Using WS2812 LEDs is quite easy. They are chained together and use 8bit color per channel. With an ESP8266, one can very easily program those LEDs using Wifi.

In my case I choose to implement a very "stupid" ArtNET Server on the ESP which would then allow to control the LEDs using the ArtNET protocol.

In this example, I used four RGB-123 panels, resulting in a 16x16 RGB LED Matrix.

Code on Github

The next challange would be to create a library to set a specific color temperature on the whole Panel. There are certain limitations:

• The WS2812 can only be controlled by using 8bit colors, which is a little bit too less for a specific color - especially If you want to dim the whole panel (as it is quite bright on full power).
• using a RGB Panel is maybe not the best idea, as we "waste" the capabilities of the WS2812 LEDs. Actually a "dumb" Strip with a good LED controller would be better...

Here are some further links that might be useful:

• RGB LED color calibration
• XYZ/RGB Conversion Matrices
• Zumtobel Lichthandbuch (Deutsch)