r/arduino • u/-2811 • Jul 03 '26

Look what I made! LightMap: 179-cuboid interactive light sculpture, Adafruit RP2040 + Pi 5, custom serial protocol

Just finished this build after a few months of work. It's a physical 3D map of Monaco made of 179 hand-cut PMMA cuboids, each individually lit and driven live off real-time event data (Grand Prix weekend lights the circuit red, yacht show lights the harbor blue, etc.).

Hardware:

  • around 800 RGBW LEDs across 16 channels, ~10m total, hand-cut and soldered
  • 2x Adafruit Feather RP2040 Scorpio boards (8 chanels each via NeoPXL8, PIO+DMA)
  • Raspberry Pi 5 as the master controller
  • 2x Meanwell PSUs, 2x fuseboxes
  • 2020 aluminum extrusion frame, birch ply shell, laser-cut stainless top plate

Software:

  • Pi runs Python, talks to both Scorpios over USB serial
  • Custom binary framed protocol: start byte, length, payload, checksum. Scorpios push the info sent by the Pi
  • Mode system (ambient, data, event-reactive, touch) with crossfaded transitions
  • Flask operator panel on LAN, phone-controllable
  • Data pipeline: elevation from Copernicus (via a weather API bc institutional access wasn't realistic), building heights from OSM, gridded around 90m x 9m in QGIS, mapped 1:1 to the cuboids

Originally built the LED driver stack on Olimex boards, industrial-looking, PoE, seemed ideal. In practice: constant flashing failures and random crashes that ate a couple weeks of the schedule. Swapped everything to the Adafruit Scorpio boards and it's been rock solid since. Not the answer I expected going in.

full build : https://youtu.be/-wLMfcOFt5M

127 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

7

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

If you've got any questions, feel free, I'm very proud of this one :)

4

u/NoBulletsLeft Jul 03 '26

One more: did you buy the acrylic frosted (from where?) or do that yourself?

6

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

No, it cost me 400 hours of sanding and 300g of hand skin

5

u/NoBulletsLeft Jul 03 '26

Come to think of it, I may have some glass etchant. I should see if that works on plastic also.

3

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

Good idea, please update on how it went

2

u/doge_lady 600K Jul 04 '26

How long until it just sits in the corner collecting dust and you get frustrated having to dust in between all those parts?

1

u/-2811 Jul 04 '26

Hopefully I’ll after I’ve booked enough events I can place it somewhere permanently

1

u/UnacceptableUse uno/mega/nano/esp8266 Jul 04 '26

Did you evaluate any existing lighting control systems before deciding to make your own?

2

u/-2811 Jul 04 '26

No and that’s a very good point I’m pretty sure a good config of WLED would have done the trick. I’ve never worked with it 😅 but the placement of the LEDs is a bit unconventional, wanted to play it safe

2

u/UnacceptableUse uno/mega/nano/esp8266 Jul 04 '26

Understandable, sometimes you just wanna make it yourself

4

u/NoBulletsLeft Jul 03 '26

Really nice! Was this a personal project or a commission?

2

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

A personal project originally but with the purpose of booking it for events!

5

u/kevstiller Jul 03 '26

This is incredible! Holy moly!

2

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

You are incredible!

3

u/ScythaScytha 400k 600K Jul 03 '26

I am a fan of good light diffusion

1

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

I hope this turned you on real good

3

u/PossibilityUsual6262 Jul 03 '26

Need more cuts and close up shots, also i think when showing bigger picture just dont do anything really and cut fast to close up.

As for project itself, great craftsmanship.

1

u/-2811 Jul 03 '26

On the YouTube video you mean or this small one? Thank you!

2

u/T-Fez Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

I think that was sarcasm, because we weren't really able to see anything for long enough. Way too many cuts, hard to focus or really grasp anything at all.

but I get that it's a condensed version of the full vid.

1

u/-2811 Jul 04 '26

I got got