Lightpainting is part of photography that you can make with any camera and a simple light like the ones in any smartphone, but we will reach to the next level with this simple tool you can make following these steps.

Supplies

We will need the next supplies, you can find part of them in any webstore and the other part on your local hardware store.

WS2812B Led Strip
ESP8266 Module (NODEMCU)
Cable Jumpers
Female DC connector
Arduino Buttons Module
USB to DC cable
3 wire connectors
33Ohm Resistor (Optional)
1/4" nut rivets (optional)
Aluminum Tube or any other material to hold the led strips (also can be used without enclosure as a light wire)

Tools:

Soldering Iron
Soldering paste
Hot Glue Gun
Epoxy Glue

Step 1: Install the Firmware

The main brain for this project will be the ESP8266 (you can also use an ESP32 if you already have one). The advantage of the ESP8266 board is that has WiFi, this let us configure the tool and make great patterns for light painting.

Connect the ESP8266 to the computer using a micro USB to USB cable, wait for the driver installation or download the drivers for your board:

CP210X USB to Serial Driver

CH340 USB to Serial Driver

Find your COM PORT number in the Device Manager panel
Press Windows + X and click on Device Manager
Look for the Ports tab and expand it
Remember the number of the USB Serial Port (COM_)
Go to the website: https://install.wled.me/ (this installation webpage will only work on Chrome)
Click on Install.
Select your USB Serial Port (COM_) and click Connect. Wait for couple of minutes until the installation is complete and the ESP8266 is now a WLED controller.
Find the WLED-AP in your WiFi networks.
Connect to the WLED-AP and enter the password wled1234.
Go to the next address http://4.3.2.1 and you can start the configuration of the WLED controller.

Step 2: Basic Configuration

Once we go to the address http//4.3.2.1 we can enter our WiFi network, I entered the WiFi Hotspot network of my smartphone, that way the WLED controller will connect to my smartphone every time I need to use it outside, you can connect it to your WiFi Home Network if you wanna use it only indoors.

I enter the WiFi network name: TEST12
and enter the password: test1234

This same configuration is in my smartphone hotspot configuration menu.

Once you start the WLED controller will connect to the smartphone, you can enter to the IP address that the smartphone gives to the WLED controller or you can download the WLED app for easy configuration.

WLED playstore link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aircoookie.WLED

In the app you can click on discover lights or enter the same IP address you entered before.

You can find the manual of the WLED controller in the next link this will let you understand the effects and the color patterns you can select, save and config, also the buttons and options of segments.

WLED Manual: https://kno.wled.ge/

Now lets start the assembly with the hardware parts.

Step 3: Hardware Connections

You can connect your WLED and buttons inputs and outputs following the main diagram.

I desoldered the pins of the buttons module to make the module easy to fit inside the 3d printed case, you can also bend them or cut them.

Solder some jumper wires to connect the buttons to the WLED controller (ESP8266).

Solder together the power connections for the WLED controller (ESP8266) and the LED strip.

And connect everything together as the main diagram.

Then we put everything inside the 3D printed case. (stl files below)

You can power it with a USB to DC cable using a powerbank (Be sure to use a powerful powerbank before brighten the leds to the max, at least 5V 2A)

Once everything is together and you are in the browser or the app, you can start playing with the effects and colors. The combinations are endless!!!

You can turn on and turn off the light wand with the first button. (more about the extra two buttons below)

Reminder: You can find the manual of the WLED controller in the next link this will let you understand the effects and the color patterns you can select, save and config, also the buttons and options of segments.

WLED Manual: https://kno.wled.ge/

Now lets take it further...

Step 4: Assembly the Wand

I will use a recycled aluminum tube of an old LED light as enclosure for the wand, you can find aluminum enclosures for led strips in any hardware store like the one in the first step.

I cut the tube in half to have a two parts light wand you can keep a long wand if you want, but I wanted this wand to be easy to store in my backpack.

I applied the LEDs strips with its double-sided tape into the aluminum tube, and made some small hole with a round file to pass the wires.

Then I soldered the wire into the pads of the LED strip Vcc for Positive, Gnd for Negative and, Data for Din.

Note: Be sure to solder the data cable into the Din pad.

The I secured the wire with some hot glue.

