Oops I Did It Again New PCBs have arrived, but of course, things didn't go as planned! The simplest part, the LED, was a bust due to a common anode vs. common cathode mix-up in the design. Thankfully, the fix wasn't too tough: just needed some good ol' solder resist, a bit of desoldering and resoldering, and a bit of a workaround to get it blinking right—and yes, it involved a fair amount of swearing! 01 August 2025
Danger danger high voltage In this blog post, I explore my experiments with high-voltage circuits, trying to light up LED filaments salvaged from broken light bulbs. Despite some explosive mishaps with capacitors and MOSFETs, I decided to try a proper DC-DC converter. Unfortunately, the one I got turned out to be faulty, highlighting some rough soldering and component failures. I've ordered replacements and hope to successfully light the filaments soon. Follow along on my troubleshooting journey with plenty of learning curves! 27 March 2025
Dave come see - it's beautiful man Hey folks, I revisited my flame lamp project from 2020 and gave it a serious upgrade - we're talking a leap from 300 to a whopping 1024 LEDs thanks to these nifty flexible WS2812 panels. I've kitted it out with a versatile PCB from my Crystal Balls project, tackled power injection challenges and kept things cool with a current-limiting power supply. I had to wrestle with 3D printing and getting the panels to behave inside the lamp's tube, but the end result? A mesmerizing blaze of colors with gorgeous fire effect, all orchestrated by the WLED software. It's like my... 12 May 2024