When it is running, this wall-mounted hexagon grid sits behind the maker's desk playing animated colour palettes and sound-reactive effects. It is a modular LED system built entirely around 3D printed parts, and the finished look of glowing hexagon cells over a workspace is a really appealing result.
The construction is where this build shines. The frame is made from black Y-shaped and C-shaped printed channels that click together with snap-fit joiners, and white PETG diffusers cover each channel. WS2811 strips running at 12V were cut to fit every channel segment, and the wiring follows a branched pattern so the data signal splits at each junction. The neat part is that WLED still treats that branched layout as one single continuous data line, so 600 LEDs run from one data pin.
On the electronics side, a prebuilt Gledopto ESP32 WLED controller with a microphone drives everything, configured through the WLED web interface, with power from a 12V 60W 5A supply. Connections between modules use magnetic pogo-pin connectors held in a custom printed housing, which seems like a smart fit for a modular design, and the whole grid sticks to the wall with heavy-duty double-sided mounting tape.
Two details stand out to me. First, the maker settled on a 1mm diffuser thickness as the best result, though notes that outcomes vary between filament suppliers, which leaves a little room for tuning. Second, soldering was simplified by switching to pre-cut jumper wires, sensible given the nearly four days of printing and two days of soldering this took. The maker considers the grid finished.
Project by Not Too Shabby Creations. Watch it on their YouTube channel: