Very cool to make. Only frustrating parts were gluing down the LEDs at the equator of the sphere. Takes a little bit of extra finesse to get those just right. It took me about 4 hours just to do the LED gluing alone.... There are a lot of LEDs....
Another thing was that I was able to find cheaper parts for everything (sorry Adafruit, I really wanted to go with your products but the ESP32 board was out of stock and so I went on a completely different rabbit hole).
Everything can be purchased off Amazon which makes life easy.
Note: If you use a 5V usb-c wall adapter, you do not need to get the voltage level changer that is included in the instructions on Adafruit website. Just make sure you connect power for LED to the breakout connector.
@Ryan_335804 hey Ryan here’s a rough drawing. Red is positive, blue is ground, and green is data line. Make sure you’re supplying 5V if you buy the LEDs I bought. Hopefully this helps! If still unclear I can take a picture of the actual wiring.
@brianau3048_605333 so I’d just plug the LEDS into the pin outs on the board, and power the actual board using the usb-c breakout board correct? I really appreciate the help. Trying to put this together for my wife
@Ryan_335804 haha no worries. No you would connect the LEDs to the same power out from the USB connector. You don’t want to connect the LED to the board because it cannot supply the necessary amps needed. The only thing connecting the board and LED is the data out from the board
@langofsteel_938939 make sure you install the correct drivers. That was the only issue I had when installing WLED. But after I got the driver WLED installed fine. I followed along some YouTube vids
@brianau3048_605333 thank you so much for all the help. Last question is how did you splice the Neopixel LED strips together to get the correct amounts for the top and bottom halves?
@Ryan_335804 The pack of LEDs I posted comes with extra JST connectors for splicing the wires. The wires are ceramic coated so stripping them the traditional way doesn’t work. You can try to solder the tips of the wires together. For me I didn’t have my soldering iron on hand so I used a lighter to burn off the coating. Then sanded the end. Then twisted and folded the wires together and wrapped with electrical tape. If you Google “joining wires without solder” you should find a few videos. So I used 50+35 for the bottom 85 lights. The wire splice goes here. Then 50 and whatever else left for the build.
@brianau3048_605333 hey there I just got everything installed and wired as you said. I spliced into the usbc breakout board for the leds. I have new drivers installed and WLED installed. But the lights are not powering on? I have my data line hooked to D4. I’ve tried troubleshooting but am at a loss. Any ideas?
Nevermind I started troubleshooting the strips and I only had a total of 23 lights working, I am going to go with a set of adafruit lights as the ones from amazon were not up to par in my case.
@Wild_Coyote97_590780 do you have a multimeter? Does the usbc have power? Does the ESP32 have power? (You’ll know if it does if it lights up). Can you send a picture of the LED connection?
@brianau3048_605333 that would be great just to be sure, and yes I do I tested at the splice and I had 5 volts and I had 5 volts after. The data pin was giving sufficient voltage. After testing more I got a few to light up at the top of the sphere. But the other lights are not working. I was using a 5v 5amp power supply. I ordered a 10 amp and Amazon is sending me some new lights.
Also the esp32 is powering up and working properly. I was able to access WLED and double check everything. But after testing and more testing it seems like the lights are just a bad set.
@brianau3048_605333 that is exactly how I had mine wired up. I got another set and had only 150 out of 200 lights work. I installed 150 and just called it a day. Everything else works great but I feel like the Adafruit lights are worth the extra. I appreciate all of your help.
@brianau3048_605333 hey! I bought the LEDs you linked to from Amazon, but I already had the QT PI and BFF board in the original instructions. Do you know if I can use that controller with the Amazon LEDs? I tried, but the LEDs are not lighting up. I tried powering them via the BFF board and via the USB breakout, but still nothing. I confirmed the LEDs work with the controller that came with them from Amazon.
Very cool to make. Only frustrating parts were gluing down the LEDs at the equator of the sphere. Takes a little bit of extra finesse to get those just right. It took me about 4 hours just to do the LED gluing alone.... There are a lot of LEDs....
Another thing was that I was able to find cheaper parts for everything (sorry Adafruit, I really wanted to go with your products but the ESP32 board was out of stock and so I went on a completely different rabbit hole).
