Possible to solder a Pi Pico W to replace IR on cheap LED Strips?

[signal python]

Hello! I have some cheap RGB strips glued to a wooden sign (Got all this on etsy) that work only off of an IR remote. I dont want to use an IR blaster as I feel thats clunky so I was wondering if its possible to just solder a Pico W to it to work with Home Assistant. Anyone done something like this? Couldnt find a guide online.

The big issue with this is the led controller as im unsure how to either interface with it or replace it with a pico.

The only cord currently coming from the sign is from that controller and its just a usb cable to power it.
Thanks in advance for any help! I can share more information if needed.

UPDATE: the rgb strips have R, G, B, & “+” on them as contacts

Possible to solder a Pi Pico W to replace IR on cheap LED Strips?

[meager badger]

Yeah, probably. It depends on how much DIY work you want to do.

With contacts labeled R, G, B, and + on the strip, you probably have separate channels for each color. Putting a positive voltage on + and ground on 'R' will probably light up the red LEDs on the strip. If you have a multimeter, you can check this. Note that you will need to figure a safe operating voltage for the LEDs, apply too much voltage and the LEDs will go up in smoke. If you can determine a safe operating voltage for the LEDs, and they operate by applying positive voltage to the '+' pad and grounding the other pads, then you can connect the R, G, and B pads to ground through MOSFETs controlled by the RPi. You then use the RPi to generate a PWM signal to control the MOSFETs. The duty cycle of the PWM signal will be how 'on' each color is.

Connecting to Home Assistant can be done using the MQTT integration (https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/light.mqtt/). An 'easy' way to get started would be to install Circuit Python on the RPi and using their MQTT library. (https://learn.adafruit.com/mqtt-in-circuitpython/overview)

[signal python]

Can confirm that the led strips use 3.3V (I checked this by turning the RGBs to white and measuring the voltage since it should be the same across all 3, right? LMK if my logic was wrong)! Attaching a wire from 3.3V from the raspberry pi to the "+" pad and another wire from the pi's GND it will light up a single color!

I saw someone say that I couldnt use the raspberry pi's 3.3V directly and had to have a seperate power cable for the leds. Thats not true, right? That seems a bit silly. Honestly, it doesnt even make sense to me? I assume that may be the case for full raspberry pi's like the 3, 4, etc. But definitely not pico.. right?

Also, I see no reason that these MOSFETs shouldnt work, right?

https://www.amazon.com/WeiMeet-RFP30N06LE-N-Channel-Mosfet-Arduino/dp/B07CTF1JVD

[fair flame]

Depends on your power supply, but basically pis are susceptible to voltage dips (will cause a restart) so going from off to full white might cause the main voltage to dip
Additionally the 3.3V is generated on board for logic purposes and it's not a high current output (300mA) - good chance it simply cannot run your lights at that value

[signal python]

However, it was able to run the lights when I hard wired it to just R, G, or B. If it can do that, wouldnt it be able to be ran off the pi?

[fair flame]

Well if it consumed 200mA then 1 channel would be fine but 3 would not. I just don't know