0 comments Progress on the snowman has been a bit slow. Most of what it left is getting the animations to where I like them, which involves a lot of iterations of writing some code, downloading it, debugging it (through the serial port and/or using an oscilloscope), and then working on a new version. I’ll drop all […]
0 comments I’ve done quite a bit of work. First off, I’ve finished the bridge to hold the dodecahedra in the top globe. Here’s what it looks like: The next globe is then attached with a nut and a washer: The two additional dodecahedra have been built, as has the rest of the supporting […]
0 comments In the last episode of “Animated Snowman”, Eric was trying to decide how to locate the LEDs within the sphere; would they be all at the bottom, or would they be in the middle? Would they be solidly mounted, or be magnetically levitated in the middle, inductively powered, and spun up by compressed air (come […]
0 comments Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Looking for some LED lights a while back, I came across some acrylic light globes; the kind that you find on stair landings in apartment buildings. I noted that they came in various sizes, from around 8” up to 30” and beyond. I realized that you could put three […]
0 comments I’ve put in a fair amount of time working on the snowman and have made some good progress, though weekends are now a bust since last weekend and next weekend are full of ski instructor training. Getting all the EL wire segments fabricated was a bit of a challenge – there are 48 of them, […]
0 comments We got the lights up this weekend. Well, most of them – one of the main ones (see pictures here) happens to be on the gate on the north side of the house, and this year we are replacing a deck on that side our only access is through the gate. So… the 14’ high […]
0 comments The parts for the new controller have started trickling in, but until they all show up I’m a stuck there, so I’ve been thinking in other areas. In the olden days – pre LED – I had a number of the 50 or 100 light globes in my display: I liked them for their intense […]
1 comment For the last 5 years or so, I have led a “Holiday Lights Bike Ride” in early December. It’s fun to tour around and look at lights on a bike, and the view you get on a bike is very different than in a car. One of the houses has a large snowflake with white […]
0 comments Previous posts contain more information and pictures. Snowman Pt 1 Snowman Pt 2 After a bunch of work, the EL Snowman is up and running, and it’s pretty nice. Here’s a video, though the video looks jerky on the faster animation rates (the actual animation is smooth), and the colors are off (the hat is […]