Build Times - Lighting up a wall with CDN traffic
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Lighting up a wall with CDN traffic
Lighting up a wall
with CDN traffic
June 29th, 2026
I have always had a deep fascination with objects that bridge the physical and digital worlds in creative ways. A few years ago, I built a web-connected traffic light as a first exploration into this area and since then I've been wanting to take on a bigger project.
I knew I wanted my next project to have something to do with maps, since I love cartography. Given that my job involves building and operating Netlify's globally distributed CDN, I started wondering: could I build a map that shows live CDN traffic?
My overconfidence in tinkering and my knack for committing my future self to large projects that I don't have time for had found the perfect project.
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My plan was simple on paper: take a world map, add addressable LEDs for capital cities and major regions, and control everything via software.
¶ The map
The first thing I had to figure out was the map itself. I felt that using an organic material and adding electronics on top would embody that contrast between the physical and digital worlds that I was going for, so I went for a wooden map.
I spent a few weeks studying the best option, having considered building one myself at one point — I'm glad I talked myself out of it. Eventually I came across this shop, which makes laser-cut wooden world maps. It's exactly what I needed.
The map ships as two sheets of laser-cut plywood, with the continents and islands pre-cutEvery landmass is a separate piece, ready to be peeled off the sheet
Before any drilling, I had to decide what the map would actually show. The obvious starting point was one LED per country, placed at its capital. But that had some challenges.
First, some countries were impossible to represent on a two-metre map. Small island nations were not even included in the map I bought, and if they were they would be so tiny that it would be impossible to put an LED on them.
On the flip side, countries like Russia or the US are so large that putting just one LED on them would make the map look too empty.
So I had to make some compromises. Where countries were too small or too tightly packed, I grouped neighbours onto a shared marker. And for very large countries, I marked several administrative regions (like states or provinces).
¶ The Florida incident
With the points marked on the wood pieces, it was time to drill. This is when you need to be patient and take your time. I did not do that.
Florida, as it turns out, is a thin peninsula of plywood with very little holding it to the rest of North America. While I was drilling a hole near its tip, half of the peninsula snapped off.
After questioning my life choices for a bit, I used a piece of scrap wood from the template cutout and terraformed a brand new Florida, sanded it to shape, and glued it back into place.
The Florida peninsula snapped off while I was drillingA replacement cut from scrap wood, ready to be glued back into place
¶ The electronics
For the electronics, the bill of materials was fairly simple. I went for WS2811 9mm RGB addressable LEDs, controlled by a Raspberry Pi.
There were some additional components I needed, like a level shifter that raises the Pi's 3.3V data signal up to the 5V the LEDs expect (the LEDs themselves are powered separately, at 12V). Claude helped me put all of this together.
The addressable LEDs I bought for the projectWiring up the LEDs and the electronics
I have 247 LEDs in total. Their data signal is wired in series, but I have grouped them into five modular clusters that get independent power, to avoid voltage drops on long cable runs.
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The first electronics test: a cluster of LEDs lighting up Australia
¶ Mounting
I wanted the front of the map to be nothing but wood and light, with as few cables in sight as possible. So rather than running wires across the surface, I fished them through the wall itself, the way you'd hide a speaker cable.
Behind the map, each of the five clusters is cabled down to a small "brain" at the bottom of the wall.
The manufacturer's template assumes you're gluing the map flat against the wall, but I needed a few centimetres of clearance behind it for all the wiring, and I had to avoid crushing the LEDs poking out the back.
The solution was a set of custom 3D-printed brackets, glued to the back of each continent and screwed into the wall. They hold the map a little proud of the surface, hide the gap, and let me easily unmount a continent and put it up again if anything ever needs fixing.
With the template on the wall, I fished the wires through the wall itself to keep the front cleanThe 3D-printed brackets I used to mount the map on the wall
¶ Calibration
At this point I had a wall full of LEDs and no idea...