Music reactive LED helmet

Music reactive LED helmet - non wearable version

I really like the german band DEICHKIND which I listen to since the late 1990s. Their shows are legendary epic as f**k.  I have not seen any better show yet. (Props for the message at minute 51:10 !!!)

In some of their videos they wear these LED helmets which i wanted to build one all the time:

Now I found the time to create a easy printable, small version of the helmet, which has some of the known animations and also works as music reactive LED object. The original helmet has acrylic glas on the outside which I did not want to add on this version. I want a fully printable version. The glas could be added later i think, but it’s not my plan to do so… They also use a 28x28x28 LED version in newer songs. This version uses the 12x12x12 LED in 2 triangles which results in 156 manual to wire LEDs which ends in some soldering work. 

The helmet is surely not big enough to wear it with 22x22x22x22cm of dimension. I wanted to create a first version to put on my stereo system to react as a music reactive device. Maybe I will create another multipart version that might be able to wear, but will not fit on my MK3S+ bed anymore in 1 piece per side of the tetrahedron… Also a version with LED strips instead of the single LED chips might be better. It took me 2 evenings to solder all the connections…

Hardware used:

• 1x Node MCU V3 ESP8266
• 1x Microphone MAX4466 (Please use this one. Cheaper ones do not work well!) Ø9.6mm
• 1x Push button Ø16mm
• 1x Barrel jack for power input Ø12mm
• 156pcs LED chips WS2812B Ø9.75mm
• 1x 5V / 4A power supply with barrel jack connector
• Some wires in different colours
• Solderable wires to reduce the work of wiring between the LEDs
• 1x Super glue to glue the 3 sides together 

Wiring instructions:

• Because the LEDs used are single chip WS2812B they need more attention to wire. Double check their direction before soldering each one of them. See pictures for details.
• Both sides of the LEDs are separate LED chains working in parallel to reduce the amount of programming actions in the first step. So they are mirrored what makes programming the animations more easy but will not make possible to have all known animations. That would requrire to put all 156 LEDs in 1 long chain which is possible by connecting LED 78 of the 1st triangle to LED 1 of the 2nd triangle, but will be an idea for version 2…
• After all the wiring and testing the 3 parts need to be glued together with super glue and held in place some minutes with some painters tape.
• Please check the table which pins are connected for the project as well as the pictures:

About 950 soldering points later you will receive this: 😁

Note: Needed to use some free music provided from YouTube Studio…

Code for this project:

• The required code can be found on my GitHub account and I hope some of you will add some cool animations to it as well: GitHub/AWSW-de
• The code will contain at least 12 different VU meters and several animations which can be controlled with a web interface.
• The software can be updated via Arduino IDE and via the web interface as well.
• Details to the code and function can be found in the repository.
• So far (08.09.2022) the first 12 VU meters and 8 animations are implemented. Others and the specific animations will follow… Stay tuned.
• The animations and VU meters can be cycled with the push button forward with a short press or to the first active VU meter or animation one with a longer press of the button.
• You can select your favourite animations and VU meters in the web interface to cycle just through your liked ones with the button.
• An automatic cycler is also available where you can set a timeout to switch to the next animation / VU meter.
• Some VU meters and animations allow to set a user selectable color.
• The brightness of the LEDs can be set as well, because depending on the selected color it might be really intense. 🙈😎🙈

Web interface:

Note: The texts will be translated to english language later…

Printing instructions:

• 0.2 speed profile 
• No supports needed
• Turn off the skirt line to fit the 3 parts on the bed
• I used the textured sheet for all parts as shown

Happy printing :)