wiring up my walls with LEDs?

hi everyone. i'm new here, and i'm posting for advice on a little project i want to line up. i've got a store in town that sells everything an electronic tinkerer could want, and i'm wondering what i'll need to rig up a whole bunch of red, blud, and green LEDs all over my walls and cieling. it's a relatively small room, and i'm a decently handy guy, so i'd like to know what i need to buy (LEDs, wire, method of mounting, power supply, dimmer), and some rules of thumb when wiring up LEDs. do i just buy 100+ assorted LEDs, a couple hundred feet of wire, a power supply with a means of wiring them all up in parellel, and a means of dimming them? thanks.

btw, my room is about 10'x8'x9', and i can get just about anything industrial surplus at this store.

We've had a few folks ask questions like that... I've always thought I'd like to put up some shelving around three walls of the room with whatever on them, but at the very back, have the same colored LEDs... but I'd definately want all the same colors. Probably the bluish white a lot of cheaper LED flashlights have, but without any of the green.

Also, as cheap as Luxeons are these days, I've also thought of wiring up maybe 20 blue or royal blues with small reflectors pointing up but with some type of mild diffusing material on top of them so there wouldn't just be pronounced circles on the ceiling.

How about having them computer controlled so that they could make patterns - like wave effects, 70's dancefloor, or showing photos / video?


I remember reading an article where some students made a floor with thousands of LEDS & it could make great patterns. I'll try & google the link. . .

I found it faster than i thought I could

MIT LED Floor

there are loads of photos & videos to watch & instructions on how to make your own 7 they sell the controller boards needed.

• 1,536 LEDs
• 128 square feet
• 4,096 colors
• 30 frames/second
• 20,000 hand-soldered connections
• ...best parties ever!

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hey guys. thanks for your responses, but i'm not thinking of doing any kind of fancy patterns or compy-controlled disco-anything. just red, green, and blue LEDs all over my room, taped/glued to the walls and ceiling. can i just get a DC brick transformer, wire it to two rows of contactors, and wire up each LED to the contactors? or do i need some special equipment? i was also thinking of wiring up each color independently and attaching a dimmer switch to each color. would that work? it looks like i can get a buttload of the proper LEDs for ~$20, DC transformers for the same, and a couple hundred feet of wire for $40 or so. is this all i need? what kind of DC wattage would i need 30 5mm LEDs in each color? what's the most cost-effective way to wire up ~100 LEDs?

Hi my friend, maybe you want to make something like that...

you can put a resistor for a each led or run in serie, two or three...

there are under car "tubes" of leds, scrolling all sorts of neat modes, colors combine to make other colors, I would try contacting some of those companies and see if they manufacture anything or where you might get some tubing.
nopi is a good place I check I suppose, ebay motors, not sure of the company name streetglow I guess

yes!!! thank you!! i've got an old ATX power supply at my disposal! just cut the wires and wire up resistors to the 12v with the LEDs? i'll look it up. damn good idea. thanks.

starstruck said:

yes!!! thank you!! i've got an old ATX power supply at my disposal! just cut the wires and wire up resistors to the 12v with the LEDs? i'll look it up. damn good idea. thanks.

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Good luck... Remember post some pics when you done...