Everyone likes LED matrix. Even if you can’t find what you like in business, it’s easy to make what you want. Do you need a bigger one? no problem; Just order a large PCB and some ws2812. Do you need some little things? There are some absurdly small LEDs that can test your SMD skills and vision.
But what if you want a small matrix, which is actually a disguised large matrix? To do this, you need to follow the footsteps of [elliotmade] and integrate the optical fiber into the LED matrix. The build starts with a 16 × The ws2812b addressable LEDs of the 16 matrix start with a fairly small spacing, but the side is still 160 mm. The flexible matrix is sandwiched between the metal back plate and the plastic baffle, and there are holes on each LED. One end of each hole can accommodate a flexible acrylic light pipe material with a length of 1.5 mm; An aluminum block is inserted into the other end, and there is a 35 on the aluminum block × 7 similar hole matrix. The small module is supported above the substrate by a bracket, but it looks like an elegant bundle of optical fibers supporting the smaller display.
Raspberry PI Pico running the circutpython program can control the LED. As you can see in the video below, the effect is very good. Only enough light leaks from the optical fiber. While the small display screen works, it presents a charming picture in the background. We have seen some practical uses for this kind of thing, but we agree that it is only for beauty. However, it does give the idea of adding optical fibers to circuit sculpture.