EPCOT Spaceship Earth Model Displaying The EPCOT 40th Anniversary Points of Light Show

Описание: A 3D print of a model of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT. I modified the model to hollow it out and cut 1.8mm holes to replicate the Points of Light. I then installed 1922 addressable LEDs that are controlled by an ESP32 board running WLED.

For the EPCOT 40th Anniversary show I re-created 33 presets and timed them out on a playlist to closely match the Points of Light show on the real Spaceship Earth.

Stats
1924 LEDs (1922 in the sphere, 2 in the sign)
Size: 10”h x 11”w x 11.5”d
Pixel Diameter: 1.8mm
~65 hours to build
34+ hours just to install the lights (drill out hole, insert light diffuser, glue LED in place x 1922 LEDs)
140 hours to 3D Printing
8 printed pieces
15 LED strings
175’ of wire
4.5 amps / 22.5 watts
~$400 in materials
Built in temp sensor cuts power of it gets too hot inside.
Custom build of the WLED software
40th show consists of 35 scenes

Timeline
March 13th 2025, project started. Confirmed WLED software & hardware could run this many LEDs
March 27th started work on the model by hollowing out and cutting holes in an existing 3D model of Spaceship Earth
August 2025, used ChatGPT to determine the number of holes. Learned a new shape, Pentakis Dodecahedron
September 2025, model completed and printed as well as 2000 light diffusers to go in the holes
October 2025, started programming the controller and mapping out the LEDs. Came across a limitation on mapping so many lights.
November 2025, blazoncek made me a custom build of the software to fix the mapping issue.
December 2025, did all the electrical work soldering together all the LED strips and started installing the LEDs.
February 2026, finished installing the LEDs and began the Test and Adjust phase.
March 2026, hardware phase is complete, sealed the sphere shut.

Special thanks to:
@BlogMickey for the video, and @TheDIS for the audio I used to sync of the show and is displayed on the right side.

Original 3D model by: itim77
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:407...

WLED Fixes & Custom Build by: blazoncek
https://github.com/blazoncek/WLED/tre...