• what is the lightbrush?

the lightbrush is a high density LED device made specifically for #lightpainting.

with the camera set to a long exposure and the aperture pretty much closed the lightbrush is moved through the scenery. while it's being moved a microncontroller is animating colorful patterns on the LEDs.

HD or more LEDs is key here. it provides higher resolution and finer detail in every exposure.

every photo is unique.

the lightbrush is 20cm long (198mm) with 66 LEDs. that's where it gets interesting: it has 333 LEDs per meter, that's about 2.3x the LED density of a typical 144 LED/m addressable LED strip.

it is easily extensible, just connect two to have a 40cm light saber, or ten if you want to go crazy with a 2m lightbrush and 660 LEDs, etc.

to stay realistic: a 1 m aluminum profile with 20 cm for the controller and handle, and 80 cm for four lightbrushes is already pretty large.

more LEDs means more resolution in the light trails: finer details, smoother patterns, and more information captured by the camera during the exposure.

oh, and all the photos you see here are unedited, just maybe cropped and scaled.

• where can I find more on lightpainting?

just look up the hashtag #lightpainting on pretty much any platform. there's many forms and varieties.

here's an excellent tutorial from a friend, particulate

• what is WLED, where can I find more?

WLED is an incredibly simple to use LED animation software for the ESP32 controller family. it can get pretty advaced too. for lightpainting you typically create a playlist of multiple presets, with every second being "all LEDs off". then while painting you can advance through the playlist with a button, and in the dark phases you can move the lightbrush, or take off the diffusor to switch from blurry background to crisp foreground painting.

typically WLED creates a WiFi "WLED-AP", and you can connect with your phone/tablet/etc with the password "wled1234", and then already on the landing page ("captive portal") you have the full controls, all settings, modes, palettes etc. Usually I don't connect WLED to my office/home WiFi at all, there's no benefit with lightpainting

WLED is also covered in paticulate's tutorial on lightpainting

the WLED homepage has all the details about settings and wiring, and flashing (which you shouldn't need with a WLED controller, only with a raw ESP32).

• how's lightbrush different from using a LED strip?

resolution. the commercially available strips max out at 144 LEDs per meter. the lightbrush has 333 LEDs per meter. so the resulting resolution is about 2.3x fold.

• what's in the kit?

  

  • one 66 LED 198mm lightbrush
  • one double sided thermally conducting adhesive tape (still electrically isolating)
  • 4-lead wire 0.75mm², 20cm+(20cm * number of LB ordered), so you always have enough

• what else do I need?

  • a camera (a DSLR is not exactly required. most phone cameras have long exposures to at least 30s)
  • an LED controller, WLED-compatible is the easiest entry, 25€-ish

  

  here's some, but we have no specific recommendation

  

  • an aluminum profile for LEDs (best with diffusor), must be wide enough for the 16mm lightbrush, about 10€ per meter
  • a beefy 5V power supply, for bright LEDs it's nice to have at least 1A per lightbrush, or 5A per meter. more is never a problem, less will still work when limited in the WLED "Config" -> "LED settings" -> "Maximum PSU Current"
  • tools, just usual stuff, soldering iron should not be required (unless you solder and flash your own ESP)

• wiring

the lightbrush itself comes with WAGO SMD clamps that are usable for wires up to 1mm diameter (== 0.75mm² == AWG18). the four-core cable that comes with the lightbrush is just the right size (1mm diameter).

when you can read the text on the lightbrush board the signals go from left to right, as the >>> arrows indicate. the leftmost CI (clock input) connects to the CO (clock output) of the controller, the corresponding DI (data input) connects to DO (data output) of the controller. GND must be connected to GND of the controller. when using a 5V power supply (recommended!) connect the 5V output to the 5V input of the controller (often 5V-24V (or more)), and also connect it to the 5V of the lightbrush board.

do not connect the power output of the controller, those turned out to be very limited in most models.

when daisy-chaining lightbrush boards cut

• two wire pieces (all blank) of 12mm max for 5V and GND
• two wire pieces (keep the isolation) of 35mm max for CO to CI and DO to DI, cut off 5mm isolation (7mm max!) on each end

connect as shown:

apply the double-sided adhesive thermally conducting tape to the bottom of each lightbrush strip. first remove the brown paper, then apply to the lightbrush, then remove the blue foil, and seat the led bar on the aluminum extrusion profile.

• getting started

with your phone connect to WLED, it's he "WLED-AP" WiFi, pass "wled1234"

go to "Config".

here's the most important setting. choose APA102 LEDs, set Length to the number of LEDs you have (66 x numoflightbrushes), and then set the pins.

Data GPIO: use the GPIO from your controller, where DI is connected to, just put in the number Clock GPIO: use the GPIO from your controller, where CI is connected to, just put in the number

you can leave everything else as default, and after pressing "Save" you should see some first light.

in case there's multiple LED strips configured, press (-) until there's only one.

now, go live! get comfortable with WLED, mostly try "Colors" and "Effects".

use "Peek" to get a smal sketch bar of the LEDs on your screen

just experiment. start in darkness. set your camera to long time exposure like 15s, and your ISO low, e.g. to 50.

now with some WLED pattern animating the lightbrush move it (or walk it) through the scenery.

for advanced setup of WLED presets and playlists, and advancing by button-press see paticulate's tutorial on lightpainting

• tech bits
  • 198mm long
  • 16mm wide
  • 66 LEDs / 198mm
  • 333 LEDs per meter
  • 66 APA102 (the name of the addressable LED used)
  • SK9822 is pretty much identical and uses the same protocol, your SW may reference it by that name, too
  • SPI compatible (one of the many PROs of this LED model)
  • 2mm x 2mm LEDs, 3mm apart
  • maxiumum wire: 0.75mm²
  • maxiumum wire: 1mm diameter
  • maxiumum wire: 18 AWG
  • the WAGO SMD clamps are rated up to 9A
  • in case very long and very bright lightbrushes are needed, the gold plated areas can be used to inject more power to the strip

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