The Large Grid

The large grid on the house was added to our display in 2015. Plenty of others have created grids, but our goal was to go over the top and create a very large grid. We ended up with an 18ft × 8ft grid mounted over our front door.

The grid is constructed using:

• 5 sheets of PixNode Mounting Net — we initially tested with 3” spacing but ended up using 2” spacing in the final design
• 4,876 count of 12V RGB Smart “Bullet” Pixels
• 2 AlphaPix 4 controllers (later replaced by a single Kulp K8-B)
• 8 12V 350-Watt Power Supplies (overkill now that we run at 25% power)
• Loads of 4” zip ties to secure the sheets together
• Multiple spools of 14-gauge underground landscape wiring to supply power
• A professional lighting truss (the first year, galvanized pipe was used — not a good choice)
• 16” ground anchors with stainless steel guy wires that hold the truss in place

Controlling the Grid

The grid’s 106 × 46 pixels are driven by the Kulp K8-B controller running FPP. Most of the time, that controller simply follows the main show: it plays its part of each xLights sequence, kept in step with the rest of the display by FPP MultiSync. This is where the names texted in by visitors appear.

The exception is the countdown to midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Our custom Linux program, the same one that runs the countdown clock, starts sending live pixel data to the grid using the DDP protocol about 45 seconds before midnight. It scrolls “READY TO COUNT LOUD?” and then counts down the last 30 seconds in giant numbers. The controller is configured to prefer DDP data over the sequence whenever both are present, so the countdown temporarily overrides the show. Once the countdown ends, the program stops sending and the grid goes back to following the sequence.