Pixel LED Wall Decoration: PixelBlaze

Today I’m going to talk about how you can use pixel LEDs to create a beautiful wall decoration ✨

I previously shared an Instructable about this project, where I showed how to make some simple LED patterns in an easy way. Today, let’s look at how to properly use this idea to make an attractive wall decoration that really stands out 🏠💡

My idea was to create a nice circular design that can be hung on the wall. Inside that circle, pixel LEDs display beautiful animated patterns 🌈

While watching it, I felt it had a calming and relaxing effect on the mind 😌

I believe you can customize this design in your own style and use it in different ways as well.

Alright, let’s get started 🚀🔧

👉 You can check out the previous one from here

1. Pixel Pulse Pixel Controller or T1000s Pixel Controller
2. WS2812 Pixel LED White PCB (60LED Per Meter- More Better Output with 100/144 LED Per Meter)
3. 5V 5A Power Supply (If you use more than 600 LEDs, recommend to use 10A or more)
4. 16-18 inch White Color Round Wood Board (More easier you can find cake board)
5. Circuit Wires
6. Scissors
7. Pencil
8. Soldering Wires & Soldering Iron

I chose a white color to match my wall. You can choose any color you like. You can also make this in any size that suits your space.

If you don’t have a dedicated pixel LED controller right now, you can easily do this using an Arduino, I’ll also include a post about that option. For this setup, you’ll need an Arduino board, an SD card module, and some jumper wires.

First, we need to take the pixel LED strip and cut it into small sections ✂️💡 This is because these pieces are what we will attach to the board. In my case, I’m making 30 rows with 10 LEDs in each row. So in the end, this becomes a 10 by 31 LED matrix 🔢✨

That’s why I cut 30 pieces of 10 LEDs each from the strip. I already explained this part in detail in the previous Instructable 📘 If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure to check that out as well 👀👉

After cutting the LED strips, I marked the center of the white circular board 🎯🤍

Then, using a ruler, I divided the circle into 30 equal sections 📏⭕ I lightly marked these lines with a pencil so they wouldn’t be too visible ✏️

After marking the guide lines, you can start attaching the LED strips from one point and continue step by step 🔧💡

While doing this, make sure the arrow direction on the LED strips follows a zigzag pattern ⬆️⬇️

I’ve clearly shown the correct method in the photos 📸 Follow the same pattern and attach all the LED strips around the entire circle.

Very important reminder ⚠️

Make sure all the arrow directions on the LED strips are facing the correct way. If you attach them in the same direction, the wiring will be wrong.

Always double check Data In and Data Out connections 🔄 If those are correct, everything will work perfectly ✅

When wiring the data line, start with one LED strip and then connect the data line from that strip to the next one in sequence 🔗💡

The data should flow in a single continuous direction from one strip to the next. If you follow the arrow direction printed on the LED strip while wiring, the process becomes very easy and you won’t get confused ➡️✨

I’ve included photos showing exactly how I did the wiring 📸

Just like when placing the strips, connect the Data In of one strip to the Data Out of the previous strip. Think of it as the strip being one long continuous line, just like before it was cut.

I’ve also added a simple wiring diagram made in Tinkercad below 📐 Have a look at it and the whole setup will become even clearer 👍

After finishing the data line wiring, the next step is to supply power to all the LED strips ⚡💡 Here, I used a yellow wire so you can clearly see and understand the connections. However, if you’re building this on a white board, I recommend using white wires 🤍 That way, the wires won’t stand out, and the final result will look much cleaner and more polished ✨

In my setup, I ran a single 5V power wire around the entire circle and connected it to every LED strip 🔄⚡ This allows all the strips to receive 5V from one main input point. I also connected the ground line across all the strips in the same way 🔌

You can take a closer look at my photos to get a clear idea of how everything is connected 📸👍

At the final step, I drilled a small hole near the center of the board 🛠️

Then I passed three wires through that hole from the LED strip where the Data In starts, and routed those wires to the back of the board 🔌✨

