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Thank you, I am making a small mega tree with 640 5v bullet pix, using this same concept..."power box is separate from the controller box"...From the power box I am doing the same thing with a 5vdc 15A power supply and a separate ALITOVE 5V 60A 300W Power Supply for the lights...just wanted to know how many power injection points am I going to need?
Rule of thumb for 5v is to power inject every 100 pixels. I would recommend Bill Porter 's video on power injection. He's an electrical engineer and I found his tips to be the best. ru-vid.comeR3QbzjpZy8?si=ZncMLXXewzEBpIHZ I also have six 192 pixel 5 volt mini trees and I power inject at the bottom of every other strand. This may or may not help with your 640 pixel tree ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tjUPXiuRXOo.htmlsi=1Lss9bNgBJI5uJAi
Mr. Bytes Of Pi... Again I have to say thank you for a great tutorial...I do have a question about the 12VDC power leaving the power box...was that intended for the power injection? and if not..are you using any power injection? and is there a way I can email you directly?
You've caught a mistake that I made in the video... While I opened the power box and showed the 5v supply, what I didn't point out was the tower of 3 12v supplies behind. You can make out the bottom power supply next to the strip at about 8:05 . It took forever to make the matrix and even longer to make the video so I didn't go back to fix the mistake. I try to check and reply to comments. For now that's the best way to get in touch
@@colestrekal2609 Good question Each piece of the suit is connected with a USB cable and has its own data port. You get voltage drop if you chain a lot of lights together and not power inject. The first suit with a run on each leg and one on the arms, I didn't need power injection. However, For longer runs like the cape, I had a separate USB without data hooked to the end of the run to provide power injection
@@BytesOfPi thank you - I didnt work a few times, but after I switched everything to an ESP32 board (used a 8266 for testing) for allday use - it suddenly worked without any reason. 👍
¡Gracias! Agradezco el cumplido. Mucho ha cambiado en los últimos años desde el video y mucha gente ha aprovechado la disponibilidad de microcontroladores y software de código abierto. Puedes optar por hacer 100% bricolaje como lo hice yo o comprar uno de los dispositivos digitales Quindors o Athom si no quieres construirlo tú mismo.
I've bought my level shifters from Amazon, but the reliability of them is sketchy at best. I think that WLED's page is probably your best bet: kno.wled.ge/basics/compatible-hardware/#levelshifters
Thanks for your videos they are very informative. I wanted to ask you something, I have a mega tree with about 3000 LEDs but I didn't understand how many outputs/controllers to use. I also use the sp32eth01 with wled installed, could you make a short video for the configuration? Thanks and sorry for the incorrect English. I am Italian
@@simonemanzini7463 No problem and sorry for the late reply. Are you looking for how to build an WT32-ETH01 box for a mega tree or how to configure xLights for the mega tree configuration?
@@simonemanzini7463 I wanted to make a mega tree a few years ago but after a lot of research, I found that they are the most unstable structure in a show, requires a lot of engineering and maintenance, and the resulting images shown are pinched at the top. I do have a lot of thoughts though. Build One WT32-ETH01 should be enough for a 3000 pixel tree using 4 output ports. Looking at WLED's site: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#esp32 I built a 2365 bullet pixel matrix last year with only 3 ports and it should be similar to a mega tree. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YgCbf_U3lfc.html My initial thought is to use 4 ports with 750 pixels. Start with 2 ports from the bottom center of the tree and work one port to the left and other to the right. After running up and down in a serpentine pattern, pick up the other 2 ports when the first ones run out. Topper xLights does not include a star or topper in their model so run that with a separate port or controller Safety Finally, the most informative video I found for mega trees was this video. They cover multiple ways Mega trees failed over the years and how to build it to avoid the failures ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zL4oorPcp5Y.html
cool video.... is thare any way to stop from test scrolling.... for example "ALARM" or "ON AIR" in centre of matrix.... maybe text flash. just appear text then off and on without and scrolling effect?
That is a good question. I had the same thought and I think it is possible, but it will probably involve modifying the FX.cpp function mode_2Dscrollingtext(void) function. I have an unlisted video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2Qi-ZgTc8Nk.html) where I modify this for custom text, but I think you could modify it where you set effect speed slider to 0 and it will freeze.. You just need to calculate how big your text is and where the first letter needs to be drawn in relation to the center of your matrix.
