The 2011 RGB Megaball Project
The RGB Megaballs, as pictured above, have three strips of individually addressable LED lights inside a water resistant plastic globe.
A DMX controller is built in to the ball, and it is fed by Cat5 wire for the DMX signal and the 12v power for the LEDS. The parts were sourced from different Internet vendors,
such as Holiday Coro for the tops, AliExpress for the LEDs and controllers, Superior Lighting for the Globes, and Monoprice for the cables and connectors. We used 10 of these
in the Belardo Lights 2011 display, and they worked very well. Here are a few photos that show how they were put together...
To start, we cut the ends off some black Cat5 cables, ran them through the tops and then tied a knot so they wouldn't come back through the top,
leaving some wire to be able to connect to the internal DMX controller. Then we used a hot glue gun to seal the top and bottom with glue to keep water from leaking in.
We did the wires for all 10 Megaballs at the same time and made the wires different lengths as required by the driveway hanger stands
that were already pre-fabricated.
Once the glue set up and was firm, then we stripped off the insulation from the Cat5 cable, exposing the four pairs of wire inside. For wiring,
the orange pair of wires was used for the DMX signal, and the other 3 pairs of wire were used to route 12v power to the controller.
Next, we took three LED strips and glued them back to back. These will be hung inside the balls, and will allow the light to shine out
in all directions. There are separate wires for Red, Green, and Blue LEDs that will be hooked up to the DMX controller output.
Here is a photo of the DMX controller. Each controller has 12v and DMX inputs, as well as RGB outputs for the LEDs.
In order to mount the DMX controllers inside the balls, they need to come out of their cases down to the bare circuit boards and wires.
After the Cat5 wires are attached to the DMX controller for 12v input and DMX input, and the outputs are connected to the LEDs, then we
test each module. The alligator clips are applying 12v to the controller input without DMX signal. The controller is configured to step through all the colors when no
DMX signal is present, so that's a good way to test the LEDS thoroughly.
Once everything is working properly, then we hot glue the circuit boards to the top of the lid so the LEDs hang down, and then the
tops get screwed onto the balls to make a water resistant final product. All that's left after that is adding the Balls to the Light-o-rama configuration file and
sequencing them into the existing and new songs for the display...
It took a bit of work to build 10 of these balls for the display, but the fact that are each color-adressable make s them a very versatile addition to the display.
You'll have to come and check out the new Mega Balls this year at Belardo Lights...