Category Archives: Misc

I needed to do something to get away from the computer. Something physical – something to get dirt under my fingernails and sore muscles. Something where you can actually touch and see results at the end of the day. These … Continue reading →

My vision for the Dragon Paw holding the Orb was a dark green mottled skin with dark yellow claws. The 3D printed paw was black. Well, this is what they make airbrushes for. Order a set of acrylic model paints … Continue reading →

With the Orb working it was time to start working on the programming. Which would involve turning it on and off repeatedly. Well, we needed a power switch to actually use the Wizard Staff. Might as well go ahead and … Continue reading →

After an hour or so of playing with various settings and effects there was nothing left but admitting defeat. The LED strips on the bottom of the railing were great accent lights and terrible Christmas lights. As I sat sulking … Continue reading →

Tis the season again. Pick a (somewhat) “warm” day and get all of the Christmas decorations up. To my pleased surprise I found all of the pieces of the Mega Tree, put them together, and everything worked! How did that … Continue reading →

WLED can treat a string of LEDs like a TV and display complex images and animations. Basically it treats a string of LEDs like a two dimensional matrix. It does this by arranging the LED string in a serpentine pattern. … Continue reading →

With the CAD work done and parts in hand the next step was to actually assemble the Orb. Of course the electrical engineer had some last minute changes. Batteries kept falling out of the battery box, so he selected a … Continue reading →

With the controller in place the next question was how to power it. The electrical engineer determined that we would need four 16650 Lithium Ion cells and a voltage regulator to make this work. He identified the parts he wanted … Continue reading →

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 →