NeoPixel WLED Wood Slab Chandelier

2026-05-31 | By bekathwia

License: GNU Lesser General Public License Addressable LEDs Microcontrollers Real Time Clocks (RTCs) Single Board Computers WS2812/SK6812 (NeoPixel) Arduino

Today, we’re building a wood slab chandelier that’s way smarter than your average light fixture. This project is a collaboration with James Wright, who approached me with the idea of turning a gorgeous wood slab into a one-of-a-kind ceiling-suspended lighting fixture. We agreed on a concept with LED strip pointing up to spread light across the ceiling, and a few pendants hanging from the slab to provide downward room lighting and also highlight the grain of the slab. James is an amazing woodworker.

Definitely check out his video to see how he transformed the raw slab into the foundation for our lighting fixture.

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James sent me photos of the slab I could use to sketch the LEDs' locations, and I got to work on a bill of materials as well. Here’s the design, which has a few meters of LED strip and six pendants.

I created a printable template in Illustrator that James could assemble and attach to the slab as a guide for the hole locations and LED strip positions.

For the pendants, I wanted to use two NeoPixel rings back-to-back so they would shine up and down simultaneously. I sketched out a few ideas in my notebook before opening any CAD software. The LEDs I chose are RGBW ‘natural’ to match the color temperature of the other lights in James’ home.

I set about designing the pendants for 3D printing using Tinkercad. After a few iterations, I settled on a basic cylinder printed in vase mode, which provides a nice, thin, even surface for light to shine through. And they print super-fast, too. I published the model so you can download it and also make modifications, if you want.

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I made a second piece to act as the receptacle for the NeoPixel rings and stiffen the form. Then I glued the two pieces together with CA glue.

Next, it was time to figure out how James would control the light fixture. Sure, it could just turn on and off with a switched outlet, but pixels can do so much more, and James mentioned he’s an avid user of Home Assistant, which is an automation platform I’ve always wanted to try.

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One approach to controlling the NeoPixels remotely is to use WLED. This free software makes it fast and easy to get started remotely controlling pixels, and it runs on most ESP Wi-Fi boards. Plus, it integrates with Home Assistant. I’m sold. So that rounds out this project’s bill of materials.

Supplies used:

RGBW NeoPixel strip (4 meters)
RGBW NeoPixel rings (12)
WLED-compatible Wi-Fi microcontroller such as Arduino Nano ESP32
AC adapter
Solderful breadboard
Barrel jack
1000uF electrolytic capacitor
Solid hook-up wire 22ga
Three-strand ribbon wire
Premium jumper cables M-F
White PLA filament for 3D printer
CA glue
Kapton tape
Soldering tools and supplies

By now, I hope you are aware of my electronics teaching video series on the DigiKey YouTube channel– great for building your foundational skills before tackling a project like this one.

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The wiring is straightforward: power, ground, and a single data line to control all the LEDs. But if ever there were a project that needs that big capacitor recommended for NeoPixel projects, this is it. It’s got tons of pixels and long runs of wire, as well as an AC to DC power supply that plugs into the wall, which are often notoriously noisy. I’m using a 1000uF electrolytic cap near the first pixel, wired between power and ground.

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Soldering all those LED strip segments together took quite a bit of effort, and the project was quickly growing too big for my small studio. So, I hung it up on the wall.

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Getting WLED set up is one of the most satisfying parts of this project. You flash the firmware directly from the browser, connect to its Wifi hotspot, and within minutes, you’ve got a web interface controlling your lights. I configured the uplight and pendants as separate segments. So even though the pendants are downstream, data-wise, from the uplight, WLED can save their addresses and allow you to control them independently.

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Each pendant gets two 12-LED NeoPixel rings wired in series. I used three-strand ribbon wire for a clean look and ran it up through the centers of the pendant shades before gluing them in place. I added small clamps to the dangling wires to keep them straight and taut while the glue dries.

