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936: Realtime LED Wall With React + Websockets (I Let Strangers Control It)

27 snips
Sep 10, 2025
Dive into the innovative world of a real-time, web-controlled LED grid project. The hosts discuss the hardware setup, including 3D-printed diffusers and ESP32 microcontrollers, alongside their adventures in soldering and power management. They share technical insights on using Cloudflare durable objects for live pixel art and moderation challenges. With fun anecdotes about blown circuits and melted wires, the episode reveals the creativity behind interactive technology and future plans for enhancing user engagement and home decor with vibrant RGBW lighting.
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ANECDOTE

Hack Week LED Grid Project

  • Wes built a real-time web-controlled LED grid as his Hack Week project combining hardware and software.
  • He let the wider internet draw on it and used it to display GitHub activity and live pixel art.
ANECDOTE

Soldering A 3x3 WS2812 Matrix

  • Wes soldered nine 16x16 WS2812 panels into a 3x3 matrix and rewired leads for his custom frame.
  • He desoldered pre-made leads, resoldered custom wiring, and estimates about an hour of soldering work with retries.
INSIGHT

ESP32 + WLED Powers The Grid

  • An ESP32 running WLED can drive addressable LEDs and expose HTTP/WebSocket APIs for control.
  • WLED acts as custom firmware that both serves a web UI and accepts pixel updates from remote apps.
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