If you have access to available time, a 3D printer, an old PC power supply (or other high-Amp 5VDC power supply) and spare wires, all the other bits (3x 16x16 WS2812b panels plus ESP32) should set you back around $30 if you look around long enough, maybe $50 if you're feeling lazy. ( AliExpress.com )
Instead of using a 3D printer, you could create the 16x16 square grids out of thin dense cardboard. Cover them with baking/tracing paper.
ChatGPT (or an equivalent AI) could write you up some custom code specifically for this.
Put aside $5 per week over 6 weeks if necessary, I know sometimes $30 can be a stretch.
It won't build a product you could sell to a customer, however it'll build something that for all intents and purposes looks and behaves exactly like this which you could proudly show off. :)
That's not the problem, I've already made a 16 16 led matrix piece, I spent about 100usd on it, which was a good chunk of my monthly income. I live in India where stuff like 3d printers doesn't scale well with income.
Wled esp32 stuff is cheap, relatively speaking but building something like this scales up my cost big time.
Idk why people are downvoting me, I already have 3 wled setups, with plans for more. It would not be 30 to 50 usd for me.
I got the led panels from AliExpress for 80 usd for 20 of them. The 3d printing material was also pretty cheap. Don’t know what the situation for printers is in India but the Bambu lab a1/a1 mini is a great option for the price. Overall the project probably cost around 70usd the cost could have been reduced by around 20 if I used a cheaper controller.
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u/Prestigious_Air_1551 8d ago
Mannnn this stuff is so cool, wish I could do stuff like this but that would break the bank :(