Burning Man Art – 6400 LED Solar Tricycle

Burning Man art car builder Loren Carpenter has taken Teensy’s ability to drive LEDs to the next level with a solar-powered installation built around a tricycle that uses a Teensy 3.6 to drive 6,400 RGB WS2812 LEDs.

The 32 channel system is capable of outputting ~1.3 million RGB pixels per second, achieving over a 200 Hz frame rate for smooth animations. In the forum post linked above, Carpenter dives deep into the technical details, including his source code for those who want to try it out themselves.

The project was first built around a golf cart but the latest build uses a tricycle as a frame with a control box directly underneath that includes relays and battery chargers. Here you can see a video of Loren’s creation in action from a night on the playa at Burning Man in 2015.