Individually addressable RGB LEDs like the WS2812B models are popular because they’re so easy to drive and don’t require any complex wiring. Each LED in the chain passes a signal on to its neighbor and you only need to know the position of an LED in the chain to control its brightness and color. This project from Andrei Erdei shows how to use that to great effect in a minimalist lamp.
This lamp is charming in its simplicity. It has an opaque outer ring with a slightly thicker base and a translucent inner ring to diffuse the LEDs. When all of the LEDs are a single color, it is a unique lamp. But because they’re WS2812B LEDs, you can take advantage of the available Arduino libraries to produce all kinds of interesting lighting effects.
The frame is entirely 3D-printable. The only required components are an Arduino Nano board, a strip of 36 WS2812B LEDs (the 60 LEDs per meter density), and a power supply. The tutorial provides a sketch with lighting effects and also explains how to work with the FastLED Arduino library. That library is fantastic for easily controlling dozens or even hundreds of LEDs, so you can create whatever effects you can imagine.