Everything can be purchased off Amazon which makes life easy.
ESP32 board: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08246MCL5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
USB-C breakout connector: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KC1SMGD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
WS2812B LED: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVZLWQ2T?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Note: If you use a 5V usb-c wall adapter, you do not need to get the voltage level changer that is included in the instructions on Adafruit website. Just make sure you connect power for LED to the breakout connector.
@brianau3048_605333 You're the absolute best, my daughter and I are building one together. This made life so much easier!
@brianau3048_605333 how did you connect the LED power to the breakout connector? Can you show your wiring if possible.
@Ryan_335804 hey Ryan here’s a rough drawing. Red is positive, blue is ground, and green is data line. Make sure you’re supplying 5V if you buy the LEDs I bought. Hopefully this helps! If still unclear I can take a picture of the actual wiring.
@brianau3048_605333 so I’d just plug the LEDS into the pin outs on the board, and power the actual board using the usb-c breakout board correct? I really appreciate the help. Trying to put this together for my wife
@brianau3048_605333 sorry, i'm brand new to this. were you able to install wled to the amazon board? mine keeps saying it failed to initialize
@Ryan_335804 haha no worries. No you would connect the LEDs to the same power out from the USB connector. You don’t want to connect the LED to the board because it cannot supply the necessary amps needed. The only thing connecting the board and LED is the data out from the board
@langofsteel_938939 make sure you install the correct drivers. That was the only issue I had when installing WLED. But after I got the driver WLED installed fine. I followed along some YouTube vids
@brianau3048_605333 thank you so much for all the help. Last question is how did you splice the Neopixel LED strips together to get the correct amounts for the top and bottom halves?
@Ryan_335804 The pack of LEDs I posted comes with extra JST connectors for splicing the wires. The wires are ceramic coated so stripping them the traditional way doesn’t work. You can try to solder the tips of the wires together. For me I didn’t have my soldering iron on hand so I used a lighter to burn off the coating. Then sanded the end. Then twisted and folded the wires together and wrapped with electrical tape. If you Google “joining wires without solder” you should find a few videos. So I used 50+35 for the bottom 85 lights. The wire splice goes here. Then 50 and whatever else left for the build.
@brianau3048_605333 hey there I just got everything installed and wired as you said. I spliced into the usbc breakout board for the leds. I have new drivers installed and WLED installed. But the lights are not powering on? I have my data line hooked to D4. I’ve tried troubleshooting but am at a loss. Any ideas?
Nevermind I started troubleshooting the strips and I only had a total of 23 lights working, I am going to go with a set of adafruit lights as the ones from amazon were not up to par in my case.
@Wild_Coyote97_590780 do you have a multimeter? Does the usbc have power? Does the ESP32 have power? (You’ll know if it does if it lights up). Can you send a picture of the LED connection?
@Wild_Coyote97_590780 when I get a chance tomorrow I will take a picture of my board and show the connections
@brianau3048_605333 that would be great just to be sure, and yes I do I tested at the splice and I had 5 volts and I had 5 volts after. The data pin was giving sufficient voltage. After testing more I got a few to light up at the top of the sphere. But the other lights are not working. I was using a 5v 5amp power supply. I ordered a 10 amp and Amazon is sending me some new lights.
Also the esp32 is powering up and working properly. I was able to access WLED and double check everything. But after testing and more testing it seems like the lights are just a bad set.
@Wild_Coyote97_590780 sorry for the delay here’s the photo
@brianau3048_605333 that is exactly how I had mine wired up. I got another set and had only 150 out of 200 lights work. I installed 150 and just called it a day. Everything else works great but I feel like the Adafruit lights are worth the extra. I appreciate all of your help.
@brianau3048_605333 hey! I bought the LEDs you linked to from Amazon, but I already had the QT PI and BFF board in the original instructions. Do you know if I can use that controller with the Amazon LEDs? I tried, but the LEDs are not lighting up. I tried powering them via the BFF board and via the USB breakout, but still nothing. I confirmed the LEDs work with the controller that came with them from Amazon.