thebaronn Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 In case anyone is interested! In 2011 I decided that I needed “something!” I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I need to add something to my show. That year it was the snow covered Pumpkin Mountain from the Haunted Mansion Holiday graveyard scene at Disneyland Which got us on the MSN homepage). I had big plans of keeping that. But Then I came up with the brilliant Idea of taking it down on the windiest day of the year. A Tale of Pure Stupidity After that day, I needed another prop. For 2012 I created a version of Ray Bradbury’s Halloween Tree for my wife with Pumpkin ornaments. I had planned on using it through Christmas but when I moved it for the Halloween Show; I also compromised the integrity of the prop. That also met it's demise to wind/my stupidity…… But I quickly rebounded with the awesome Ultimate Coro-Mega tree!! But alas, the 3840 Pixel Screen stole the spotlight………But I was smart, I took down the tree with ease and it is sitting in my garage ready to come back in a few years! 2013! This year I needed an awesome follow up. We had decided on a Halloween Show pretty much right after the Generator Rex show. I decided I wanted Big Ben!! Or at least a version of Big Ben. Then I decided that it needed to be covered in pixels!! Easy right? Well, just in case you are interested in how it was created, here you go! Pictures! First thing, I sandwiched two pieces of Coro together with pegboard on top and I made it as square as possible. Then I decided that the clock face would be 6 feet in diameter. But of course it turned out to be 5 ½ feet……I drew a ½ circle and then drilled holes on the outside of the ½ circle at a spacing of 3 inches and when I was finished I cleaned the holes. To give the Coro a skeleton I used aluminum C-channels bolted together. There is one rail at the very top of the 8 foot Coro square. Then 2 vertical rails that shoot down from the top rail. Then I added 2 more horizontal rails that were tangent to the clock face. The rails were painted black to match the Coro. Once it was together I carefully cut out the clock face. After it was cut out, I took everything apart and added 2 sheets of Plexiglas in between the aluminum rails and Coro and bolted them back together adding a ton of gorilla glue. Originally I was going to use a huge 5’X5’ piece of white plastic from Tap Plastics, but the price was ridiculous, so I opted for 2 3’X6’ sheets from Home Depot. After it was dry, I gave the clock face a light coat of cheap white spray paint and was done. After that was done I created the top of the clock in the same fashion. Then I moved it to the front yard! I was able to take the easy road for the bottom of the clock tower. The base is made with 2 Pixel Panels from last year. I just attached a few more C-channels to them and attached it to the PVC base of my Coro-Tree from the year before. I added all the pixels and injected power (these were the same 5V 2811 Pixels from last year that was in the Pixel Screen). I used a CG1500 enclosure to house the 2 power supplies and the E682 Board. For some brilliant Idea, I have the Enclosure at the very top of the clock tower, yeah that was just plain geniusness…….. The clock itself actually works! I took 2 metal plates and bolted them together in the middle of the Plexiglas and attached a clock movement I purchased from the Big Clock Store. I broke the first one cause, well sometimes I suck. But I also know I suck sometimes, which is why I purchased two of them, so easy fix! HA! The Roman Numerals were printed out and then my wife laminated them and we rubber cemented them to the face of the clock. Voilà! The clock has 4 60W LED bulbs behind the face lighting it up. The clock has a total of 3136 Pixels spread across 3 E682 Boards and 20 DMX universes. I have 3 eyes I put into 3 huge rafters on my house in 2009 and I attached rope to the very top where the enclosure is and the top two sides and hoisted it up! It is lights enough that I was able to do this alone at 3am. I would love to see the neighbors on the way to work, kids screaming “look at that!” LOL! One day, nothing, next day 25ft clock tower! Now, you may be thinking that it’s only a matter of time before it falls. You could be right! But on 10/27 we had the windiest day in the last decade with wind gusts up to 60mph and the clock survived!! Now, I am not saying that it didn’t sound like it wasn't trying to rip off the front of my house, but it survived! Hopefully it can survive 2 more months! I think that is everything. If you have any questions, let me know! Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Lookin' great; can't wait to see the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebaronn Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Lookin' great; can't wait to see the video. Thank you! And I Finally recorded something!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad02 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Gets better every year, Have a great New Year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John (oldandslow) Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Thank you! And I Finally recorded something!!!!! I still can't belive how big it is and that the clock actually works. What can we expect from you next year? I still missed the train.John (oldandslow) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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