Category Archives: Misc

As Halloween approached the electrical engineer freed up time to start working on the Wizard Staff again. With all of the pieces for the dragon paw and orb done I assembled it to check everything out. And discovered several things … Continue reading →

The first question is how big to make it. The only way to decide is to make different sizes and see. Fortunately this is easy: starting with the existing 4″ design simply scale it 125% to create a 5″ version … Continue reading →

A bit of background on 3D printers: hundreds of different filaments are available in a wide range of colors and materials. The cheapest and most widely used is PLA, so I’ve been using white PLA for the prototyping. The plan … Continue reading →

With a conceptual design for a Wizard Staff in hand the next step was to prepare a budget proposal for a 3D printer and submit it to my CFO. Or, to put it differently, tell She Who Must Be Obeyed … Continue reading →

Conceptualizing a Wizard’s Staff, the first element is an orb – a ball or crystal, probably 4″-6″ across. These commonly glow when getting ready to cast a spell and then go dark again after the spell has been cast. This … Continue reading →

My newest project really needs an introduction and some background. You have been warned! As the MegaTree neared completion I was thinking about other things that could be be done with this computer controlled lighting technology. Leading to a conversation … Continue reading →

With the increased power requirements I decided to add an additional 5V power injection cable. Moving on to the controller, the output on the controller can handle 600 pixels. No problem with the original 400 pixel tree, but the upgraded … Continue reading →

With everything done drag the Mega Tree into the front yard and plug it in. And commence with the light show. From the street everything looked great! She Who Must Be Obeyed had immediate feedback; “Looks good. Needs a back … Continue reading →

With the MegaTree fully functional the last stage of the build is to move the controller and power supply from the breadboard to its final location (hopefully not its final resting place) in a waterproof outdoor box. For this I … Continue reading →

Individual LEDs don’t need much power. Hundreds of LEDs need quite a bit of power. The MegaTree now has 8 strips with 50 LEDs each for a total of 400. Each of these LEDs will consume about 1/3 of a … Continue reading →