LED light projects

Here are a few LED-based projects I’ve been working on! Not for sale at this time.

Triangular LED panels

Equilateral triangle with 10 LEDs - KiCad Equilateral triangle with 10 LEDs - realized

I designed these triangular LED panels to light my icosahedral lantern. Each custom printed circuit board has 10 individually addressable RGB LEDs (WS2812b), and multiple panels can be chained together into flat arrays or 3D shapes.

Icosahedral Lantern

Icosahedral lantern at the Takoma Park Bank

Icosahedral lantern displayed at the Market at the Bank in Takoma Park, MD.

A regular icosahedron is made up of 20 equilateral triangles. This lantern is made up of two layers: an outer layer of laser-cut wooden triangles, lit from within by 20 triangular LED panels. The icosahedra are held together with 3D printed corner connectors. I used diffuser film on the inside of the wooden triangles to soften the LED lights.

Icosahedral lantern - internal view

The pattern on the outer layer is an example of a reaction diffusion pattern. I simulated the Gray-Scott equations on the surface of an icosahedron using Ready. To play with these patterns interactively, check out Robert Munafo’s Gray Scott Explorer.

The LEDs are driven using the excellent Pixelblaze v3 controller.

LED Portholes

A pair of LED portholes displayed at the Market at the Bank in Takoma Park, MD

A pair of LED portholes displayed at the Market at the Bank in Takoma Park, MD.

These colorful light fixtures are lit with flat arrays of my triangular LED panels. The small one has 6 triangles and the large one has 13. These panels are also driven by Pixelblaze v3 controllers and the Pixelblaze sensor board expansion, which includes a microphone for sound-reactive effects.

inside the small porthole - 6 LED triangles in a hexagonal array inside the large porthole - 13 LED triangles in a hexagonal array

Inside the LED portholes