Overview
This project is a physical one: an ESP32 microcontroller running the WLED firmware, wired to a 128×128 LED matrix and driven in real time from a backend I host locally. Text, colours, and animations are all pushed to the panel from a custom interface. It started as a school project and turned into a proper hardware-plus-software build.
How it works
The ESP32 handles the LEDs via WLED, and a local Python backend talks to it to render content — live text, custom colours, and animation effects — with WebSockets keeping the display in sync with the interface in real time. The result is a big, physical output surface I can drive from code, which is a very different and satisfying kind of "deploy" compared to shipping to a browser.
Why it matters
Bridging software to physical hardware is a whole different discipline from web and game work — timing, firmware, wiring, and the fact that you cannot just refresh the page when something is wrong. It also feeds directly back into the art side: the ESP32 WLED board itself shows up as a piece in the art gallery. Building things you can actually touch keeps the rest of the work honest.
Status
Completed and working — a 128×128 panel that renders real-time text, colour, and animation from a local backend.