Spent the last two weekends on this little guy and finally buttoned it up last night. It's a small desktop plant light thing with a ring of WS2812Bs under a diffuser and a WLED board inside, all tucked into a little planter I printed. The wiring was the fiddly part since everything had to fit inside a base only a few cm across, but I got there with some patient soldering and a lot of swearing at my iron. First boot and it just worked, which never happens to me. Presets came through, animations run smooth, and the color mixing under the diffuser looks way better than I expected. The trick that made the diffuser behave was adding a layer of white tissue paper between the LEDs and the printed shade. Huge difference, zero hotspots now. Only hiccup was power. The little supply I had was barely keeping up with brightness maxed, so I dialed the current limit down in WLED and now it runs cool and stable all night. Might upgrade the supply later if I want it brighter, but honestly it sits on my desk glowing softly and that's exactly what I wanted. Already sketching ideas for a bigger floor version next.
Finished my LuxPlant Mini build last night
Oct 13, 2026
Last reply: 2 hours ago
3 Replies
I went thru the same hotspot battle on a shelf light I built last winter. I tried printer paper, then a scrap of frosted acrylic, and neither fixed it on its own. What finally worked for me was distance. I moved the strip about an inch and a half back from the diffuser and the blotches vanished completly. So if you ever find a couple of bright spots creeping in on the bigger floor version, pushing the LEDs further from the shade might do more than adding layers. On the power side, I did the same thing with the current limit setting and it's honestly the right call for a desk piece. My build sits at maybe 40 percent brightness most evenings and the whole thing stays barely warm. I also fed power in at two points along the strip beacuse mine would dim toward the far end when I pushed it harder. For the floor version, one thing I'd plan early is where the controller lives. Mine ended up wedged somewhere annoying and I have to half disassemble the base just to plug in a new preset file. Leave yourself a service hatch, even an ugly one.
I built somethig similar for my kitchen window last spring and took the lazy route on the wiring. Instead of soldering in that cramped space, I bought a strip with pre-attached connectors and used a small screw-terminal adapter where it met the controller. Took five minutes and I could still take it apart when I changed my mind about the layout. Your patience with the iron in a base that small is impressive, I woud have melted something for sure.
One thing I would flag from expirience with mine: the tissue paper trick works nicely at first, but mine slowly yellowed over about six months sitting next to warm LEDs. I ended up replacing it with a piece of white printer paper cut to fit, which has held up better and diffuses almost as well. For the floor version that will run bigger and brighter, might be something to keep an eye on. I never even try to run mine at full brightness either. Mine sits at about a quarter brightness on a warm white preset and honestly anything higher just looks harsh in the evening. Sounds like we landed in the same place from diferent directions.
Gotta push back on the distance fix from the first reply. I tried that on a shade I made from a cut wine bottle and moving the strip back just made the whole thing dimmer and uneven, the glow got muddy near the bottom. What actually saved mine was sanding the inside of the glass with fine grit so the surface scatters light on its own. Distance helps on flat panels, but with a curved or narrow shade the material is doing most of the work. So for the floor version I'd pick the diffuser first and then figure out spacing, not the other way around.
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