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..
Mega Tree Wiring
I've received some inquiries from social media about why I pulled the fuses out of my K16A-B controller for our megatree and how it is wired. First, some background... This year we had planned on going from 2" spacing on the megatree strips to 1" spacing. Going from 75 pixels per strip to 150. We..
Is 5v really dangerous?
Quick safety lecture... Pixel light shows like ours run on either 5v or 12v DC. Because this isn't "scary" mains AC voltage (110-120vac in the US), some folks don't think it is dangerous. Well, here is the thing: Electrical current is measured in Amps. An amp is an amp, regardless of the voltage. It takes..
Projector Enclosure (2022)
I salvaged a projector that was damaged with a cracked case, and an exploded lamp assembly. It took a while and several bandaids to get all of the broken glass out of it, and then some super glue and a new lamp assembly and it is almost as good as new. Fortunately most of the..
Small Battles
First, sorry about the lack of build info this year. We've been very-very busy with life and just trying to get our show set up. I know at this point I owe everyone the completion of the Mega-Starburst. We expanded the Megatree and added a Mid/Maxitree as-well this year, otherwise not a lot of new..
Free-Standing Video Screen
In past years we have used a PVC frame with a frosted shower curtain on one of our windows for rear and front projection. This worked okay, but the PVC bent easily, so the frame wasn't quite square, and the adhesive hooks we used to hold it to the brick and soffit didn't hold very..
Ugh- Web Server Down Again
Wow- getting kinda tired of the almost weekly server outages. Having some problems with my host. I've rebuilt things from scratch again and restored the sites. Running the newest versions of everything, so fingers-crossed this will at least hold together through Christmas. 😊
K16 Mega Tree Controller Rebuild
This year we were going to expand our Mega Tree to 150px x 32, but fell back to 75px x 32 for, reasons. In any case- I need to use all 16 pixel ports for the tree now, with two strands per port. In preparation for doubling the vertical resolution in the future, and to..
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..