WLED can treat a string of LEDs like a TV and display complex images and animations. Basically it treats a string of LEDs like a two dimensional matrix.
It does this by arranging the LED string in a serpentine pattern. The LED string goes up, down, up, down until it fills the 2D array.
The intelligent LED strings I’m using can be cut apart and re-connected between any two pixels. The backing for the string has three copper pads that can be connected by soldering wires to them.
With standard 1/2″ wide LED strings this is (somewhat) easy to do. With the ultra thin 2.7mm high density strings it is a nightmare.
To make the display look right you have to have the same number of pixels in each row. The original plan as to cut eight strips the same length and solder them together.
I tried. Several times. Managing to destroy several lengths of LEDs. The worst part was actually getting the connections to work a couple of times – until you moved the strips and the solder joints failed. I didn’t have the skills, equipment, or dexterity to pull this off. At lest not with any trace of reliability.
The electrical engineer proposed just wrapping the LED string up and down without cutting or soldering anything. This “wastes” some pixels at the top and bottom where you reverse direction of the LED string, but it avoids the need to cut and solder.
The first time I tried this I bent the LED string too much and damaged it. I tried cutting out and repairing the damaged sections. It almost worked. I managed to get the whole string to light up a couple of times. But as soon as I touched anything the fragile solder joints failed. After about three hours I gave up and ordered another roll of LEDs.
With the new roll of LEDs in hand I very carefully ran the string up and down the ribs of the inner framework. At each end I used the largest bends I could and left as much slack as possible in the string.
Completely paranoid now I checked the LED string for proper operation as I installed each of the eight legs. This time the whole string worked.
Slip the controller into its pocket and connect it to the LED string. Plug the controller into an external power supply and turn it own. The LEDs sprang to life!
So far, so good. Fire up the laptop, connect to the WLED controller, and start trying different patterns. It works and looks great. And there was much rejoicing!