Cheap leds, on aliexpress, 1m led strip with 30 WS2812b leds selling for just 1 Euro.
The other sizes have normal prizes, it is just the top left selection which is so cheap.
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32682015405.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.56f54c4dPQGb5C
Having bought a couple of them in a playful moment I started to fold them. Which isn't hard to do and even with re-folding them in different patterns I didn't destroy them - just be careful to keep the folds a bit away from the soldered leds.

So I spiralled the strip until it covered a small rectangle and printed a tiny case for it to keep it in shape. I used transparent colorless PLA for that.

In another project (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4159218) I already learned how led panels gain a lot from having a diffusor. But for this little case I kept it light and simply added a second layer. With no inner walls or other support the lines do hang a little loose but that is intended as it helps to diffuse the light.

Don't expect wonders, you won't get a continous plane of light that you would want to install in plain sight. And 30 leds are not that much so the brightness you can achieve is limited. But it is enough to provide a colorful indirect backlight and it actually replaced a Phillips Go for me. At 1€ for the light strip and 2€ for the ESP8266 controlling it add another 2€ for an USB power source with a little more steam (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32787718638.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dIHYn4g) the cheapo light panel comes at 5€.

The opening for the cable was meant to fixate the thin strip, you may have to enlarge it if you want the thicker cables to go through it.

As usual the freeCad source is included so you can easily adapt the thing to your needs.

Category: Electronics