Not like that. Using a drill bit slightly smaller than the threaded rod, drill into the center of the painted “X”.

Now flip the Droneship over, keeping in mind which side will be against the wall during display. About an inch and a half from the hole you just drilled, use the 3/4 inch spade bit to drill all the way through. We’ll run the LED strip through this hole.

Using a drill, drive the support rod into the rocket. Leave about 12 inches exposed. Thread the support rod into the small hole on the Droneship. This could be a painful process, you may need to use some pliers to twist the rod all the way in. The rocket is now mounted and ready for LEDs.

Run the female end of the LED strip through the top of the Droneship out into the bottom. This end will connect to the Arduino. Take the other end and tightly spiral the strip up the exposed ~10 inches of support rod. It should be a little long, take this extra inch or two and run it back down, use some tape to attach it to itself. The lights are now ready for connection to the Arduino.

The flame is created using Poly-Fil quilt stuffing. Unroll the entire bag of stuffing. Now tear two roughly four inch wide sections the entire length of the roll. Now, starting at the base of the lights, spiral the first stuffing strip upwards. Once at the base of the rocket, use a pencil to shove the stuffing in between the engines. This will hold it in place. Do the same with the second strip. The flame is now finished. If you want more diffuse light you can add more strips.

Simply hot-glue the Arduino to the bottom of the droneship, plugging in the wires.

Choose a Digital pin on your Arduino for data transmission. Plug one end of your header wire into this port. Solder a 470Ω resistor to the other end of this header wire. Plug the open end of the resistor into the center hole of the LED strip (green wire). Plug a header wire into a GND pin on the Arduino into the white wire on the LED strip. Connect the red wire on the LED strip to the 5V pin. Plug the VIN port into a power source.

Simply copy and paste this code into the Arduino IDE and deploy to the Arduino board. If you so wish you can mess with the RGB values for different colored flames. Supply the code with a base color value, and it will automatically choose a lighter color to flicker to. I chose a dark orange, and it flickers to an orange-ish yellow.

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#ifdef __AVR__
  #include <avr/power.h>
#endif
 
#define PIN 5
 
//  The overall fire brightness
//  (this can affect both color levels and power consumption)
int brightness = 255;
 
// Parameter 1 = number of pixels in strip
// Parameter 2 = Arduino pin number (most are valid)
// Parameter 3 = pixel type flags, add together as needed:
//   NEO_KHZ800  800 KHz bitstream (most NeoPixel products w/WS2812 LEDs)
//   NEO_KHZ400  400 KHz (classic 'v1' (not v2) FLORA pixels, WS2811 drivers)
//   NEO_GRB     Pixels are wired for GRB bitstream (most NeoPixel products)
//   NEO_RGB     Pixels are wired for RGB bitstream (v1 FLORA pixels, not v2)
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(60, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);
 
 
void setup() {
  strip.begin();
  strip.setBrightness(brightness);
  strip.show(); // Initialize all pixels to 'off'
}
 
void loop() {
 
  //  Uncomment one of these RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values to
  //  set the base color of the flame.  The color will flickr
  //  based on the initial base color
  
  //  Regular (orange) flame:
    int r = 255, g = 60, b = 0;
 
  //  Purple flame:
  //  int r = 158, g = 8, b = 148;
 
  //  Green flame:
  //int r = 74, g = 150, b = 12;
 
  //  Flicker, based on our initial RGB values
  for(int i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
    int flicker = random(0,55);
    int r1 = r-flicker;
    int g1 = g-flicker;
    int b1 = b-flicker;
    if(g1<0) g1=0;
    if(r1<0) r1=0;
    if(b1<0) b1=0;
    strip.setPixelColor(i,r1,g1, b1);
  }
  strip.show();
 
  //  Adjust the delay here, if you'd like.  Right now, it randomizes the color switch delay to give a sense of realism
  // this changes the "flicker rate", smaller numbers cause a faster flicker
  delay(random(25,1 ));
}

Congratulations! Your Falcon 9 lamp is now finished, ready for display!