What's this?

In the 80s of the former century lavalamps were fashionable (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_lamp). Mesmerizing patterns of colorful lights in a bottle filled with liquid and "lava". I wondered how a modern version of this lamp would look like today?

I had an Adafruit 8x8 rectangular panel (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1487) laying around waiting for something to make from. This panel consists of a pcb with an array of 64 leds which can all have their individual color using only a single data pin on a micro controller.

Recently I stumbled over an article about a project called wled (https://install.wled.me/). It allows any cheap ESP8266 or ESP32 chip together with an arbitrary number of programmable leds to act as "light show". You can program the chip to any light pattern you like or can choose from many presets and customize to your liking. It has a nice web interface using the builtin Wifi connectivity.

Getting the WLED software on one Wemos-board (https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/d1/d1_mini.html) was a snap and I quickly got the 8x8 matrix and the software working and could program it from my smartphone.

I needed definitly a sleek case for it. So I started constructing a case which the matrix and the Wemos-Board would fit in.

Parts list

To build this fun project your own you need:

• The two parts for the case
• A 8x8 Neopixel matrix (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1487) or a clone of it
• A wemos D1-mini (or clone)
• The latest WLED-firmware
• A powerful 5V mains adapter giving at least 2 Amps
• A soldering iron

Printing

Print each of the case pieces once. I used ABS on my Ultimaker with 40mm/s speed and an 20% infill. Printing of both parts took around 5 hours.

Flashing the firmware to the Wemos

To flash the firmware to the microcontroller connect the Wemos board with a micro USB cable to your computer and follow the steps here https://kno.wled.ge/basics/getting-started/

Try to connect your browser to the WLED firmware. Continue if this works.

Soldering & Checking

Dont solder parts under voltage!!! Disconnect the Wemos from your computer before soldering anything to it.

Solder the Adafruit LED matrix to the Wemos board, connect 5V and Gnd from the LED to the corresponding pins on the Wemos and the DIN (Data in) to D4 on the Wemos.

Plug the USB cable again into your computer, call the web interface of the board and configure you LEDs to 2D and 8x8. Be sure to limit the maximum current to 500mA (you USB port on your computer won't give you more and your computer might be damaged if you demand more).

Check that everything is working and you can see some light shows on the panel.

Final assemble

• Disconnect your USB cable from your computer
• Put the cable of your external USB power through the hole in the bottom of the case and solder + / gnd to the appropiate PINs.
• Hotglue the Wemos in its place inside the bottom
• Check that everything is working - later you would not change any cabling without forcefully open something.
• Glue the LED matrix to the 4 posts in the bottom
• Snap the case top - if you want you can glue it
• Connect your USB power to mains
• Try to connect to the WLED with your computers or smartphones browser.
• Increase the maximum LED current to the power of your external 5V mains adapter.

Ultimaker S3

No

No

Normal

20%