Bullet Pixel Matrix with WLED and xLights

#WLED #xlights #matrix #pixel
The bullet pixel matrix! It's the key to any home light show.
While props and house outlines are valuable in a light show, having a matrix or mulitple matrices makes a huge impact in what you can do.

In our past shows, the Matrix has been the centerpiece to our show. It allows us to tell stories by adding:
-) singing faces,
-) animated images,
-) and a bunch of other fun visual patterns.

One thing that held us back in previous shows is that our first matrix only had 884 pixels.
While we are able to do a lot of things with this matrix, we could only use low resolution images or pull tricks by moving higher resolution images over a path to give the illusion it was supporting a higher resolution image.

We’ve just finished putting together our 2365 pixel matrix using bullet pixels. Here’s how we built it!

Netting

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Electronics

Cable Connectors / Glands

Cables

Box Hardware

Table of Contents
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Why choose bullet pixels?
02:57 - Build the frame
04:23 - Electronics
09:55 - xLights and WLED

[BrickfordCityFire]

Really cool stuff! I have a suggestion that may make your life easier: inside the husky waterproof bin on the side of the matrix you have that yellow Ethernet cable. Infinite Cables in canada makes these super small, 6 inch patch cables that would save you a ton of space in there as a replacement. here is the product name: Cat6 UTP Micro-Thin Molded Patch Cable - 32AWG - Riser CMR - Black - 6 inch

[rosscastona]

One time back in 2021 I had a sound reactive dev version of wled when configured to 2D worked with xlights. Since that version, I have never got wled 2d to work with xlights. Exactly the same x-y and mirrored situation as your showing. I have tried every wled version up to 14. I have the version I believe to have worked on my PC. . I don't know if it is available for download any more? And I haven't played around with it since then. I don't know that much about code, but I thought some day I would fool around with that branch and see if I could figure out what the difference was in that branch. This has always interested me, because I know wled 2D worked with xlights at one time.

[RPoertner]

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!

[terrybus]

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?

[terrybus]

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?

[BobChiller]

according to quin-led esp32 is only good for 400 pixels per channel at higher fps (42 I think) you need to split the matrix into multiple outputs for better performance. I'm building a 1200 matrix this weekend and planning on 3 channels of 400 each for this reason.

[kertjans]

I have the same issue with a 2d WLED matrix and xlights...
Regarding your performance issues... have you considered breaking your one large strip (array) into smaller panels with each panel being driven by a separate pin from the controller. I have found that this improves the rendering performance of WLED...not sure why though.

[wholev]

the 3d / 1d and xlights flip was driving me up the now I know