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I have to share a mistake I made because it’s a good learning opportunity. This project uses a lot of power. 339 RGBW pixels can be hungry, y’all. So, of course, I used a beefy power supply rated for 8 amps and configured WLED’s auto-brightness control to limit current to no more than that. But I used this connector. This connector is not rated for such high current. In fact, I couldn’t find a current rating for this part anywhere. I should have checked, and that should have been the sign to swap it for a connector that is explicitly rated to handle the high current I want to pass through it. Because I didn’t do that, and I guess I didn’t test the final circuit thoroughly at full brightness either, this adapter started smoking when James turned the light on full blast. I was able to replicate the conditions at home to show you, which you should certainly not do: as I cranked up the brightness, sure enough, the part eventually got hot enough to start burning the plastic housing. If left unattended, this could definitely start a fire.

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Luckily, it was easy to find some barrel jacks on DigiKey that are rated for the power we need. I made a new brain board for James and ensured there was plenty of conductive surface area for the power and ground connections to move those electrons without overheating. And I soldered the jack directly to the board, rather than using wires. So that James wouldn’t have to solder his pixels during the brain swap, I used splice lever connectors to connect to power, ground, and signal. After testing, I confirmed it was still cool to the touch at max brightness and left the circuit on for quite some time to be certain. Then I used Kapton tape to insulate the circuit, since it doesn’t have another enclosure. James was able to connect the new brain and perform the necessary troubleshooting to get everything back up and running. The finished result is this gorgeous wood slab, now the centerpiece of the room, with lighting that adapts to any mood or occasion. Check out his video to learn more about the project.

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This is the first smart home project I’ve done in a while. I got turned off from the whole thing ever since my Amazon Echo added straw hats to my cart while I was watching Westworld. Even though I love experimenting with technology, maybe especially because I do, I understand that we can’t ensure the security of our data connected to the cloud.

So that’s why I’m excited to use Home Assistant for this project. It’s a completely local server, meaning your data stays on the premises and is only accessible through your hardline ethernet connection or your private, password-protected Wifi network. You can buy hardware with Home Assistant pre-installed or install the free software on a Raspberry Pi with a fast SD card, or better yet, an SSD drive.

Getting into home automation territory opens up so many possibilities. I plugged in my Home Assistant Green’s ethernet to the router on my studio’s super professional networking rack and set up the Home Assistant app. Because it has to run even when the room is in guest room mode, I used black paper tape to cover up the lights.

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My goal is actually to make my studio projects easy to turn off when the space becomes a guest room. I’ve got multiple LED installations in my studio. Some already have Wi-Fi, so I can update their firmware to work with Home Assistant. This is super easy with WLED, which is fully compatible with Home Assistant. But some just plug into power, so I need a few Home Assistant-controlled power outlets.

I picked up some Sonoff smart outlets because they were inexpensive. Their default software is ok and integrates with Home Assistant after a few steps. But y’all know me, I’m going to explore the pipeline from customer to electronics tinkerer, which I think is strong among the smart home community. So, I’m going to show you how I flashed these Sonoff S31s with Tasmota firmware, an open-source way to gain complete local control.

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To open it up, pop off the end cap with something thin. Slide out the two plastic corner pieces to expose the three screws. After removing those, the front plastic shell will slide apart from the circuit. On the circuit board at the end, you’ll find some labeled pads on the circuit. Solder wires to four of these pads: VCC, GND, TX, and RX. You’ll need an FTDI cable, which has a serial communications chip inside. You’ll need to install its driver too if it’s your computer’s first time using it.

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Use the Tasmota web tool to flash the firmware. Hold down the button while plugging in the USB cable, and don’t let go for five seconds after. If the web tool doesn’t recognize it right away, unplug it and try again. Once everything’s flashed and configured, putting the outlets back together is just the reverse process of taking them apart.

I plugged my projects into the modified outlets and added them and the WLED projects all to a group in Home Assistant, so I can turn off all ambient lights with one tap. For me, this project has been a fun excuse to finally dive into Home Assistant, which I’m definitely going to use for more projects in the future.