New Display Element, Spiral North Poles

[smeighan]

2014 PROJECT, Spiral North Poles

Dave Pitts and I are making 20 each of the Coroplast  Pixel Spiral North Pole display elements that Ben (HelenaGuy) created. The method of making them is described here

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?32747-How-to-make-a-Pixel-Spiral-North-Pole

Here is a video of them in action: https://vimeo.com/94304351

 

 

Ben made 7, dpitts and myself will make 40. First we need to cutout 440 4" disks from plywood and drill a 1 1/2" hole in each.

it takes 11 disks per pole

440 4" disks

440 1 1/2" holes added into each disk

 

cut 9 of the 11 disks in half and then glue to a 36"  long 1" PVC pipe

 

Each pole uses 48 pixels from the 150 pixel ws2811 12v flex strip. you get 3 poles per 5m strip. So we need 14 ws2811 flex strips, each cut into thirds.

 

I dont like plywood to be bare in my display elements so i am dipping them in KillZ primer.

 

Now you get the title, doughnuts for our light display.

 

2013 PROJECT, Yard Borders

Last year I made 200' of yard borders using the method that dave pitts designed and richm refined.

You can see the borders in this video https://vimeo.com/83551946

Instructions how to build yard borders are located here http://falconchristmas.com/forum/index.php/topic,67.0.html

 

2012 PROJECT, 9' Nutcrackers

3 years ago my big project was two 9' tall Nutcrackers made from Home depot supplies.

Instructions for those are here: http://www.meighan.net/build_your_own_nutcrackers/index.html

 

When I get time, i am also working Papgayo, Single Strand, Custom Models, Bugs for xLights/Nutcracker

 

thanks

Sean

[smeighan]

dave and i continue on our project of making 40 Northpoles out of plywood and coroplast.

 

i needed to cut 120 4" squares of 1/2" osb

440 squares of 1/4" plywood.

 

This is what that looks like

 

Since i need to cut the squares into 4" circles with a 1 1/2" hole in the middle, it gave me an excuse to get a band saw.

Ha! I just needed an excuse. Saw was on sale for $136. It works very well. 16" blade.

http://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-BS900-Band-Saw-9-Inch/dp/B00367WB0G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1407389162&sr=8-3&keywords=bandsaw+powertec

 

i will put my new Corey uSC (micro smart controller) right inside the northpoles.

This allows them to be 300 feet away from the controllers. Dave's testing shows we can drive 3 north poles (they have 13' of cable between them) with one uSC. So my 20 northpoles will take 7 strings from the 16 port active hubs.

 

work progresses

 

sean