Looking for advice to make an epic matrix

EngiNeenan

New elf
Joined
Nov 28, 2025
Messages
2
Hey guys I'm new here. Going deep in the rabbit hole. i might be one of the only people in Darwin crazy enough to join this hobby and community 🤣

Ive spent hours and hours scraping AliExpress to find the right product for a large matrix

Im wanting a size around 5m x 1.5m and a 2.5cm pitch for greater detail on effects.

I was looking to buy six 20px x 50px each 250cm x 50cm.

This is the product:

This appears to use WS2811 seed pixels. They only draw 8mA so my concern is they may not be bright enough. The street we live on is relatively dark, although has one street light 30m away. Across the road from my house is a large green oval so the house can actually be seen from distance of +100m.
 
Oh they'll be bright enough to be seen alright. .008A * ~9V = .072W, * 400 nodes is 30W of LED light (for a mere 20x20 panel... you are looking at 6000 pixels which would be 400+W of LED light). 10W is typical for an LED household bulb, and those can be seen from 100m easily enough.

The real questions are more a practical consideration of using that style of matrix section to make a big enough matrix to make out detail, viewing distance, etc. Your math isn't mathing for me. You said 6 panels of 20x50 - at 2.5cm pitch that is 6*20*2.5 = 3m x 1.5m; this is under your 5mx1.5m goal by 50%. 1000 pixels on a panel is also a bit of a challenge, that'd be 8A through the small connector (though I guess only 4A from each side of it), and 1000 pixels limits your frame rate, so I'd be tempted by smaller ones, but that means more parts to deal with. (Also, get spares.)
 
Thanks so much for the input.

My bad, You are right. That's weird the product page says a 20 x 50px matrix is 50cm x 250cm but with a 2.5cm pitch it would actually be 50cm x 1.25 so the dimensions on the listing would be 5cm pitch. Its looks like the seller did a copy paste from their 5cm pitch listing.

Now I'm crunching the numbers this would mean 12 channels which is sounding difficult. Would most people use a 5cm pitch for this size matrix?

At a 5cm Pitch id be looking at 6 channels which is sounding more practical. I was just worried a 5cm pitch be be to far apart.
 
Last edited:
A lot of people would use 2.5cm pitch, and a lot of people would use 5cm pitch (especially depending on how close anyone ever gets to it).
Controllers have 16-17 ports :)
My first (and definitely ill-advised) matrix was 150x96 - 48 ports of 300 pixel strip. (Suitcase-sized controller enclosure now sits in attic patiently awaiting a new mission.) Yours will be better either way.
 
Back
Top