I know it has been a while since you created this video, But I have a question and some information on my project that is based on yours. 1) I created a 4 channel controller using the WT32-ETH01 board, but when I tried to used IO12, it would freeze up. I ended up using IO2, IO4, IO14 and IO15. 2) If I would plug in the Ethernet cable the local AP did not show up for me. 3) with the Ethernet cable plugged in, it did not grab an IP address from my DHCP server. 4) I had to keep the Ethernet cable unplugged, Log into the Local AP for the device and set up the IP and gateway as static in the WiFi setup. This seems a little unintuitive. Once I done that there were no issues connecting to it from the LAN. 5) I fused each port at 5A 6) I did not use the 555 timer as mine seems to come up with no issues 7) I am using 12V WS2811 LEDs, and a 12V to 5V Buck converter to power the WT32-ETH01 and Logic shifter HV input. I have tested all four ports with Props and xLights and all seems to be good. Although I want to do some more testing. Questions: 1) How many nodes are you running on each port? 2) Are your LEDs exclusively at 5V? 3) What does your AC and DC current draws look like, or have you monitored them? 2) How many nodes do you think that can be run on each port? The WLED documentation makes it sound like I can effectively run 800 nodes per port. I will run at 30% brightness for the show and assuming that this count will be something less because of the current requirements. Thanks for the video. It has been very helpful getting me started. This is our first year trying to do a light show and I must admit, the learning curve was real. HAHA Regards, Joe
Hey Joe, that's awesome! I hope you have a lot of success with your show this year! Let me see if i can answer the questions AP disappears Yes, if you plug in your ethernet, the board will use that instead of spinning up a local AP. Unplug ethernet and reboot if you want AP to start back up. No IP via Ethernet As far as not getting an IP from Ethernet without static, that is a little odd. My cards recognized the DHCP router, but I mapped their physical mac addresses to a single IP in the router. I have a section of one of my videos on that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LkGCo9Gi8mk.html How many nodes are you running on each port? It really depends. I have 6 WT32-ETH01 boards running WLED. I think the most nodes I run off of a single port is 884. The best advice on how many to put on a single port can be found here: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#esp32 -) perfect performance, 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs = 2048 LEDs. -) very good performance, 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs = 3200 LEDs. -) good performance, 1000 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs = 4000 LEDs. Beyond this is sketchy. Now... The WLED 3D patterns are dog slow on my 3 port 2365 LED matrix. Because I use FPP and xLights shows, I don't care. 5v only? All nodes are 5v except my latest 2365 pixel matrix... see my show info below Monitor your AC and DC current draws? Nope... haven't had a need yet. Electricity bill hasn't spiked as far as I noticed :) Hope these helped. This video is a couple of years old and I've expanded a lot since then... Some of my other videos may be helpful as well. Here's my current show right now. I was hoping to add leaping arches to my lawn this year, but life circumstances have put that on hold for now... Good luck and I hope your show works out this year! -) 6 WT32-ETH01 boards running WLED -) 5 5v 60A power supplies -) Raspberry Pi 4B with FPP -) 4795 5V bullet pixels -) 2365 12V bullet pixels
5:22 Can I reduce the electrical noise in the datacable by wrapping around a sheath current filter out of Ferrit at the end and beginning of the long cable?
You can definitely give it a shot. I'm not sure of your particular setup, but if there are electrical components near those points it might help. Speaking of sheaths, my last data line was a sheathed coaxial cable I have lying around from the olden days of cable.
@@BytesOfPi Yea I have my ESP32 S3 in a Rack with alot of other gear and powersupply and above the rack is my Piano with all the lightstrips. So the ESP and Cables are around other devices closed in a metal rack. I will try it with the sheath current filter an see if the small higgs of lights every 30-50 sec will be todally removed. ;) I tried everything else of this video. 14AWG Cables, Level Shifter, Ohm Resistors to cleanup the signal, sordered the cables directly and checked with an multimeter all connections and even polarity check for the power outlet and the power supply to put it in in the right polarity (what I do for all devices, yup EU outlets suck) xD Still I have every 30-50 sec a small higgs of flicker for a sec. So this will be my last option I know 😅✌
@@marcusunivers oof.. if it's in a rack with a lot of other equipment, probably a lot to give it the jitters. Is there a way you can turn off everything else in your rack except the lights? If you can turn off everything but your powersource, ESP32 and lights, and get a stable connection, you can isolate your problem. Turn on one thing at a time till you get the jitters again. Also, Is there any way you could shorten the distance between your controllers and the lights? The closer you can get your ESP32 to the lights, the better.
