Brickstuff Smart Button User Guide

Product Guide: BUTTON-SMART Smart Power Switch with Brick-Built Housing





INTRODUCTION

The Brickstuff Smart Button allows you to control 100 lights or more in multiple modes:
  1. Manual On/Off
  2. Dimming
  3. Random On/Off
The button includes an indicator light that mounts beneath the button's LEGO® round 2x2 tile.  The indicator light shows information about the connected lights including brightness, on/off status, and random mode setting.

The button housing is built from LEGO® parts which are included with your kit.  The sections below show how to build the button housing and how to use the button to add dynamic effects to your models.

BUILDING THE BUTTON HOUSING

The illustrations below show how to assemble the button housing.

Note that because the button control board is designed to fit within LEGO® geometry, you can fit the button controller inside any LEGO® model where there is at least an open space of 2x3 LEGO® studs.



In the next steps, you will assemble the button plunger.  Your kit includes 2x2 round LEGO® tiles in several different colors-- you can pick the color you want for this button.  Although the instruction steps show using a green cap, you can use whichever color you prefer.




There is a link to download a PDF document showing these steps at the bottom of this article.

CONNECTING

There are many ways to connect and use the button.  The diagram below shows one example that uses multiple buttons to control different segments of lighting in a single setup:


Using a single main power source, heavy-duty connecting cables are then used to connect to a Brickstuff BRANCH10 adapter, which then connects to the power inputs on the four buttons.

The output of each button then connects to separate groups of lights:
  1. All streetlamps
  2. A first group of buildings-- this could also be a specific grouping of floors in a group of buildings
  3. A second group of buildings-- this could also be a different grouping of floors in the same set of buildings
  4. Houses
Segmenting your lighting setup in this way allows greater flexibility and creates more interest than if all lights were connected to a single switch.  With multiple buttons and segments, you can create rich scenes, including:

  1. Streetlamps dimmer (or brighter) than building lighting
  2. Streetlamps turning on and off separately from building lighting, and/or turning on and off randomly
  3. Different buildings (or different floors within buildings) with lights turning on and off randomly (or lights set to different brightness levels)
These are just some ideas-- you can set up your buttons any way you like!

USING THE BUTTON

This document will cover button functionality in two sections: basic usage and advanced usage.


When using the button with any lighting effect controllers, wireless receivers/transmitters, sound modules, or other "smart" devices connected, you must always set the output to 100% brightness (this is how the button ships from the factory).  You can still turn your lights and smart devices on or off using the button, and you can still use the random on/off features, but if you have any lighting effect controllers or other devices connected to the button's output other than LED lights and adapter boards, you cannot use the button's dimming feature.

Why is this the case?  The button uses a function called pulse-width modulation, or PWM for short, to make its connected lights appear dimmer than full brightness.  PWM uses a very fast series of electrical pulses to turn lights on and off faster than the human eye can perceive; the duration of these pulses is what makes lights appear to be less than 100% brightness to the human eye when in fact the lights are just turning on and off faster than we can see.  This is also why taking photos or videos of lights that use PWM dimming can make the lights appear to flicker, or why photos of lights that seem dim to the human eye will either appear fully "off" or "on" when photos are taken.

All of our "smart" modules (including lighting effect controllers, sound modules, wireless receivers/transmitters, and video players) require full voltage without PWM to operate correctly.  If PWM is used on a power connection to any of these devices, their behavior will become erratic, and the devices will not function as designed.

Remember, the button is still fully compatible with our "smart" modules-- the only requirement is that output LED brightness be kept to 100%.


Basic Usage

The basic functions of the button include turning lights on and off, and setting lights to a specific brightness level (when using dimming, please make sure to read the warning above about connected "smart" modules).

To turn your connected lights on or off, press the button once-- each press toggles the state of the connected lights as well as the state of the indicator LED light beneath the button color cap.

Note that the indicator LED light will always be at 100% brightness when the connected lights are turned on, even if the brightness of the connected lights is set to less than 100%.

To adjust brightness for the connected lights, first make sure the lights are in the ON state.  To adjust brightness, press and hold the button.  The indicator light as well as the connected lights will change brightness slowly.  You will see the brightness reflected in real time as you continue pressing and holding the button.  To change the brightness setting direction (switch between making the lights brighter or dimmer), release the button and then press and hold again.

Note that you can only set the brightness level when the connected lights are in the ON state.

When the lights reach either their maximum or minimum brightness as you continue holding the button, the indicator light and connected lights will flash to let you know you've reached the upper or lower brightness limit.

The brightness of the indicator LED light inside the button cap will change with the brightness of your connected lights while you are adjusting brightness levels, but when you release the button and have finished setting your desired brightness, the indicator LED light will always be at 100% brightness when the connected lights are in the ON state (even when the connected lights are set to less than 100% brightness).  The exception to this is when the button is in random on/off mode-- in this case, the indicator light will pulse on and off even when the connected lights are in the OFF state (see the Advanced Usage section for more information about the button's random on/off mode).


