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A SPINNING BALL OF LIGHT THAT PAINTS A FLOATING 3D GLOBE ON YOUR DESK

Sixty-four RGB LEDs spin fast enough that persistence of vision paints a full-colour 3D globe, a clock or animations onto a ball.

by lhm0

FULL CAD BOM FIRMWARE DOCS

DisplaysOpen-hardware

Built withRaspberry Pi Pico / RP20403D printing

difficulty
●●●●●
time
several weekends
license
CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
repo
repo ACTIVE45 stars

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1
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COMPAREE VERDICT

This is a complete open design for a rotating LED sphere that uses persistence of vision to show videos, GIFs and images on a desktop-sized 'Las Vegas Sphere'. An RP2040 streams frames from an SD card and drives the LEDs through shift registers and MOSFETs; an optional ESP01s adds a web interface; power reaches the spinning board wirelessly through a Royer converter, so there are no slip rings; and a Hall sensor keeps the image locked to the rotation. The repository has everything: KiCad PCBs with a JLCPCB ordering guide, a BOM, 3D-printable mechanics with print instructions, and PlatformIO code, plus a USB-C PD power board with motor speed buttons. The hard part is precision: balancing and aligning the rotor, and hand-soldering the LED matrix. Note the licence is CC BY-NC-SA, so it is for personal and educational builds, not for selling. If you have soldered small SMD parts and own a 3D printer, this is one of the most complete POV builds published.

GOOD TO KNOW

  • —Repository contains RP2040 and ESP01s firmware (PlatformIO), sample .rs64 content files, PCB files, mechanics and a BOM; a converter for your own GIFs and videos is not included.
  • —KiCad PCB designs (with a JLCPCB ordering guide), 3D-printable parts as STL, Fusion 360 and 3MF files, and print instructions are all in the repo.
  • —A full bill of materials (BOM.xlsx / BOM.pdf) is in the repository, plus per-board production BOMs for JLCPCB assembly.
  • —Licence is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — free for personal, educational and maker use, but not for commercial use; derivatives must use the same licence.
  • —Wireless power (Royer converter with PCB coils) and the full 3D-printed mechanics, including a USB-C PD power-supply housing, are part of the published design.
  • —If you have never soldered fine SMD parts or balanced a rotor, this is a better second POV build than a first.

Parts to buy

8 items

From our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.

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Can I build this?

PrintRotor, housing, mounts and the power-supply housing - STL, Fusion 360 and 3MF files plus print instructions in the repo; some parts need nut inlays
BuyPCBs and parts per BOM.xlsx (JLCPCB can assemble most of it), RP2040, optional ESP01s, LEDs, SD card, motor, USB-C PD charger (25-35 W), screws and nut inlays for the printed parts
Toolssoldering iron for 0402 parts and the LED matrix, 3D printer, multimeter, washers for rotor alignment
Skillshigh - fine SMD soldering (0402 resistors), careful rotor balancing and alignment, PlatformIO firmware flashing
Timeseveral weekends if you already know POV displays, longer if the mechanical side is new
CostModerate - PCBs with JLCPCB assembly, LEDs, the motor and a USB-C PD charger are the main costs; see BOM.xlsx
SafetyLow voltage only (USB-C PD charger), but a fast-spinning rotor: test at low speed first, keep fingers clear, and use the latest housing with the speed buttons moved away from the sphere.

Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.

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Gallery

Start here

Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.

  1. 1.Read the README, especially the update log (resistor values, power supply, rotor alignment) (The README, BOM and JLCPCB ordering guide cover the electronics; print_instructions.pdf covers the parts with nut inlays)
  2. 2.Order the PCBs from JLCPCB using the author's guide, and print the mechanics(The 3D-printable rotor, housing and mounts are in the repo; some parts need nut inlays, shown in the print instructions)
  3. 3.Flash the RP2040 firmware with PlatformIO (and the optional ESP01s firmware for the web interface)(PlatformIO required)
  4. 4.Convert GIFs or videos to the .rs64 format, copy them to the SD card and control playback through the optional web interface(The .rs64 format stores 64 x 256 pixel frames with 8 brightness levels)

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Rotor balance and alignment are the hard part: the author now aligns the rotor with washers between the header and the PCB, so expect to shim and test at low speed before running it fast.
  • Check the README update log before ordering: the LED current resistors R403-R405 must be 270 ohm (an early production file used 1k), and full brightness needs more than 17 V (12 V only works at reduced brightness); the current USB-C PD board set to 15 V handles the highest brightness.
  • LED alignment matters — if the strips are not perfectly radial or the sphere wobbles, the image will tear or smear.
  • The firmware assumes a hall-effect sensor or similar for zero-position detection — if you skip that, the image will drift as the motor speed changes.
  • The wireless power link runs warm: the author notes the losses show up as heat, so give the base ventilation and watch temperatures on the first long run.
  • The rotor spins fast close to your hands: use the latest housing, where the author moved the speed buttons to the centre of the base to reduce injury risk, and keep fingers clear while it runs.

What motor do I need?

Use the motor from the project's BOM — the power-supply board drives it with up to 3 A and two buttons step the speed through five settings.

Can I use a different LED count?

The firmware and PCB are built around the published LED matrix, driven through a 24-bit shift register and MOSFETs with PIO-based multiplexing. A different LED count means redesigning the board and the .rs64 format.

How do I get power to the spinning LEDs?

Wirelessly: a Royer converter on the base drives a transmitter coil, and a receiver coil on the rotating PCB powers the LEDs, so there are no slip rings. Power comes from a standard USB-C PD charger set to 15 V.

Is there a PCB design?

Yes — KiCad PCBs for the LED board and power supply, with production files and a step-by-step guide for ordering from JLCPCB.

Community builds

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Discussion1

FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM

Sixty-four LEDs spinning fast enough to paint a 170 mm globe at 64 by 256 pixels, powered wirelessly with no slip rings. If you were building this, what would you show on it first?

CompareeTEAM2mo agoedited

Practical notes from our verification: unlike most POV projects, this one includes the whole machine — KiCad PCBs, a BOM, 3D-printable mechanics with print instructions for the parts that need nut inlays, assembly photos, and the RP2040 firmware with an optional ESP01s web interface. Power reaches the spinning LEDs over a wireless Royer-converter link, so there are no slip rings, and the current power supply board runs from a standard USB-C PD charger and sets the motor speed in five steps with two buttons. The README's update log is worth reading before you order anything: the author corrected the LED current resistors to 270 ohm and explains that full brightness needs a supply above 17 V. The licence is CC BY-NC-SA, so this is for personal builds, not for selling. With 0402 resistors and a fast-spinning rotor, it is still a better second POV build than a first. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.

lhm0

lhm0 designed a desktop-sized, 'Las Vegas Sphere'-inspired persistence-of-vision LED globe and published everything: KiCad PCBs, BOM, 3D-printable mechanics and RP2040 firmware, with a running update log of fixes.

GitHub

Star the project on GitHub

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