Building Mini Vegas Sphere with LED Display: Challenges & Triumphs

TLDR; Building a mini Vegas sphere involves fitting numerous LEDs on a spherical shape and overcoming technical challenges, resulting in a display with limited resolution and high cost.

⚙️ Mini Vegas Sphere Inspiration

The speaker was inspired by the engineering involved in the Vegas sphere made from millions of LEDs.

The goal was to build a baseball-sized version for personal use, involving fitting as many LEDs as possible in a spherical shape.

⚖️ LED Placement Methods

Two methods were considered for placing the LEDs: spinning a ring of LEDs with a motor and using a flexible circuit to wrap around a plastic mount to form the hemisphere.

The flexible circuit approach was preferred to better represent the technology used in the Vegas sphere.

🔶 Geodesic Sphere Construction

The construction of the mini Vegas sphere involved using tiny triangles to create a geodesic sphere, a mathematical concept behind spherical buildings worldwide.

The speaker used online calculators and PCB design software to create a model with 945 LEDs, divided into five pieces for efficient design.

🛠️ PCB Design and Issues

The initial PCB had issues with shorts and soldering, requiring assistance from PCBway to resolve and sponsor five fresh new boards.

The speaker also detailed the process of connecting the board to a controller and addressing brightness and assembly issues.

💡 Display and Mechanical Assembly

After powering the LEDs and addressing brightness issues, the speaker proceeded to mount the display to a 3D printed base, encountering challenges with tape adhesion and pixel brightness.

Modifications were made to the mechanical design to prevent future issues, but difficulties with board mounting persisted.

🌀 Animating Display

The speaker experimented with creating patterns and animations on the display, highlighting the challenge of maintaining resolution with small, densely packed LEDs.

Despite limitations, the speaker managed to animate the iconic sphere emoji character.

💰 Cost Considerations

The total cost of all the LEDs was around $50, not including the PCB, soldering, controller, and mechanical assembly, leading to concerns about the cost-effectiveness of the project.

The speaker expressed uncertainty about pursuing the idea further due to the high cost and limited display resolution.