The button remembers your current brightness setting and also the state of the connected lights, even when your main power source is disconnected.  When main power is reconnected, the lights will return to their previously-set state (on or off) and their previously-set brightness level (if on).

The button has special driver circuitry inside that can power 100 lights or more, so you can use one button to control lights in many models.

Advanced Usage

Beyond the standard on/off and dimming, your button also supports a random on/off mode with configurable time periods.  This section is for advanced users, and explains how these functions work.

To activate random on/off mode, press and release the button quickly two times (called a "double press").  If your lights were off, they will come on, and the indicator LED light inside the button will begin pulsing on and off.

When in random on/off mode, lights always begin in the ON state as a way of showing you they are connected to power.  When connecting power to your button when its random on/off mode is active, the connected lights will begin in the ON state and the indicator LED Light inside the button will begin pulsing.

When your button is in random on/off mode, the indicator LED light will always be pulsing, even when the connected lights are in the OFF state.  This makes it easy to see which lights are set to random on/off mode and which are not.

When in random on/off mode, your button follows this routine:
  1. Pick a random delay time based on the current TIMER setting (described below).
  2. Start the internal clock counting up to the random delay time.
  3. When the random delay time is reached, change the state of the connected lights (if lights are ON, they will turn OFF and vice versa).
  4. Return to #1 above and begin the cycle again.

While the button's internal clock is counting up to the random delay time, you can still turn the lights on and off as normal by pressing the button once.  The button's internal clock will continue running until it reaches the random delay time, at which point the current state of the connected lights will be toggled (changed from OFF to ON or vice versa) and the timer cycle will begin again as described above.  This gives you the ability to manually turn your lights on or off even when random on/off mode is active.

TIMER Setting

Your button has five pre-set timer lengths to use when in the random on/off mode:
  1. 15 seconds
  2. 30 seconds
  3. 60 seconds (one minute)
  4. 90 seconds (1.5 minutes)
  5. 120 seconds (two minutes)
The default timer setting is set to 15 seconds at the factory.

The TIMER setting impacts the random amount of time your lights will be on or off.  Each time the button picks a new random delay time, a random value is selected that is between 50% and 100% of the TIMER setting value.  For example, when the TIMER is set to 15 seconds, your button will change the state of your connected lights every 7.5 to 15 seconds.  When the TIMER is set to 60 seconds, the lights will toggle every 30-60 seconds.  And when the timer is set to 120 seconds, the random delay time will be between one and two minutes (60 and 120 seconds).

Again, a new random delay time is selected each time your lights change state (going from ON to OFF or OFF to ON), and the delay will be somewhere in the range of 50% and 100% of the TIMER setting.  This produces an ever-changing light show that gets richer the more buttons you have connected and the more light segments you have configured-- especially when each button uses a different TIMER setting.

As with other button settings, the TIMER setting value is preserved even when power is disconnected from your button.

To change the TIMER setting, first make sure your lights are set to ON and also that random on/off mode is active (you will know this mode is active because the indicator light inside your button will be pulsing).

The TIMER setting can only be changed when your button has its random on/off mode set to active.

Once you have made sure the lights are ON and also that your button is in random on/off mode, you can cycle through the five TIMER settings by quickly pressing and releasing the button three times (also known as a "triple press").

It can take some practice to understand how the "triple press" works, so be patient.  If you accidentally make a "double-press" of the button, you will disable random on/off mode (making it impossible to adjust the TIMER setting)-- if this happens (you will know because the button's indicator light will stop flashing), simply "double-press" again to re-enable random on/off mode, then try the "triple press" one more time.

With each successful "triple press", the indicator light inside your button will flash quickly 1-5 times to show the current TIMER setting.
  1. ONE FLASH: TIMER set to 15 seconds
  2. TWO FLASHES: TIMER set to 30 seconds
  3. THREE FLASHES: TIMER set to 60 seconds (one minute)
  4. FOUR FLASHES: TIMER set to 90 seconds (1.5 minutes)
  5. FIVE FLASHES: TIMER set to 120 seconds (two minutes)
After five flashes, the TIMER will go back to its default setting of 15 seconds and the indicator LED light will flash once.

When power is connected to your button and it was previously set to have random on/off mode active, the indicator LED light inside the button will flash 1-5 times before turning on the connected lights.  This gives you a way to check the current TIMER setting.

By using different TIMER settings on multiple buttons, you can create rich lighting setups that appear to come alive with random action.

CONCLUSION

We hope this guide helps explain the rich functionality of the Brickstuff Smart Button.  If you have any questions, please ask them in our Community or User Forum.  Also please tag us (#brickstuff) on social media if you post photos or videos showing your creative use of the button!

Thank you very much for purchasing this Brickstuff product!  Your continued support allows us to keep doing what we love: creating fun and unique products for enthusiasts everywhere.

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