@@BytesOfPi I tried it with the sheath current filter and it worked perfectly. No flicker anymore. 👍 And not really I cant shut down other Equipment in the rack because there are Mic Pres and Interfaces to use my Music Devices while doing Lightshows 😅✌
That is a good question. I assume that it supports Unicode characters. Have you tried opening the WLED UI in a browser and putting the unicode Cyrillic letters in the box?
Great video. I found it after being at my wits end trying to resolve a flickering problem with BTS Lighting WS2814 FCOB 12V strips. I've installed about a half-dozen different LED projects with other strips but these ones seem to be particularly susceptible to flickering. I say this because I haven't needed a level shifter at all in my other projects. Level shifters are definitely recommended with this brand of strip. Anyway, my last project wouldn't stop flickering, even with a level shifter. As I mentioned, I was at wits end trying to resolve it. This video prompted me to look at the buck converter I was using to power the ESP32 and the level shifter circuit. When I powered the ESP32 with a micro USB cable, the flickering stopped. This was repeatable. I swapped in a different buck converter to see if it was just that board but the new one did the same thing. I have used that brand of buck converter (LM2596) quite successfully in other projects but there was some bad mojo with the components on this last one,
I've not used buck converters in my builds, but I bet they give off a lot of electrical interference. If you can keep the converter as far away from your data line as possible that may help. Also just a shot in the dark but you could try a makeshift faraday cage by surrounding the converter with some tin foil
@@BytesOfPi I've used buck converters quite successfully with some types of strips. Muzata 3535, for instance. These FCOB strips are quite sensitive, however. Clever idea on the home-made faraday cage. I tried it but must have shorted out a couple of contacts because smoke started emanating from one of the components. I think I fried the ESP32 board because I can no longer connect to it. No biggie, I have spares and they are easy to program. Before introducing tin foil into your enclosure, ensure you have all of the contact points correctly isolated!
Hey, I'm using a WS2811 in my current project and it won't stop flickering, I'm using the ESP32 as a controller too, do you have any idea why this is happening, thanks in advance.
@@omarelabasery7101 Ensure that one of the ground pins from ESP32 is connected to the neutral from your power source. If that is the case, you may need to incorporate a level shifter into your circuit.
HI, Thanks for this video, It's very helpful. I do have a problem I hope you might be able to give some insight into. I bought both the WT32-ETH01 and the ttl-usb devices from your links and can't get the USB module to work. It comes up as a Verifone to printer bridge, and won't accept any drivers. I've been researching this for a while now and think the chip on the board has the wrong PID/VID. I've bought 4 different boards form different venders, plugged them into different computers and come up with the same problem. do you have any suggestions how to get past this issue? also I've been asking this similar question all over the internet, So I might have already asked it here, but I don't see that I have. If I did already I'm sorry for bugging you again. :)
What program are you using to flash your board? I may be mistaken, but I don't believe I had to download drivers when using vscode with platform io. While running the app, the adapter was recognized and used I'll concede that I downloaded drivers for an esp32 wroom board years before but it didn't need the ttl converter. I'll try to use a clean PC to confirm
Really nice video. Thanks. But I have to watched like 6 times until I realizes that you unselect the first seg. That part pass soo fast that is almost impossible to watch the first time...
That’s actually a good idea to put the controller box inside a wood box. Keep the uv light off the plastic and give an additional layer of protection from moisture.
