I mentioned in an earlier post about Scotchloks ™ that I was also going to check out “Dolphin” connectors. I don’t have any experience with them, but I have seen them used as an alternative to Scotchloks in Tele/Data-com applications. I bought a pack of them on Amazon. These are […]
Continue readingESPixelStick ESP32 Build (Alpha)
First off, FYI- there is a new release of ESPIxelStick v.3.2 that fixes the Mac flashing issues that have been a problem for v3.1. If you are running the original ESPixelSticks, or NodeMCUs based on ESP12, like D1 Mini or similar- get that release as it is pre-compiled and just […]
Continue readingOak Hills Lights Quick Stats
Our display consists of 4560 actual LED pixels (not including the projector virtual matrix). This is considered a “small” show in the pixel world. LED pixels contain three colored LEDs- Red, Green, and Blue in a single sealed epoxy “bulb” that can create millions of colors. Including the virtual matrix […]
Continue readingQuick Update
We got all of the remaining lights up last weekend, including our flat-tree (which I guess we can’t really call a “mega tree” since it isn’t freestanding). I spent the week chasing down problems/bugs in xLights and FPP, along with controller, cabling, and bad pixel issues. I finally got everything […]
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Scotchloks ™ for Pixel Repairs
First- Scotchlok is a registered trademark of 3M Corp. In particular- I am referring to their IDC (Insulation-Displacement Contact) Butt Connectors. These “button splices” are filled with a gel to protect the connection from water and corrosion, and can be installed with almost any pliers. I just use the plier […]
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Vankyo Projector Power Control
I posted earlier about the dirt-cheap Vankyo projectors that some people use for their displays (for rear or front projection). These things are about as cheap as you can get for reasonable quality. One problem with them is there is no way to control the power without either physically pressing […]
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Cheap Rear Projection
A few of the sequences I downloaded/purchased this year actually have video files. I also wanted to try out a Virtual Matrix, since it just wasn’t going to be practical to build a large enough one this year for what I wanted to do. So- I decided to try a […]
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Quick-Hack: Jumper
Can’t find your baggie of circuit board jumpers and need one in a pinch? Do you have some Scotchloks and some jumper wires (that you CAN find)? Then just do this: Now, granted, I could have just used the jumper wire, but I didn’t really want an extra foot of […]
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MAX485 Differential Transceivers
I was digging into how Differential Receivers for LED lighting systems work, and was told about these MAX485 Transceivers on one of the forums: These little boards cost around $1 each, and can be used to extend a WS2811 (Pixel) data signal for hundreds of feet (probably close to 1000 […]
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Mega-Tree (-ish?)
Well, sort-of. There is some debate over what actually constitutes a “Mega-Tree” in size and construction. I’ve been calling it a Mega-Tree, but technically it is a “flat tree”. So my wife started working on musical sequences and was skimming YouTube for inspiration. She found a display she REALLY liked, […]
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JST Connectors
UPDATE: I revised my thinking on this after realizing I was dead-wrong about xConnect connectors. See it here. This started out as a side-note for my Pixel Data Cables story. I decided it needed it’s own write-up… I’ve seen a lot of hate for these online, usually from people who […]
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Pixel Data Cables
I’ve seen a lot of debate about this, and of course everyone does things differently. I just wanted to show what I am doing for my cables this year. So- you have a fancy new controller, like a Kulp K16A-B: You stick it in a box with power supplies, terminal […]
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Roofline Update
The weekend before last I posted that we had started working on the rooflines. (It’s happening…) Well, besides all of the strips being too long, which caused installation and configuration issues, I discovered that WiFi was woefully inadequate for it. Unfortunately because of my design- I had controllers on both […]
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Creality LD002R vs. Anycubic Photon
I posted a “first impressions” review of the Photon last week- Another 3D Printer…– and wanted to actually set up a “race” between them with the exact same print. I started with this .STL:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:869645 I’ve printed this multiple times with limited success, mostly because I attempted to hollow it out, […]
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It’s happening…
Quick gallery post. We started putting the light strips up on the roof… They are actually all up, but I need to perform surgery on several and I only have power/power-injection wired to 2/3s of them. Ran out of time last weekend, and the weather isn’t cooperating this week. Unfortunately […]
Continue readingNew FPP (FalconPlayer) Software Released
Just in case anyone missed it- there is a new release of FPP! The official release announcement: FPP 4.3 Released! Images can be download from: https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp/releases/tag/4.3 Enhancements VirtualMatrix updates to allow 1:1 pixel perfect output VirtualMatrix can now display multiple matrices on one framebuffer in 1:1 mode Optimized memory usage for […]
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New Kulp K16A-B Controller!
My wife gave me an early birthday/Christmas present this year. I’ve run into a number of problems using NodeMCUs exclusively to run my light display. I blogged previously about Multicast Hell, and there are issues running more than about a dozen NodeMCUs via WiFi, regardless of how you do it. […]
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Another 3D Printer…
So, I’m still pissed-off about this, but I have to say that so far I’m impressed with the printer… As I said in a previous post- Anycubic’s store took my order and my money for an Anycubic Photon printer back in mid-August. It was supposed to arrive in mid-September, and […]
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Pixel Columns
My house has three columns on the front porch, and I decided to light them up with pixels this year. My original plan was to use pixel strips, but the strips themselves have been backordered and I wasn’t able to figure out a good way of mounting them, so I […]
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Redneck Matrix Mark II
As my holiday lighting plans continue to get bigger and bigger, I decided I should just go ahead and get an FM transmitter for music, which then requires a “Tune In” sign. Still not sure if I will actually do musical sequences (they are a lot of work and I’m […]
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New 3D Printer (SLA-Like)
On a whim, I decided to try something different. I ordered an LCD resin printer. A lot of people call them “SLA”, although SLA is a completely different technology, but they are both resin printers. These printers use a UV activated plastic resin and some form of UV light manipulation […]
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FrankenPower v.2
Well, I couldn’t come up with anything else to call it. I also didn’t post anything about v.1 so I cover it a bit below. Earlier this year, I decided to buy an 8 channel relay board for Arduino/Raspberry Pi. My plan was to use it to power our inflatables […]
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NodeMCU/ESP32 Builds
While working through WiFi issues and playing with WLED32 (See Multicast Hell and WLED), I started working with the full-sized NodeMCU v2 sticks as well as experimenting with ESP32 modules. I know the ESP32 modules have much better WiFi radios on them, but the V2 sticks use essentially the same […]
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Mini Mega-Tree
While I had no intention of getting into any kind of “Mega-Tree” this year, I had some pixel strips and pixels left over, so I came up with this. I planned to make it out of nothing but spare parts. The only things I actually had to buy were the […]
Continue readingWLED
Really-quick if you haven’t looked at WLED in a while- give it another look. I was experimenting with ESP32 NodeMCUs and had to find an alternative to the venerable ESPixelStick firmware, which simply doesn’t run on ESP32. A few online forum members suggested WLED as an alternative. I had “played” […]
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