Control LED strip IR controller using Arduino

Question

Is it possible to connect to one of these, which run at 12v, to turn on the LED strip using an ESP8266? It doesn't matter if it's an Arduino or the ESP8266, both should be able to do this. The board looks like this:

If I turn on the red light, the "R" gets grounded and therefore applies 12v to the rail. The 3 MOSFETs on the images are P0903BDG MOSFETs.

Alternatively, I can hook into the IR signal and send an IR signal using the ESP8266. That would be really awesome, as it only requires 3 wires. How that is possible, I'm not really sure, though.

I know it's possible to make your own circuit using IRLZ44N MOSFETs, which I have done before, but I want to try and use as much as this circuit as possible.

• user31481: What is the board you are using? Does it have a name?
• MortenMoulder: @LookAlterno It does not, unfortunately. It's just a simple controller like these: google.com/search?q=led+strip+ir+controller&tbm=isch
• user31481: So you are recycling a consumer product?
• MortenMoulder: @LookAlterno Yeah exactly.
• aaa: Desolder the IC's connected to the MOSFETs and use your Arduino to drive the MOSFETs.

Answer 1

I tried to do the same thing with hooking up an IR LED on a Raspberry Pi. It worked pretty well but the chip on the receiver board could not take fast switchings. I ended up doing my own PCB.

The problem is that the chips run at voltages higher than you would use for an ESP8266 or Arduino. This will be the biggest problem if you want to supply it with the voltages available on the board.

I think the safest thing is to see if you can simulate IR input by just connecting to GND and OUT of the IR receiver port.

• MortenMoulder: Yeah I did the IR LED as well on my ESP8266 actually. I could both send NEC commands and receive them, meaning I could send commands to the LED strip or another ESP8266 using IR. Worked fine but I don't like IR. What do you think it would take to send the IR commands without the actual IR? Is it just a matter of taking some "IR receiver" code, then plugging that into the IR OUT "connector"? That might work.