The 144/m NeoPixel strip likely comes with wires already soldered onto the IN end. Look closely for arrows printed on the strip pointing the direction of data flow and be sure the arrows are pointing away from the end you're soldering to. 

Connect the wires to the Mini Sparkle Motion as shown: Red (+5v) to the 5v pin, green (DI) to pin 32, and white/black (some lots have different color coding) to G. 

These strips are cuttable at any point. I recommend leaving the strip long until you know exactly how many lights you'll be using in your project, and cutting to length during final assembly. 

Visit https://install.wled.me/

Plug your microcontroller into your computer with a known good USB cable. Click "Install" and select the port for your board.

Depending on the USB-to-serial bridge chip on the board, you might see one or two serial ports. On Mac, for instance, there might be both “/dev/cu.usbmodem[number]” and “/dev/cu.wchusbserial[number]”. Use the “wchusbserial” one.

After successful installation, enter your WiFi network name and password when prompted. This must be a 2.4 GHz WiFi network; ESP32 does not support 5 GHz networks. If it can’t connect, then as a fallback WLED will create its own 2.4 GHz WiFi access point.

If you don't see the "Connect to Wi-Fi" prompt, you'll need to set up your WiFi network using AP (access point) mode. Open up your WiFi settings and look for a WiFi network called WLED-AP. Connect to this network using the default password wled1234. The WLED interface will pop up in its own browser.

From here, go into Config/Wifi Settings and enter your WiFi credentials near the top. Give your project a name in the mDNS field a little further down the page. Now you can type in "projectname.local" (where "projectname" is your mDNS name) into any web browser on the same wifi network to access your microcontroller.

You can also scan the QR code below to open access point mode. 

For more help and troubleshooting tips visit the Getting Started page on the WLED knowledge base.

WiFi Setup

Head to the WiFi Setup screen under Config and create a good URL so you can control your project from any web-enabled device. Call it something you'll remember, that's easy to type into any web browser on your WiFi network in order to connect to your project.

In Safari or Chrome on your phone or computer, type in this web address to access the WLED interface: http://projectname.local  (where "projectname" is whatever you put into this field).

Check out the Additional Settings page for more info on accessing your project. WLED has an "access point mode" that doesn't require a WiFi network for when you're out on the go. It's also helpful to download one of the WLED apps to help manage and organize your projects.

Click on "config" and head to the USERMODS tab. Scroll down a bit and you'll find the AudioReactive section.

Click the box to enable, then enter the settings and the Digitalmic section as follows:

• Type: SPH0654
• Pin I2S SD: 9
• Pin I2S WS: 10
• Pin I2S SCK: 23

The other pins are unused.

Reboot your Sparkle Motion Mini for changes to take effect.

Next, head to the LED Preferences tab under the Config menu.

Scroll down to Hardware Setup. Put your total number of LEDs into the Length field (if you're not sure yet, just put in 15), and change GPIO to pin 32, the GPIO NUMBER associated with the LED data pin on your Mini Sparkle Motion. Make sure to select the correct Color Order for your LEDs as well.

If this number appears in red and won't let you select it, check the previous step: this board is configured with pin 32 assigned to the microphone, so you need to change it there before you can set it up as your LED GPIO.

Open LightBurn and select the rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle or square the size you want. Get it exact by typing in dimensions in the Width and Height boxes. Click the lock icon to edit these separately, or leave it "locked" to change height automatically to scale with width. 

Look in the toolbar for a button that says "mm" or "in" to change between metric or imperial units.

Select Arrange > Grid / Array to duplicate this box as many times as you have layers to cut. I used 21 layers so did 3 rows of 7 boxes, and I made the spacing between them pretty small for more efficient use of my plastic.

Import your shape. You can import a vector graphic or copy/paste a simple line drawing of the shape you want. If you're starting from an image, go to Tools / Trace and LightBurn will trace your image and make a vector you can cut.

Move your graphic inside your first box and size it so it fills most of the box but leaves enough around the edges so your finished piece will hold up. If it's too close to the edges it might break so leave a little space around it.

Click the graphic and then the surrounding box. You may need to ungroup the boxes if all of them become selected at once when you click one. Click the "center" button in the toolbar to center the shape inside the box.

Select only the star and copy/paste it into the next box. Center it. Now, add a slight variation in size and rotation to start to create "frames" for the motion effect we're going for.

Select the center radio button in the rotation grid so your star rotates around its center instead of its corner.

I resized the star to 98% (with the lock icon in the "locked" position I just need to change height OR width, not both) and then added 2 degrees of rotation.

Copy this new instance of your star to the clipboard and paste it into the next box. Repeat the same variation -- 98% size and 2 degrees rotation. Center the star, copy the new instance and paste into the fourth box.

Repeat until all the boxes are filled. 

Tip: I found that using the tab key to "activate" my changes instead of clicking out of the box made my life easier here, since I didn't need to keep re-selecting the star again and again.

Also, feel free to experiment with the variations. In my finished project I made the last 6 layers shrink and rotate a little bit more: I changed them by 4% and 4 degrees instead of by 2. This makes the motion seem to accelerate a bit as it reaches the back of my box.

All lasers will have different settings for cutting acrylic. The settings will depend on your laser type and amount of power available. For the Aeon Nova laser at my makerspace, a speed of 20 and power of 95% worked great. If you're not sure, start with a scrap piece and do a few test cuts. Getting your laser dialed in so it cuts at the right speed and power will minimize burn marks and flash marks -- very important for this project since we want the acrylic to stay as clear as possible since we're shining light through it.

Use some windex and/or some plastic polish to get the pieces as clean as possible. The plastic polish helps remove any burn marks from the laser, and the windex will get all the fingerprints off. Everything will show, so take some time and get them as clean as you can.

Be sure to keep them facing the right way as you clean them.

Stack all the pieces and square them up as perfectly as possible. 

Use shiny aluminum foil tape to tape all the pieces together around the edges, leaving about 1/2" of plastic uncovered along the middle of one side. This is where the light strip is placed. The shiny aluminum tape acts as a mirror on the other edges, reflecting the light inwards and spreading it all through the piece.

Cut the LED strip to length, if you haven't already. Use clear packing tape to fix the NeoPixel strip to the part of the acrylic edge you left bare of tape. Line it up so the microcontroller is at the back of the design. 

Do NOT use the aluminum tape for this -- it's extremely conductive and you'll short out your light strip if it touches the copper pads on the back.

Once my light strip was covered with clear tape, I did add another piece of aluminum tape over the top to help reflect as much light inside as possible and to cover the end of the light strip.

I also added a little bit of aluminum tape as a narrow frame along the front edge.

Head to MakerCase.com and choose "Basic Box". Enter the dimensions of your project with "Inside Dimension" selected, making sure to add a little extra space for ease. I added 0.2 inches in each direction. 

I made the box square with height, depth, and width all equal. This is deeper than my project size, which will leave a little room at the back of the box for the microcontroller and USB cable.

Click "Download" and open the file in LightBurn.

Mic Settings:

• AGC: off
• Frequency Scale: Square Root (energy)

The rest are set to default. There's lots to play around with here! Build the modes below or build your own, and then play with these settings to see what works best with your favorite playlist.

Solid Color Effect:

• Effect: Matripix
• Palette: Color 1
• Color FX: Black
• Color BG: Golden
• Effect Speed: 128
• Brightness: 56

Rainbow Color Effect:

• Effect: Matripix
• Palette: Rainbow Bands
• Effect Speed: 128
• Brightness: 56