About This Project

After seeing the "Galaxy of Lights" at Nasa's Houston Space Center in 2023, I though it might be fun to build my own little lightshow, too.

Here's a step-by-step guide so you can have just as much fun as me by building a light ring of your very own!!

Supplies to buy for the project.

What you'll need: Surprisingly few resources!

List includes an extra 20% of electronic items because, let's be honest, we're going to let the magic smoke out of more than a few things along the way.

• 60 x RGB LED strips - 5 meters long, 60 LEDS per meter, weatherproof silicone wrapped. $450
• 12 x 1 meter lengths of pressure treated 2x2 lumber. $20
• 1 x Table Saw (you already had 2x6s and didn't want to waste money on lumber). $200
• 12 x 1kg rolls of PLA 3D printer filament. $300
• 2 x 110VAC to 12VDC 50A Converters. $80
• 80 x Adjustable Voltage 2A Buck Converters. Throw these directly into the garbage. $120
• 15 x 12VDC to 5VDC 10A Aluminum Weatherproof Buck Converters. $140
• 1 x Ender 3 3D Printer because there isn't enough time for your printer to crank out the 700is parts needed for this build. $180
• 500ish Zip Ties - $20
• 3 x 50' rolls 18ga Silicone Red and Black Wire. $60
• 2 x 25' rolls 14ga Silicone Red and Black Wire. $60
• 1 x 100' roll 18ga Silicone Blue Wire. $20
• 2 x WiFi Extenders. You'll need these to realize these won't work. $60
• 6 x 50' 1/8" Paracord. $25
• 12 x 10" Steel Tent Spikes. $10
• 4 x 8' tall 4x4 Pressure Treated Fence Posts. They're too short, but only by an inch or two. $30
• 1 x box of 1.25" drywall screws. $7
• 1 x box 3.5" decking screws. $10
• 6 x bundles of 6ea 4' Bamboo Plant Support Stakes. $30
• 25 x ESP-01 WiFi Microcontrollers. $80

Houshold tools you'll need.

Most of this stuff is probably just lying around your house already.

• Phillips Screwdriver
• Wire Strippers
• Soldering Iron
• Hammer
• Cordless Drill
• 3D Printer (you need a total of two 3D printers)
• CNC Router configured to machine circuit boards
• Various surface-mount and through-hole electrical components
• PCB masking epoxy
• 100mmx70mm copper blanks for making PCBs
• Laser Printer>
• Transparency Sheets
• WiFi Router
• Web Server
• Domain name and wildcard SSL
• Electric Tape
• Scissors
• 6' Step Ladder
• 2 x Bucket to protect electronics from weather.
• Coffee

Tallying it up, you can expect to spend $125 or more on this project. It's a hefty price tag, but easily worth it. Once you've collected all the materials, the hardest part is over.

This next step is the easiest part.

Design and Manufacture the Panel Controllers

The Panel Controllers are the little boxes at the top of each panel. (A Panel is a segment of four vertical strips of lights.) Inside those boxes are the custom circuit boards and an ESP-01 WiFi Microcontroller. Design and manufacture your circuit boards. Then program your firmware for the ESP-01s and pop them into the circuit boards.