If you’re using a pixel LED controller, you can connect these three wires directly to the 5V, DATA, and GND terminals on the controller ⚡💡 After that, connect your power supply to the 5V and GND lines, and the hardware side of the project is complete ✅

Below, I’ve also shown how to build a controller using an Arduino 🧠 If you follow that method, you can mount the Arduino and the SD card module prototype neatly on the back of the board, keeping everything hidden and clean 👍✨

Here, I’m using a controller that I buy earlier. However, if you don’t have a controller available when you’re building this, you can easily make one at home using an Arduino board, a micro SD card module, jumper wires, and a breadboard 🧩💡

I’ve shown the Arduino wiring diagram using Tinkercad 📐

Unfortunately, Tinkercad doesn’t have an SD card module, but I’ve labeled the correct pins instead. It’s nothing complicated, and you’ll be able to understand it easily 👍 Also, I connected the pixel LED data input pin to pin 9 on the Arduino 🔌

I’ve also included the code there, so make sure to check it out. 👨‍💻

Now, the next step is to create the patterns we want for the LEDs and configure the required settings in the software 💻✨ In my setup, I configure the LED matrix in the software as 30 by 200.

I already explained earlier why we use 200 here, so I won’t go into that again 🔢

In my previous Instructable, I wrote a very detailed guide on how to configure all the software settings step by step 📘 So I’m not going to repeat everything here, because this explanation could become quite long.

If you haven’t seen that yet, I recommend checking it out first, just like I mentioned earlier 👀👍

Just like I explained earlier, we can use the paint tools to draw small custom patterns and display them on our pixel LED circle 🎨💡 I previously showed how to send the image we design on the computer to the LED matrix.

Here, I created a rainbow colored horizontal line pattern 🌈 After that, I added a downward pointing arrow shape below it ✨ This is the first design I plan to display on our LED matrix.

Now, let’s generate this pattern using the software and see how it looks inside the circular LED layout 👀🚀

Now you can see how beautifully our artwork comes to life on the pixel LEDs as it plays 💡 It looks really amazing. Since this is a GIF image, it might not appear perfectly smooth here 🎞️ But in real life, it plays very smoothly and looks absolutely beautiful 😍

You already saw how nice the previous design turned out ✨ Now I created another piece of artwork that looks even better.

In this one, I added colorful single lines first 🌈 Then I placed multiple colored strips, and finally a small arrow shape using two or three colors ⬇️🎨 Altogether, it forms a really beautiful design.

Let’s see how this one works as well 👀💡

I’ve already explained in detail how to prepare the file in the software and copy it to the SD card, so you can follow the same steps 📁💻

Now you can see that our second pattern also plays beautifully ✨💡 Those single lines spread upward in a really nice and eye catching way, and it looks great to watch 👀🌈

So, using this method, we can create many more beautiful patterns like this 🎨🚀

Since it’s difficult to properly show every pattern using GIF images, in this step I’ve included a few artwork designs that I created for you to try out 🎞️✨

You can download these and test them yourself. You can also add any artwork you like, based on your own ideas and style. 🎨💡 Your creativity is what matters the most here 🚀

So far, we looked at patterns that move upward. But we can also create patterns that rotate clockwise and counter clockwise around the circle 🔄 This makes the colors appear to spin beautifully inside the circular design 🌈⭕ It looks really eye catching and dynamic. I’ve included a few artwork examples here for this effect 🎨

You can try these out first, and then create your own designs in your own style and test them as well.

Here are two patterns I created to move to the right and to the left 🔄✨

In the first one, beautiful colors rotate smoothly in a clockwise direction, and it plays very nicely to the right 🌈➡️

In the second pattern, I designed a flower like shape that rotates gracefully to the left 🌸⬅️

Using this approach, you can create many beautiful designs and animations in this rotating pattern style 🎨💡

Finally, I hung this on the wall, just behind a Buddha statue 🕯️ It works beautifully as a wall decoration, and among Buddhist devotees, light based creations like this are often used as a form of devotion and respect to the Buddha 🙏✨ So I encourage you to try making a similar beautiful wall decoration in your own style using pixel LEDs 🎨💡

If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me anytime! 📩😊