Thanks! Actually in the last few years it's been getting cheaper and easier to get started. I've got a ton of videos about how I put it together. High level: -) Microcontrollers flashed with WLED -) Show composed with xLights software -) WS2811 Bullet pixels or WS2812 strips Start small with xLights on your PC, a strand or 2 of 5v lights and a WLED controller. You can run show and music off your computer. If you find you enjoy it, you can start: -) building props, -) run using a raspberry Pi FPP player -) use professional grade meanwell power supplies Start small and cheap and then build on: A few videos to check would be: Behind the scenes ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GeJxolPpiE8.html Flash WLED ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nvM-QI4Z_M4.html WLED, xLights and FPP ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LkGCo9Gi8mk.html Setup ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mkRKVinVuM4.html
Thank you for the tips brother. I personally prefer an angle grinder with a steel cutting wheel. When using one make sure not to cut all the way through as you don’t want to risk any twisting of the disk while running the tool
Great Job! Thanks for all the instructional videos. You helped me get going with my Christmas lights. The Wt32 ETH01 controllers with WLED are working great for me.
Yep. That's where it started. I wanted a cheap entry into a display of individually addressable lights and spending $15 on a controller really beat out the $300+ Falcon controllers available at the time. Since that video, so many engineers have capitalized on WLED and microcontrollers (Quindor, Kulp, Forkineye, etc...). They build PCBs with preassembled components like level shifters and fuses that undercut the larger players for $40-$50 a pop. It's exciting to see how much has changed in the last 4 years and how many newcomers have gotten started since
All of this seems waaay over complicated and engineered, for example a pc power supply would supplement the slow starting 5v dc power supply eliminating the need for a 555 delay, for example the pc power supply puts out 5v standby which is used to power the pi and also used to switch on the other 3.3v 5v and 12v rails by means of the pi programmed to pull the psu on pin to ground on demand waking up the psu which will then power the lights.
There's definitely multiple ways to attack the problem. I have a few older defunct desktops that could donate a power supply that may be more reliable. The issue I was trying to address is that on a cold startup of my Chinese 5v power supplies to power the WT32-ETH01 board and lights, the board would not start up. I had to go physically disconnect the board from the power supply, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in. It's a hack for sure to use the NE555 timer to delay until the supply could provide a steady 5v, but it's worked in every build out since. All of my Chinese power supplies pooped out in a few years time and I've since moved on to meanwell supplies which haven't failed once. I might be able to take the delay out with better power supplies. I'm a big fan of keeping designs simple. Less points of failure. If there's a better supply that can spin up a board and lights reliably every time, I'd say go with that.
Many thanks for producing such informative videos. I'm just about to start learning Xlights configured with WT32 controllers however I've been using Wled for a number of years, so no learning required for that part. Regarding the overall setup, you use a RasPi with FPP installed and connected to a Router. I assume each WT32 controller then plugs into one of the routers spare ports. (4 being the norm on most routers) Is that correct?
Thanks! That's a good question. Almost. One port goes to the Pi. The second port goes to one of the WT32-ETH01 inside the garage. A third port goes to an 8 port switch out in the yard. The box is positioned centrally in the yard to minimize the distance to the 4 additional exterior WT32-ETH01 boards running the rest of the show. That central box also provides power outlets to the rest of the yard. I have enough to be able to expand to an additional 3 controllers in the future. The power going out into the yard box is always on, keeping the switch constantly powered. It also has a home automation switch that powers the other outlets so I can schedule when the props turn on or off or manually turn them on/off via my phone.
@@BytesOfPi Many thanks for the detailed reply. The use of an additional 8 ports for future controllers is a great idea. It's amazing how the WT32 performs for such a low cost when comparing it to commercial controllers. I have successfully run around 1500 pixels before on a single pinout with an ESP32. The frame rate wasn't too bad either considering I was probably approaching the controllers limits. I believe there are at least 5 usable pins on the WT32, meaning as many as 4000 pixels at 800 per output could be used per controller.
@@modelmanmark Yep, that's definitely true. The most I have running off of one WT32-ETH01 is my latest matrix of 2365 pixels using 3 output ports. It doesn't handle the canned WLED 2d patterns well, but it handles xLights 40FPS sequences like a champ. WLED has a page talking about their recommendation on performance for ESP32s kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#esp32 For perfect performance, it is recommeded to use 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 2048 LEDs. For very good performance, it is recommended to use 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 3200 LEDs. For good performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 4000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 5 outputs for a total of 5000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 800 LEDs/pin with 6 outputs for a total of 4800 LEDs.
