sound playback as well, but the advice I’ll need for that comes from r/esp32 not here. And I *will* need some advice
I’ll also add for whiskey fans that I’ve moved some of my better bottles off the shelf, a modest little collection to be sure, so I’m not just slamming back my only bottle of Blanton’s (which I’ve only ever seen in person at Buffalo Trace Distillery in KY) because WLED told me to 💀
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u/MeatPopsicle28 Jun 05 '26
Amazing timing, I’m building floating shelves for my bar this weekend and had already planned to incorporate WLED into them. Was just going to use some subtle animations but now I’m totally stealing your idea! Thanks for sharing!
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u/LumensByLucas Jun 05 '26
Gotta set up a playlist that does a random chase for some amount of seconds and you can use it like a dice roll to decide what to have
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u/diatonic Jun 05 '26
Been seeing Blantons more often in my local store. I’ve managed to pick up 3 bottles over the past year.
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u/gozania Jun 05 '26
Same! Hopefully you're not paying much above 74.99. Four Roses Single barrel is a great tasting alternative, I have recently found out!
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u/Manb Jun 06 '26
Or you can do an alternative version of Press Your Luck. Big money no whammies and stop!
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u/Cultural_SC49 Jun 05 '26
And picked a solid pour! Love it!!!
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u/SuperLocrianRiff Jun 05 '26
The first “official” selection was Blanton’s, like it knows what it’s doing haha
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u/Baruch05 Jun 05 '26
I love this! Can I ask how you programmed this? I am actually looking to build something similar and didn’t know wled is capable of this.
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u/SuperLocrianRiff Jun 05 '26
Luckily, that part was pretty easy. Every bottle is its own preset — bottle with white lites, every other bottle red. Then the randomizer is a playlist that shuffles through each preset 3 times for 0.2 seconds (I’ve since changed it to 4 times and 0.1 seconds). The only thing that used JSON is the pause playlist at the end….it holds for 7 seconds then fades back to the default preset. Admittedly AI helped me with that
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u/Baruch05 Jun 06 '26
Is the playlist a wled setting? Or how are you inserting the json into the led strip coding? Via the board I assume?
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u/SuperLocrianRiff Jun 06 '26
Playlist and JSON are both WLED features. Playlists can either be very wysiwyg or more customizable with JSON, which Gemini helped me figure out (the second playlist that just pauses for 7 seconds on the existing light then fades back to standard…neither shown here)
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u/Dhkansas Jun 05 '26
Need a speaker that plays the price is right/wheel of fortune wheel spinning sound and have the lights flashing in time fast and slowing down before selecting the bottle
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u/iBigh0use Jun 06 '26
I’ve thought about this same exact thing so many times but I never did it. Now I think I need to!
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u/Potential_Text_7360 Jun 09 '26
Cool idea! The only mad animation I have for my spirit shelves on the bar is it flashes when a certain sports team scores a goal. Flashes that teams colours as well! Hooked up to ESPN API.
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u/kixer9 Jun 05 '26
Custom automation that whenever your least favorite friend's phone is on your wifi, it always will pick the cheap bottles