Lunar Den Lights is a technical blog primarily covering RGB "Pixel"-based holiday light shows. It provides a backstage view of our current light show: Oak Hills Lights. You will also find some 3D printing information, as we use some 3D printed components in our light show, and that is one of my other hobbies. This..
2022 Progress Update – September
(Seems like we are off to a really late start this year.) First, the layout changed again. I'm hopeful and saying this is the "final", but it depends on whether or not we run out of pixels for everything. Layout as of September 2022 This year is all about saving money. Kim ended up unemployed..
Building the Megatree Starburst, Part 1
Late last year I discussed a different Megatree topper with Kim and told her about this cool Starburst (or firework) effect you can build using these: Affiliate Link: She bought me THREE of them for Christmas, and wants one in this year's show. My plan is to build one with 2' PVC spines so we..
DIY Differential Receivers
Earlier this year, due to ongoing supplier and freight issues, controllers and other components like differential receivers were hard to come by. There are still supplier issues as of this writing, but things are slowly getting better. Scott Hanson (computergeek1507) released his own controllers and other components in a DIY format. You can see all..
Technical Difficulties
Well, my Web server decided to croak again... It's funny how you need to keep everything updated for security, and then one of the updates breaks everything. Updates often break things in xLights and FPP as-well, so it's par for the course, really for any software. My only regret is I lost my DIY Differential..
Best laid plans…
Well, I did say our layout this year is subject to change. Unfortunately prices have gone up over 70% on pixels and pretty much everything else it takes to do a show like ours. Availability of hardware like controllers and other electronics has also been limited due to ongoing chip shortages. Don't even get me..
2021 Behind the Scenes Video
Here is a behind-the-scenes walk-thru of our 2021 show/layout. Obviously completely unscripted with me babbling semi-coherently. 😁 https://youtu.be/m_rzh7nM-fw I'm hoping to get time to post more details about the mega-tree and some of the other builds. It's just been a busy few months. Here is a pic of the K16 controller box that is under..
2022 Layout and Test
Update: We did have to scale this back. Hopefully we will be able to upgrade things more in 2023. While it's subject to change, I thought I would share our current layout plans for 2022... Highlights: Mega Tree moved to right side of the yard. Our real oak tree was blocking the view of it..
GitHub
Since this Web site isn't working very well for posting my Arduino code and PHP scripts for FPP and xLights, I'm moving all of them to GitHub. There is a new GitHub link in the main menu. I've also pinned the official FPP and xLights projects there as-well. I'm going to move everything over there..
New xLights API, Package Script
Late last year, the xLights developers started adding API functionality to xLights so you can script repeating tasks. For example- you can roll your own batch-render or batch controller upload scripts now. The API is still being developed, but I asked the devs to include an option to package a sequence as part of it,..
Time to start ordering pixels!
It's time to start ordering pixels for this year's show! I order all of our pixel strings starting now through about April. I add at least 1000 to what I feel we will need this year, and then split it up over a few months worth of orders. This gives us all the pixels we..
Bad Pixel Totals for 2021
We had a lot more bad pixels than last year. A lot of shows reported significant bad pixels this year due to production problems in China over the past two years (due to COVID-19). I believe ours are a combination of that, and just the bad weather we have had this season including extreme rain..
Oak Hills Lights Power Consumption
Okay, the numbers are in... From Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day we used a whopping 92.19 kWh of electricity. At $.12/kWh that's a total of $11.06! We did have a Raspberry Pi controller (Show Runner) and a small network switch running on separate (un-switched/monitored) power. Given the maximum wattage of the power supplies running..
Adam Savage and Solder Seal Connectors
I've posted before about how awesome "Solder Seal" connectors are. One of my heroes when it comes to builds and electronics is former Mythbuster Adam Savage. Well, he just released a new video about them that I wanted to share. He does a better job of showing how to work with these things than anything..