Carrie (of Alpenglow)Got an ugly-ass nonfunctional fireplace that someone painted black? I’ve got the solution! I’ve had the parts and custom flex boards for a while for this and just no time. Tonight’s the night! Powered by a @wizard Pixelblaze and their HDR strips. It’s gonna go all the way up the fireplace!
@wizard The two rows running KITT, always my first pattern to make sure i have the LED setup and color order right. Don’t mind the loud music and me excitedly yelling.
3 more rows up! The right ones are harder for me to solder because I’m right-handed and the angle is funny. Also I really wish I had thought to bring my head-mounted magnifiers from the shop. 😆
This is gonna be so good! This pattern is Marching Rainbow.
This is the custom flex circuit I made to connect each row to the next. It was also an excuse to order a clear flex PCB from JLC. It sokders directly to the addressable strips and is one brick in spacing.
I’m using one of my Pebble Buddy 4 boards even tho I’m using a standard Pixelblaze for this project. It’s handy because it adds a USB-C connector for power, and power to the LEDs isn’t routed thru the Pixelblaze board (so maybe I can drive more LEDs than if I was using the onboard USB micro connector.) It also adds a connector for the first strip, so I can easily detach the PB if I want to use it for something else or add a sensor board to it.
I figured out after soldering the headers for the layout shown previously that I could have stacked it vertically pretty easily for a smaller footprint. Like so:
I’ve just been lying on my couch watching pretty lights for the past several hours. It’s a little over half wired and may need either power injection or a beefier power supply or both. It’s at 540 LEDs and works well at 10% brightness but the upper rows start to lose blue at 25%.
I liked the patterns the dark space made in this one. No mapping has been done yet, this is just a result of the snake-like wiring.
Behold! It is now sound reactive. (sound on).
I finished installing the LEDs today! The soldering was more awkward than I thought it was going to be, especially as I got higher. I started soldering two strips together on the right side, (the more awkward side for me) on the floor, and then taping them up together.
The last bit of attaching the boards and power on the right side, and soldering the custom flex circuits on the left side. I then realized that all my little USB power supplies were weaksauce and having a hard time supplying enough current. I ended up running to my shop and grabbing a beefier USB power hub.
Success! All 4 sections of strips are working!
Now the fun begins. @wizard Pixelblaze running Xorcery 2D.
@wizard Pixelblaze running Eye of Sauron. This might be my favorite pattern.
@wizard Pixelblaze running Doom Fire v2.0 2D. Now I can have fires…on? my fireplace!
@wizard I stared at this one for a while. Honeycomb 2D.
@wizard Pixelblaze running spiral twirls. i’m not sure what the center glitch is all about, my only idea so far is that it may have something to do with trying to mirror, but having an odd number of columns. I haven’t dug into the code.
@wizard ok one more. Some good noise.
Burn some Meta dollars and watch the long-ass instagram live I just did where I talk about how I put up this LED wall.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPuHQygEnn_/?igsh=MXU0bHFnaWxraWN6eg==
Alpenglow Industries on Instagram: "Welcome to Cozy Sundays with LEDs. I installed this LED wall on my fireplace over the last few days and am pretty stoked with how it turned out. It uses an @electromage_leds #Pixelblaze LED controller which makes it super easy to display some epic patterns. I also used one of their Sensor Boards to easily add a microphone and make it sound-reactive. #ledsareawesome #leds #ledwall #ledart #electromage"
2 likes, 0 comments - alpenglowind on October 12, 2025: "Welcome to Cozy Sundays with LEDs. I installed this LED wall on my fireplace over the last few days and am pretty stoked with how it turned out. It uses an @electromage_leds #Pixelblaze LED controller which makes it super easy to display some epic patterns. I also used one of their Sensor Boards to easily add a microphone and make it sound-reactive. #ledsareawesome #leds #ledwall #ledart #electromage".
MissConstrue@alpenglow That's kinda amazeballs. Go you!
diyelectromusic@alpenglow @wizard This has turned out so well :)
Kernel Bob 
@alpenglow @wizard Thanks, I've never seen most of those in spite of having a couple of PixelBlazen. (My LEDs aren't in 2D arrays.)
David Croyle@alpenglow @wizard I wish this video worked for me!
@alpenglow @wizard It finally showed up for me too... That hamster running the video server is getting a workout I guess!
But I'm glad it works because that looks pretty awesome! The cat is unimpressed by the Dark Lord's all-seeing eye, but I like it. :)
wow_elec_tron
gallaugher@alpenglow @wizard Glorious. So well done. Congrats & thx for sharing.
@gallaugher @wizard Thank you! And no problem, happy to share this project. 😄
lx242@alpenglow
Wow, that is a wholesomely impressive project, so much fun watching.
Have you considered adding some depth by running more strips into the place where an actual fire once might have been lit?
@lx242 Thanks! I’m not going to run LEDs in the fireplace itself - would make the patterns too disjointed and I may eventually do gas logs or something in there.
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective@alpenglow Love the enthusiasm 😂💜
piofthings@alpenglow marvellous!!!
Odd_Jayy@alpenglow I didn't know you had homer simpson over
@Jorvon_Moss I am also being aided and abetted by beer, so tonight I am Homer. 😂
@alpenglow Poor Grogu, turned away from the blinkenlichten! 😄
@sindarina maybe the little dude stared at them too much which led to this state. 😂
Joe Pasqua@alpenglow Great music choice.
@bitsplusatoms It came up randomly on a Pandora station while I was playing with patterns, and I thought it was funny to pair it with a light “paint” wall.
@alpenglow Perfect!
Björn Hesthamar@alpenglow You can easily inject power through the side. Now you have another excuse to order three way flex PCBs with power injection.
@hesthamar Heh. Nah, what I’ve been thinking of doing is using another Pebble Buddy on the side of the strip I want to inject power into. Easier to wire since there’s already a USB-C port and a pass-thru for LED data, and more durable since it’s a rigid PCB.
Saguaro LynxHuzzah!!
This looks Grrrreat!
8- )
(
Tired: separate sets of season lights
Wired: separate *programs* for seasonal light patterns!
:- )
Ölbaum@alpenglow But where would you have found the weird U-shaped pin-to-receptacle header needed for that? /j
@oscherler Heh. Obvs the answer is to make an adapter PCB. 😆 Starting with a straight header in the first place would be cheating.
@oscherler But it actually turned out good that I didn’t put the Pebble Buddy there because I ended up stacking the Sensor Board there instead.