In my setup, I run the xLights show from a standalone FPP Raspberry Pi that doesn't control any lights. If you are running some lights off of your FPP controller, I think it would be the IP address of your FPP. You'd need to set up your controller as an FPP controller
@@WooderBoyProductions You don't need to buy a raspberry Pi to run your show. If you use the xScheduler software bundled with xLights, you can run it off your computer for free. If you want to use a dedicated FPP controller to run your show, you can purchase a Raspberry Pi and a micro SD card flashed with FPP. The best place in the US to purchase a Raspberry Pi that I've found has been Adafruit. www.adafruit.com/product/4292 You can get more information on flashing FPP from github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp falconchristmas.github.io/ There are a few good videos on how to flash FPP on RU-vid.
I think you're referring to the matrix video and unfortunately I've not looked at it yet... If I get some free time, I'll need to download the latest and check out the code
@@BytesOfPi Thanks for your reply I'm not good at English, so I'm using a translator. Please understand even if the grammar is incorrect. I am following along step by step while watching RU-vid videos. There are more things I don’t understand, but I’m always grateful.
Hi i succesfully compiled and uploaded the NEW Binary from Master 0.14.1.b2 to ESP8266 the WLED-IP/json/effects list showing all the new effects but the Effects like DNA ScrollingText you are refering to are not in the Browser showing up
Found this when I was looking for why my ESP32 always flickers the W2812B even when I switched the library and different ESP. Turns out that I didn't have a common ground which ultimately fixed my issue. Without it, the LEDs were flickering like a christmas tree and never stayed the same color or turned off properly :)
Thanks for the post. I am very new to the WLED and ESP32 universe but am treading above water so far. I first setup a 4 panel 32 x 8 setup and it worked great. Black Friday made me spend and I am now setting up a 12 panel display. I have them all working together in a large matrix and am building a case to carry it around with semi transparent white acrylic to disperse the light. I tried to setup sound reactive on a second chip 13.2 version tonight and it fried it when I setup the large matrix. It did the same with another one but I was able to recover it. That led me to 0.14.0-b2 I was able to flash it to a chip with sound reactive and everything looks good. I will try it in the morning. That led me to your video. I was wondering how to layer the scrolling text over other effects since I started this project and it looks like you have figured it out. I will also try that in the morning. Many birthday and Christmas parties this month. Everyone loved the small panel I am sure the will like the new one even more.
This is the best explanation of this issue I have seen! Thanks for the video! Just a note for those of us that use Vixen and FPP. Make sure if you have a computer running Vixen on the same network as FPP , That Vixen is completely closed while the show is running on FPP. If Vixen is open the lights will constantly flicker. This one bit me a few years ago, was pulling my hair out, til i noticed that it only happened while i had the program open.
i have been installing permanent christmas lights on my house ones i designed using ws2811 pixels, i just tied in an additional section in a hurry and connected from the wrong end of the string now none of my pixels work at all i did confirm that the controller is good any suggestions how to fix or did i fry all of them?
That's a tough question. Most likely you did not damage your other strands. If the only thing you did was tie a strand of strings backwards, but you kept ground tied to ground and power to power, then they should all be good. The data goes one way, but doesn't cause damage if you connected them backwards. What usually causes damage is connecting a higher voltage than your strand can accept or touching ground to power. Was the backward strand at the end of your run or at the beginning? Are you assembling it all on the ground or in the air? If you can assemble the pieces on the ground and test them, it's worth it before you hang them up on a permanent installation
Amazing. Your videos are always great and helpful. I love how you are not using all the fancy controllers and keep it simple. I am doing my first show this year with WT32-ETH01boards. Thanks for all you do to help people as you helped me get my matrix going.
No problem! I'm glad you found the videos helpful. I like the idea that we can start with cheap components just to see if we enjoy the hobby and want to go deeper. A lot of the marketed boards are over engineered and have a lot more components than most really need which makes it expensive just to start. However, having said that, the marketed boards do have a lot of safety components like fuses that are necessary and useful components like level shifters that are really useful. They also come in custom PCB boards that make it really compact to fit in a small space. I hope you have a good season and that your matrix works for you. My family and I found the Matrices were the centerpiece to our show and we can do a lot of fun things. Happy holidays!
Thanks! I built these boxes a few years ago when WLED had just caught on and there weren't many commercially available all in one WLED boards. I still prefer my setup, especially with the ethernet connection, but I'm exploring new options now and seeing if Wi-Fi options can hold their weight. More to come!
