My Personal Projects

LED Lattice Project

LED Lattice Project

Introduction

Welcome to the DIY LED Lattice Project! This guide will walk you through creating a stunning LED lattice using WS2812 LEDs and wood. This project is perfect for those who love DIY electronics and woodworking. The finished product will be a beautiful LED lattice that you can use for decorative lighting in your home, office or parties.

Materials List

WS2812 LED Strips (Ones with ~10cm distance between the individual lights)
Wooden planks (size depends on desired lattice size)
- I got some from Jumbo that were 240x56x10mm
Wooden backplate
- I used a plywood plate that is white on one side, 1200x600x4mm
Screws (for assembling the lattice)
- For the frame: 3x12 screws
- For the rest: 3x20 screws
Steel L Right Angle Bracket, 90 Degree Metal Joint Corner Braces
Soldering iron and solder
Wire (for connecting LED strips)
Microcontroller
- In my case I'm using a BC-216 Artnet to SPI/DMX Pixel light controller
3 pin JST connector
Acryl spray for coloring the frame (optional)

Tools Required

Saw (for cutting wood)
Drill
Wire cutters and strippers
Computer with an Artnet souce

List of Woodcuts

Amount	Dimensions	Used for	Description
1	600x410x4mm	Backplate	Backplate where the LEDs are fixed on
2	410x56x10mm	Frame horizontal	Plain piece
2	590x56x10mm	Frame vertical	Plain piece
3	590x56x10mm	Lattice horizontal	Piece with 3cm deep and 1 cm wide cut every 10cm in the wood. See special pieces section below
5	390x56x10mm	Lattice vertical	Piece with 3cm deep and 1 cm wide cut every 10cm in the wood. See special pieces section below

Special pieces

Lattice horizontal

Lattice Horizontal

Lattice vertical

Lattice Vertical

Backplate

The measurements of the backplate before doing any sawing.

Backplate-Holes

The backplate after cutting and drilling the holes.

Construction Guide

Step 1: Preparing the Wood

Based on the pieces list, prepare all needed cuts to assemble the lattice.

To improve the througput I worked with templates that I created and used on the long planks to draw the cuts. One has to be careful to calculate the width of the saw blade, in order to have consistency in the length of the pieces.

I would recommend you cut all pieces before you start with any further steps.

Step 2: Assembling the frame

Assemble the wooden planks cuts that will form the frame together on the corners using the steel L right angle brackets. Use the 3x12 screws to not have screw ends hanging out into the lattice.

TODO-frame

Step 3: Assembling the lattice

Assemble the center lattice by pushing the cutouts into each other. If you did the cutting properly following the plan, this should be a rather easy task.

lattice

Step 4: Putting the frame and lattice together

Assemble the center lattice by pushing the cutouts into each other. If you did the cutting properly following the plan, this should be a rather easy task.

frame-lattice

Wait with screwing them together until the backplate is also finished.

Step 5: Attaching the LED Strips to the backplate

The 12mm holes should be just a little big bigger than the 10mm LEDs with the soldered on connections.

Place them into the holes whole having the wooden side facing up and use hot-melt adhesive (hot glue) for easy attachement.

duct-tape-prep

In order to fix the LEDs in the holes while applying the glue, I taped duct-tape over the holes on the white side of the backplate. This held the LEDs in place (kind of 😁).

glue-in-progress

In progress. I used a third hand to keep the light in place while waiting for the hot glue to cool down.

glue-done

Finished product. I applied further hot glue around the cable to protect it from strain.

Step 6: Add feet for protection of cables

In order to protect the cables when having the installation on the floor or hung up on a wall, I added small 50mm feet to the back of the backplate.

feet

These are the feet on the finished and painted version.

Step 7: Putting it all together

Place the frame, lattice and backplate together. Use the 3x20 screws to fix the frame to the lattice by applying screws on all sides through the fram into the lattice.

Also screw throught the backplate into the lattice.

backplate-screws