Brilliant in more ways than one, this LED wall is affordable, practical, beautiful, and completely open source, from physical design to software.
Hans Lindauer of Portland, Oregon sends us his project, constructed with collaborator Alex Norman for the band STRFKR, on tour with it now. Check it out in action:
It defies the idea that LED wall tech has to be pricey, the domain only of big, commercial acts and specialized makers. There are a number of clever features engineered into this DIY wall:
- A design based on an affordable, waterproof strip, readily available from Adafruit
- Electronics that are contained inside the panel – and beer-proof as a result
- Roll-out, self-supporting design for easy transport and stage use
Accepts video signals via a USB video adapter
And that’s to say nothing of the fun and satisfaction of building a creation like this to your exact needs, while understanding how it works.
Hans writes in some detail about how this is put together, and shares all the design files:
LED Video Wall @ Dorkbot PDX
Hardware is in that post; software you’ll find on GitHub via Alex:
https://github.com/x37v/led_wall
For anyone who’s ever toured, watching the teardown video may be more impressive than watching the LED wall functioning: