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Create a Custom LED Painting

2023-06-11 | By bekathwia

License: None Addressable LEDs

 

painting_1

Today we’re making a painting dressed up with LEDs. It’s easy to customize to your own decor ‎theme and makes a great group workshop project as well.

 

Makers Night In with Becky Stern & Allie Weber | Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

I first started working on this project for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, for which Nate ‎Larson had created this guide for an in-person activity. I worked on it during my livestream with ‎Digi-Key. It was super fun to chat with some of my favorite makers about how they got into DIY ‎electronics, and you can catch the replay.‎

 

project_2

To make this project, you will need:‎‎

You’ll need a canvas that’s stretched, so you have direct access to the back of the fabric, which ‎will diffuse the light. Other solid types of painting surfaces won’t let the light through.‎

You’ll also need some acrylic paint, brushes, something to protect your work surface, and your ‎choice of addressable LED pixels, whether it be a strip, rings, singles, or whatever your ‎preference.‎

paint_3

One way to plan your painting is to lay out the pixels on the front of the canvas and lightly sketch ‎around them to create a design– I’m drawing flowers.‎

draw_4

Then I’m going in with my black paint and filling in the design. Let the paint dry before adding the ‎electronics.‎

black_5

During the recent livestream, I wired up the first NeoPixel ring to a microcontroller and hot-glued ‎it to the back of the canvas. My cohost Allie Weber made her own version of the painting project ‎too. Very cute.‎

wired_6

After the stream, I made a more permanent version of the circuit on a solder-type breadboard, ‎connecting up the pixels’ power and ground as well as the data input to a digital output pin on the ‎microcontroller, in my case an Arduino Micro.‎

connect_7

Then I continued connecting pixels to the chain, using small gauge stranded wire. You can find a ‎circuit diagram and complete parts list at the link in the description. I powered up the pixels using ‎some library sample code uploaded to the Arduino and flipped the painting over to see and align ‎the pixels to the artwork. Then I hot glued it in place, using a blast of canned air to rapidly cool ‎the glue before repeating with more pixels.‎

scheme_8

After the circuit is complete, you can go in with a little more paint and touch up as needed. I’m ‎powering this thing with an old USB phone charger.‎

In Nate’s original guide, he shows how to use pixel strip, folded in half, upright and perpendicular ‎to the painting, using the hot glue as light pipes. This makes it possible to put two different ‎colored regions very close to each other while having nicely diffused light.‎

finished_9

The finished painting makes a great night light that’s totally unique. Please give this one a try and ‎share your results with me.‎

Recommended Reading

Ever-Burning Flame Painting

The Scream: Interactive Screaming Painting

Circuit Playground PZ-1 Pizza Box DJ Controller

Animating LED Backpacks

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