Long time Reader of this (and many other) ESP32 groups but first time posting my own project

Been building something I'm pretty excited about and wanted to share with this community.

Pixel Panel will be an open-source, fully offline WS2812B LED controller built around the ESP32-CYD (Cheap Yellow Display V3 [Dual USB]). No Wi-Fi, no app, no cloud, no phone required!! — just a beautiful 2.8" touchscreen that gives you instant control over up to 2000 addressable LEDs. 27 animation modes, dual auxiliary relay output, brightness control, auto-off timer, PIN-locked config, and a screen saver to prevent burn-in. Everything runs locally on the device.

Perfect for anywhere WLED fails, Pixel Panel wins:

• Car interior — no WiFi, no hotspot needed, just 12V and a USB adapter. WLED needs a phone nearby
• Kids room — no WiFi dependency, no app for kids to break, physical touchscreen they can actually use
• Outdoor / garden — shed, gazebo, pergola — anywhere without a router nearby
• Bedside table — tap the screen half asleep, no phone, no app loading, no "reconnecting..."
• Airbnb / rental property — guests just tap the screen, nothing to explain, nothing to break
• Bar / venue — staff tap the screen, no phones out, no network to configure
• Caravan / campervan / boat — completely off-grid capable
• Workshop / garage — gloves on, big touchscreen buttons, no fiddling with a phone

Along with that is its Pixel Panel Puppet...!

The wireless expansion unit. It's a small headless ESP32 (LOLIN S2 Mini or C3 Super Mini) that listens for ESP-NOW broadcasts from the Pixel Panel master and mirrors the same animations on its own locally connected LED strip — no wiring between units, no router, no pairing.

Add as many Puppet units as you need, each driving up to 4 strips independently. One touchscreen controls everything, simultaneously, across any number of rooms. You can also have multiple Pixel Panels each set to its own zone with its own puppets!

Both projects will be open-source on GitHub very soon. Firmware, wiring diagrams, and full setup guides included.

Happy to answer questions in the comments — what else would you want to see in a controller like this?

Pardon me if this isn't the right place to ask about this, but I'd love some creative and clear wiring guidance.

I built LED leg warmers using one 10000 mAh USB battery per leg (in a 3D-printed ankle holster), ESP32 controllers with WLED installed, and five 20-LED strips running down each leg (controller and strips held to the leg in a sort of calf belt harness setup).

What I'd love to figure out is a cleaner, more tidy wiring setup. Bear with me, but the current setup is as follows:

Power is a USB battery.

Next is a USB adapter with screw terminals.

From that adapter, I run 5V and GND wires which form the power "spine" and run through the whole project. I then splice branches into that wire to send 5V and GND to my controller (ESP32 board) and all strips (in this case, 5 separate strips).

From the ESP32 controller, I run another wire as the data "spine," then do the same thing as above, splicing data branches to all LED strips.

It's a LOT of splicing!

So:

Battery (5V/GND)
||
||
||=ESP32
|| | (data)
|| |
|| |
|| |====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 1
|| |====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 2

ETC

To try to make wiring easier, I'm going to switch to silicone coated wire. I've heard that's far more flexible.

I was also thinking of using a single two-wire cable to carry 5V/GND instead of two separate wires. But then I run into a quandary: how do I splice into something like that? And if I can't/shouldn't splice, what then? Can I, say, branch 5V/GND 6 ways from a single point? And can I branch DATA 5 ways from the ESP32?

Now let's say I have another project with just two LED strips running in parallel. Is there any other way to approach this that I'm totally overlooking?

Thanks for putting up with my questions! I'm a wiring noob. I've made several projects work, but I'd like to improve my approach moving forward.

Three months ago Patternflow was just an idea, and it started right here on this sub.

I posted my first build about two months ago: a 4-knob generative pattern controller on an LED matrix, plus the story of how I found out you can actually kill a potentiometer.

The response was way bigger than I expected, and a bunch of you said you wanted to make your own. That's the whole reason I open-sourced it 12 days later instead of keeping it a product. Then 17 days after that, I posted about generating patterns for real.

A month on, here's where it's at.

I'm trying to turn Patternflow into something I can actually do for a living. I signed with Crowd Supply and the pre-launch page is up now, a fully assembled unit for people who'd rather play one than build one. I'd rather say that plainly than bury it: yeah, there's a campaign now. But everything stays open source, and that part isn't changing.

The product isn't even what I care about most, though. Patternflow is my take on Nam June Paik's Participation TV, and what I want most is to bring it into the art world with that idea intact. I've got dreams that are way too big for where I actually am right now (the MIT Media Lab is somewhere on that list, which, lol). But that's the direction I'm walking in.

None of it happens without this sub. Without the encouragement on those early posts, I'm pretty sure I'd have quit partway through. The night I killed my first pot with a soldering iron, the weekend I stayed up making my first PCB, those are the parts I keep going back to. And I'm getting humbled all over again right now trying to optimize it for mass production.

Journal, web

The part I'm proudest of is the journal. I wrote down the whole process and how I actually felt at each step, as plainly as I could. I always wanted to know how the projects I looked up to really got made, the ugly middle and not just the finished photo, and that was never easy to find. So this time I'm keeping all of it. If it gives even one person the push to start their own thing, that's enough.

A few people have already built their own from the files and shared them with me, and nothing makes me happier than that. If you make one, please show me. That's the best thing you could do for me here.

The site's also a lot better than it was, cleaner and with more to mess around with. I think of the web side as part of the work, so I put real time into it. The files, the build guide, the simulator, the journal, the GitHub, and the pre-launch all live in one place:

patternflow.work

Patternflow is nowhere near finished. The more I work on it the more I find, and the strange part is that the further I get, the less done it feels. At the start I thought I was at 80%. Then 50%. Right now it feels like 30%. I'm oddly fine with that, and I'm going to keep going.

I post new patterns most days, and the long version of all this goes up on the journal every week or so. The Discord's open too if you want to ask something directly. It's all open source, so ask away.

Thanks, really. I'll post again when there's something real to show.

Looking for suggestions on how to get a diffuse coating on WS2811 LED’s like the ones on pebble lights
I’m interested in making my own PCB with the LEDs in a pattern, but am looking for the diffuse look (and environmental protection).

Anyone have any suggestions?

UV cures are acceptable, I have UV sources.