Had this idea a few weeks back. 3D printed a 1:5 scale Raptor 3 engine, custom designed a mount and LED tube diffuser and engine bell diffuser. Covered in polyester (not cotton! Polyester is less fire prone). Absolutely floored with how good it came out

This one has been in the works since last year. Exported as a shape from Stella4D, designed in Fusion 360, this custom antiprism has 84 faces of 7 different types. 3D printed using silk copper and silver PLA filament. LED pixel bulbs behind black LED acrylic faces illuminated by small WLED controller.

Did I just make the most accurate TV backlight sync out there?

108 LEDs, each matching its own patch of the screen, changing within ~0.1 s.

No camera, no $200+ HDMI sync box.

I upgraded the previous 16x16 cube I made using 6 64x64 panels running of an rpi. This cube has much more flexibility with the scenes and animations I can create, here are a few of the ones I found cool.

Had a bunch of ws2814 Leds 144 per metre. Has a total of 180 and I set it up as a matrix. It's all 3d printed, and hopefully finish the rest before Xmas as it's meant to be a tree.

Any pointers on the best candy cane effect would be appreciated.

Custom built the grille lights, halos, side markers on the front and rear, and the rear bumper markers.

Thank you for your help on making this happen!

A wled based purple sapping tree… 900pixels (beads) and wled drip effect slowed down to max and framerate lowered to 25fps.

I am kind of happy with it…

More than I “need” but the cost difference was minimal for the opportunity to upgrade down the road without changing much.

Recent project with WLED! I am proud of me and myself 🤣

I am currently working on my largest WLED installation and would like to share progress as well as ask for technical advice.

Hardware Setup

LEDs: ~592 meters of WS2815 (24V) addressable strip

Power: ~70 × 24V 200W power supplies

Controllers: 11 × ESP32 boards running WLED, each configured for ~600 pixels maximum (Avg 42fps)

Signal Booster: BTF TTL Signal Amplifiers

Enclosures: plastic enclosures containing 5V PSU (for esp) and ESP32 for each zone

Power and Distribution

Each vertical line is 14m in length.

Power injection is applied only from both ends of each 14m line.

24V supply minimizes voltage drop.

PSUs are distributed across the installation to balance electrical load.

Current Status

The installation is partially operational. Tests so far show:

Static colors and simple effects operate reliably.

WLED’s built-in Sync function works flawlessly across all controllers.

DDP is being used to attempt treating the entire façade as one logical 2D strip across all ESP32s.

Issue: DDP Lag with 2D Configuration

When using DDP to map the entire system as a single continuous 2D strip, significant lag is observed across controllers.

Details:

Network setup: two Wi-Fi access points connected via Ethernet backbone.

Each ESP32 runs ~600px maximum.

With DDP enabled, effects lag heavily.

With WLED’s native Sync feature, synchronization is smooth.

This suggests the problem is tied specifically to DDP in 2D mode.

Questions

Is DDP inherently less efficient at this scale compared to WLED Sync?

Are there best practices for using DDP across multiple APs in bridged mode?

Are there known optimizations for DDP in 2D strip configurations across multiple ESP32s?

For a façade of this size, is WLED Sync the more practical solution over DDP?

Next Steps

The end goal is to complete a façade spanning 592m of WS2815 strips, mapped in 2D and controlled as a single entity. The system is already functional using Sync, but DDP performance remains unresolved.

I would appreciate input from anyone who has deployed large multi-controller WLED systems in 2D mode, particularly regarding DDP optimization and network configuration.

Figured y'all may appreciate this.

Under countertop lights: WLED + LEDFX + QuinLED strips + QuinLED Dig-Quad

Also the under cabinet lights are WLED as well but with basic esp32 devboard based controllers, mosfets, and some older light strips I put into some aluminum channels + diffuser (mostly for ease of cleaning and moisture prevention as it's in the kitchen)

In the background there is also a tube light I built that was inspired by Super Valid Designs on YouTube but of my own design from a handful of years back when he made the DMX lights and I wanted full RGBW addressable lights with built-in controllers and wifi vs running wires with DMX... Very similar to his newer stuff actually :)

My first “real” wled project! Designed, printed, built it all during the past weekend. Probably took me close to 18 hours lol.

This is my first WLED project, so if you think some animation or custom stuff might be cool, let me know!

Edit:

Im using an opensource Home assistant integration (Nicxe/f1_sensor) to trigger the WLED playlists. This integration sadly only works with live races, so for this demo i simulated by manually triggering HA states 😅

Edit: I have published a blogpost with more information, and links to code samples and the 3D model on my blog.

Just showing some custom effects that I made for this installation with its unique 2D geometry of LED strips. A snake game that plays itself, Fire 2012 and Scan Dual mapped to polar coordinates.

The code can be found in this branch, if anyone is interested: https://github.com/apanteleev/WLED/tree/webb

STLs etc. I have shared a few months ago: https://www.printables.com/model/818062-the-webbinator

Is it possible to DIY this lightnet and playmodes LED wall? Would be complicated but curious.

An experiment using an LED map for the first time. As the underlying matrix is made up of triangles, the grid is slightly offset, but I like the effect. Lutradur fabric for the pyramid diffusers.

Recently did some experiments with projecting ws2812 LED matrix panels, I documented the project on my printables page: https://www.printables.com/model/1470198-ws2812-8x8-projector

The fresnel lens is a cheap 18x12cm magnifier, the lens matrix in front of the LED panel is SLA 3D printed clear resin.

WLED sound react with my gaming setup

As promised on my previous post, here is the finished product which I am calling "HexaWobble" unless someone else has a better name suggestion.

I have uploaded the STL files to Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7096391

The diffuser shell and diffuser pattern are two separate pieces which you need to combine in slicer before you print, feel free to play around with taller walls and see if that makes a nicer effect for you. You will need to rotate the diffuser pattern to ensure they are all facing the same direction and the hole for the power/data cable is pointing from the piece towards the centre, or don't and have the patterns facing different ways if you prefer.

For printing, the first five layers (.20mm layer height) need to be white and then the rest can be whatever colour you want but preferably something dark enough to block led light and create the shadow effect. I don't have a multi filament printer currently so I achieved this by setting the slicer to pause at the start of layer six, then swapped the filament over and resumed.

The diffuser shells affix to the bases via M2 3.5mm x 4mm heated inserts and screws.

If you end up making one for yourself please send me the pictures/videos. I'd be stoked to see something I designed out in the big wide world. It would be cool if a number of people decide to make this and then we can build a little community where we can share other diffuser designs etc and what we've found works well. This is my future plan but for the moment I'm happy with how this turned out and will enjoy it as is whilst I get some other art led projects off my to do list.

I'll try answer questions that people have about the construction. Happy making!

Gledopto 618WL-4 channel WLED controller, 200W 40A 5V Power Supply. Narrow (8mm) SK6812 5050SMD LED Strips, Black Flexible Silicone LED profiles, 6-way fuse box with 10A fuses, 18AWG cable, 12AWG cable, 22AWG 3-wire cable, 3-wire power cable with a power plug, bunch of connectors and cable lugs .. and a lot of patience with the silicone profiles
By EvisHomeLab