When this rig is running, the whole workshop ceiling turns into a light show. Strips run in parallel channels and rectangular perimeters along the wooden joists, and the display chases and flashes across sections in red, blue, green, cyan, and yellow, all synced to background music. It must be quite a sight while working at the bench.
The scale is what stands out to me. The maker drives 6000 LEDs through two WLED controllers, with each chip handling 3000 of them. On top of that, a Raspberry Pi runs LEDfx to generate the effects, and it needed a small, non-dangerous overclock to keep up with the processing load. Pushing a Pi that far as part of a lighting controller is a bold call, and it apparently works.
Getting there took some troubleshooting. The build was plagued by lag, and the maker says they were losing their mind over it before tracking down the causes. Missing resistors turned out to be part of the problem, so a 45 ohm resistor was added to every 600 LED chain. Diagnostic settings were also switched off because they contributed to the trouble.
With the lag figured out and fixed, the maker now jokes about being ready to charge admission. I can see why. The one thing I would still like to know is how the strips perform over long evenings, since that has not been covered yet.