Extra step: Last I 3d printed some nut holders (file below) and glued them with epoxy glue, you can use 1/4" rivet nuts to easily give a mounting point to the aluminum tubes, but I couldn't find nut rivets this time. 1/4" nut rivets are just fine to mount the wand in a tripod for video purposes (WLED has also effects like fire flickering, Lightning, or TV effect), if you only will use the wand for light painting this step is not that necessary.

tube_holder.stl
Download View in 3D

Step 5: Advance Configuration

On the actual firmware of the WLED controller you have only two buttons available for configuration, but we connected 3 buttons, you can keep only two buttons working and follow the advanced configuration or you can upgrade the firmware to enable one extra button in a total of 3 buttons.

Firmware Upgrade

To increase the number of buttons, download the firmware .bin (Github File Link)

This firmware can be uploaded using the OTA upload menu

Config > Security >Updates>Manual OTA Update

We select the .bin file and press upload, this may take a couple of minutes to update and reboot. Once the controller reboots you will be able to see 3 buttons options in the menu LED Preferences.

Advance Configuration

Now let use the power of the buttons configuring its functions.

First, lets assign the buttons to a pin that we connected the buttons module previously.

Copy the configuration from above in the LED Preferences menu.

Then we go to the Time & Macros menu and scroll down to Button actions, here we introduce the actions of each button. Copy the configuration from above.

Now lets configure each buttons!.

Step 6: Configuring the Buttons

Now that we have each buttons with an actions configured we need to setup this actions, in the last firmware release of WLED actions are also know as presets and we can configure them in the favorites tab of the main page of the app or the webpage of our WLED controller.

In favorites first we create the next presets:

First Preset ID 1

we deselect "Use current state" to enable the custom preset and enter the next text:

&T=2

This instruction toggle (turn on or turn off) the leds and it was assigned to button 0.

So button 0 now will turn on or turn off the LEDs.

Note: If you wann know more about this instruccions you can look at the macros section of the manual.

Second Preset ID 2

&PL=6

This instruction stands for "Preset Load" and will load the preset number 6, this 2nd action was assigned to short press of button 1, and every time we will short press the button 1 will load preset 6 into the LEDs. So, we will store our first effect to preset 6 so that way when we press button 1 we will active the first effect easily.

Third Preset ID 3

&PL=7

This instruction as the one before will load the preset number 7, this 3rd action was assigned to short press of button 2, and every time we will short press the button 2 will load preset 7 into the LEDs. So, we will store our second effect to preset 7 so that way when we press button 2 we will active the second effect easily.

Fourth Preset ID 4

&PS=6

This instruction stands for "Preset Save" and will save the actual effect into preset number 6, this 4th action was assigned to long press of button 1, and every time we will long press the button 1 will save the actual effect into preset 6.

Fifth Preset ID 5

&PS=7

This instruction stands for "Preset Save" and will save the actual effect into preset number 7, this 5th action was assigned to long press of button 2, and every time we will long press the button 2 will save the actual effect into preset 7.

Sixth and Seventh Preset ID 6 and ID 7

We will leave this two presets saved with any effect so that way we can start our next effects into them to activate them easily.

Eighth ID 8 and onwards

We can start creating our effects here and store them with the name that we want.

Setting up our Effects

We create an effect using the color and effects tabs, then we go to the favorites tab and click on New Preset and leave the "use current state" selected to store our actual effect in a preset from the eighth preset and onwards. Once we know which presets we will use for out photography we follow the next steps:

Select the first preset you wanna use in your light painting photography.
Long press the button 1 to store the preset into button 1.
Select the second preset you wanna use in you photography.
Long press button 2 to store the preset into button 2.
Press button 0 to turn off the LEDs.
Set you camera settings for your long exposure photo.
Release the shutter and start painting.
Press button 1 and start painting with the first effect, press button 0 to turn off the LEDs.
Press button 2 and start painting with the second effect, press button 0 to turn off the LEDs.

Watch the results!!!

Step 7: Results!!!

Some patterns next by the configuration used in WLED.

Step 8: Some Alternatives

Sometimes configuring and programming may be difficult, so I will show you some alternatives to the WLED solution, WLED it is amazing because of the endless combinations you can make but if you wanna a fast and easy solution you can find one of these LED controller in any web store:

SP108e led controller
NexLux WiFi Wireless LED Smart Controller

These controller are already programmed and ready to use and they can even be used with Alexa. Just be sure you can power these controller and the led strip with 5V, because some of these work only with 12V, and 12V batteries are hard to use and find, a USB powerbank is easy to find and you may already have one in your backpack.

Thanks for reading and follow this instructable, leave a comment if you have questions about any step.