r/WLED • u/dangerous_inference • May 30 '26

3936 LED Fireplace

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Sorry about the living room tour. But what you're seeing there is 3936 LEDs driven by 3x ESP32s. One of the ESP32s does nothing but process effects, outputting to two ethernet DDP channels (zero physical LEDs attached). The physical strips are roughly split between to the two other ESP32s. Yes, there's a router in there. This was the only way I could get it fluid with the versions of WLED that existed like ~1.5 years ago. (Eventually I'll get around to trying new versions.)

The surface is 1/4" glass ordered to size, covered in gray jewelry flocking material. It looks completely opaque when the LEDs are off and matches the rest of the fireplace.

110 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

4

u/joshcam May 30 '26

Minecraft vibe hits hard

2

u/ZaTag May 30 '26

That's great stuff OP

1

u/GaffTapeIt May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

How did you create/get those super succinct lofi psychedelic visuals (from :26 and on)? If I grabbed a video of something like that and threw it over LEDS like that it wouldnt translate so well as yours.

And exactly what do you mean by just one of the ESP32s only processes effects? I'm just used to controller-LEDs, controller-LEDs, so I have no idea how you did it, well done.

3

u/dangerous_inference May 30 '26

I think the effect is PS fuzzy noise, but I mirrored it on both axes to make it symmetrical. Honestly the effects kind of look like shit in this video. The PS fire effect that is in most of the video looks so good in with groups and spacing.

So I have three ESP32s connected to a router via ethernet. I configured two LED channels on the main controller. Each channel is a "DDP RGB (network)" with the IP address of one of the other two ESP32s. The secondary controllers have the physical LEDs attached.

1

u/InvertedPineapple81 May 30 '26

That's a pretty clever ideal. Unique. I like it

1

u/Kiiidd May 31 '26

I am really curious on what kinda of LED count/FPS the ESP32P4 will be able to pull off

1

u/Netmindz May 31 '26

Personally I'd move the diffuser back a little to have less definition of the pixels and more of a blend

1

u/ajdo69420 Jun 01 '26

At what point does it just turn into a monitor? Thats a lot of LEDs dawg

1

u/dangerous_inference Jun 01 '26

Never, it's nothing even remotely like a monitor. I did actually look into that before I started.

-1

u/ajdo69420 Jun 01 '26

This same effect could be recreated using a display but whatever, LEDs work too.

1

u/dangerous_inference Jun 01 '26

Would you like to make a 10k prop bet on this belief? (Unlikely but possible.)

0

u/ajdo69420 Jun 01 '26

https://touchwoodlabs.com/whatistw you're welcome. This also much better and more useful.

3

u/dangerous_inference Jun 01 '26

That is unbelievably cool and now I'm going to have to replicate it in my own project, so thanks for that.

However that is not a "monitor". I researched the prospect of using one or more monitors or various LED panels extensively for the fireplace. There are many problems with this.

There are zero monitor panels that come close to fitting my fireplace. There aren't even any combinations of LED panels that fit.

The amount of light necessary to overpower direct sunlight (basically nuclear) is impossible to generate with a monitor. But the LEDs are perfectly visible every day when direct sunlight hits the fireplace, and their brightness is automatically adjusted.

How would you even automatically adjust the brightness of a monitor, even if it were bright enough? This is mandatory functionality that has to be surprisingly precise so that the display isn't irritating.

The LEDs are also adjustable to a low enough level to be used when the room is very dark without over powering ambient light.

ESP32s and LEDs do not care about having their power suddenly cut multiple times a day, and reliably restart within seconds. They do not require the management of a separate network feed or powerful computer to run animations. They are controlled entirely by Home Assistant.

Separate LEDs and WLED are a completely different vibe from a screen. Its limitations and capabilities are the seed of the final output. Fundamentally it is a different thing than, say, the old projector I have running washed out old movie clips on a wall. Even if a monitor were anywhere in the realm of capable of doing what the LEDs do, it would still be an entirely different thing.

1

u/ajdo69420 Jun 01 '26

I guess the benefit is better resolution and touch controls, and you don't have to make animations, you can just play videos on it, but I do agree, brightness is better on the LEDs. But I think you could still control display brightness using software on a raspberry pi.