Thanks, I appreciate that! The flashing lights issue is the most frustrating problem and it's a struggle sometimes to know where to start troubleshooting.
so i’m trying to do something in this realm. basically i have an esp32 board setup with wled on it. i want to sync it to music on my computer. Is there a way to send Midi from My Daw, and to the esp32 board to trigger different light sequences in Wled? I think Wled accepts this sac protocol for triggering. but how do i connect that to the board wireless my. does the sac have its own app for this. I feel like you are super smart and could explain it. thanks
Are you looking for the WLED sound reactive sequences to react to songs you create on your DAW? I haven't had the opportunity or need to try SAC, but there are 2 things that come to mind if you want WLED to react to custom songs Audio reactive WLED If you hooked a mic up to your ESP32 there are sound reactive sequences that will react to the music it hears. kno.wled.ge/advanced/audio-reactive/ xLights sequences I prefer to have tighter control on how my light show reacts to music, so I sequence my lights to music using xLights and then use DDP to deliver light data to my individual WLED controllers. One place you might find solution to your problem is the r/WLED Reddit page. There are a lot of guys there that maybe able to provide more insight. If you do go down the SAC protocol path and get it to work, it may be worth posting your success on that page so others can follow in your footsteps.
@@eross21 xLights is an open source tool that the lighting community has used for years. High level, it allows you to model your display area with all of your light props and controllers and create "sequences" that will fire DMX based packets using the DDP protocol. I have another video that demonstrates connecting xLights and WLED. The video doesn't show the music sequence because of YT policies, but you can see my current light shows on the channel synced to music ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LkGCo9Gi8mk.html If you're interested in DDP protocol or xLights, here are a few links xLights: manual.xlights.org/xlights/ DDP protocol: www.3waylabs.com/ddp/#Efficiency
Thanks for the great video. I found another flickering source. I set up my megatree and a few props through a differential receiver just like last year but this year it flickered. After about an hour of troubleshooting wires and such, I discovered that I had the light switch on xLights turned on at the same time I was trying to run the show on xScheduler. Once I turned it off, flickering disappeared. Whew. Glad it was an easy fix. But duh!!
How did you connect your pixel lights to the Home Depot netting? I was getting ready to purchase HolidayCoro matrix when I saw this video and noticed the HD netting was cheaper and readily available! You've got some great content on your channel. Thank you so much for sharing to help newbies like me!
Thanks! I'm all about finding ways to stretching money so you can do more with less. I saw a few videos of vendor created netting for bullet pixels and thought there has got to be a cheaper way to do it. The vendor based Matrix stuff is at a fixed length so you got to know how much you want to space it. I figured a grid gives you the ability to place a matrix at whatever spacing you want. Most of the plastic chicken fence is diagonal pattern with holes just a little too big for pixels, but the grid style fences are just big enough. Two things I'll caution you. First is to be gentle because the squares are snug. It is plastic and if you try and force it too much the square will snap. Secondly my 2365 pixel matrix is very heavy. You'll get that with any solution probably so If you have a really dense matrix it'll try to sag in the middle. I would suggest having one or two braces in the middle of your frame to support the weight
Great overview, very impressive setup. Since smaller/micro scale electronics are more my specialty, I may try doing RGB on a christmas tree this year to learn the tricks of the trade!
That's a great way to get started cheaply to see if you want to get into the hobby or not! WLED has a lot of patterns that will work without music to sync with. You probably have enough around the house to get started. Looping the lights around a Christmas tree may be challenging since xLights needs to model the position of each pixel as it spirals around your tree, but you can get an approximation. If you're ok with quick and dirty, WLED has an audio reactive configurations and patterns if you have a microphone component. You don't have to sequence anything, but just let the controller kno.wled.ge/advanced/audio-reactive/ If you really are ambitious, I got started with just regular Christmas lights, an 8 channel solid state relay board, and custom coded a program to read E1.31 Analog data to turn the relays on and off. That was before smart pixels really took off and
Sure, I'll give it a try... The zip doesn't have the music, but it has the sequence and images. github.com/BytesOfPi/xLightsWLED/blob/main/xLights/sequences/Holly%20Jolly%20Christmas.zip You can purchase the MP3 on Amazon Music or another music selling site.
