2024 Journey - JohnnyBoy's 2nd year fun

[Johnnyboy]

Hey JohnnyBoy, how did you go about purchasing the SLF poppers? Shipping appears to be crazy to vic. In the realms of $US320

is that "Estimated shipping" I just clicked on it out of interest and it returned $258.96 for shipping BUT doesn't even know where I live / never asked

Shipping on theses were a little nuts. I was fortunate enough to get an early release on the STL file for these and just printed myself. I know SLF Designs have now released the file so you can purchase and print yourself. Quite a good product.

 

[Johnnyboy]

Halloween Props!

Due to the great black coro shortage, I wasn’t able to get many props in black and had to contend with white props, so I had to figure out a way to jazz them up a little. Who wants to have white spiders for Halloween?! Hopefully, with the recent announcement that Extreme Lighting Displays is back in business, black coro will be back in stock. Once you go black...

Spiders!
After reading some very informative posts here about painting props, I headed off to Bunnings to get some paint. Rustoleum is the most recommended brand, but at $18 per can, it’s quite expensive, so I tried a similar Squirt Paint + Prime product that was about $10 per can. It was right next to the Rustoleum section and seems to do the job; hopefully, it lasts a few years before needing a touchup. I went with black, red, and grey.

I did a quick Google search for red-back spiders and tried to find the most 'typical' spider look. I drew it out on some paper, made a template out of painter’s tape, and a quick spray gave me the red bits done. Another painter’s tape template to cover the red allowed me to paint the black and complete the look. I was very happy with how it came out

Pro tip: It’s better to paint and dry the prop flat—it prevents paint runs and gives a better finish. My first attempt had some runs I needed to clean up after I went a little heavy on the application.



Tombstones
I originally wanted to get the MegaChromeStone RIP 100-node prop, but at $55 each, I didn’t really want to spend that kind of money for a display that would be up for only a week at most. So I found the standard ChromaStone 1 prop for $16.50 each and decided to modify them.

I drew out an RIP sign, printed it to scale, used a hole punch to centre the holes, and finally used a 12mm drill bit to fit the pixels. Drilling coro is approximate at best—if you try to drill near the fluting, the drill bit will push to the left or right of the flute, making it not quite straight. I’m sure it will look good enough from a distance, but I’ll know it’s not perfect!

Using a similar process as with the spiders, I applied a lighter coat of grey paint to give it a patchy, weathered look. Then, I used a black paint pen to connect the outer border pixels. After initially trying to just outline the RIP letters, I decided to colour them in black for a bolder look.

Making changes in xLights was straightforward—I added the RIP letters and made reasonable pixel orders to not exceed the standard 10cm spacing. I also created some sub-models to match the original MegaChromeStone RIP prop. I do miss the second outer layer in the original MegaStone prop, but for $16.50 each, it’s a good deal!
If anyone is interested in the xLights models/sub-models let me know


Singing Pumpkin
I hadn’t really looked at this prop since I got it and only noticed all the flaws when I started pushing pixels. It seems the prop moved during the manufacturing process, and most of the holes weren’t drilled or routed correctly. I did reach out to Extreme Lighting Displays but never heard back (it was the day before their original closure, so that’s likely why), so I knew it was up to me to correct.

Re-drilling 300 holes made a mountain of black coro dust, but it got the job done! It looks cool, though and my daughters loved seeing it singing in the lounge room.


Seeds
I purchased 3k 4-wire seeds this year at 10cm spacing, and they were super easy to work with. One concern is that with the pigtails being much thicker than the seed wiring, I should have gotten single-sheathed pigtails rather than the double-sheathed ones. The double sheathing tended to twist/pull on the seeds and, in some cases, dislodged the mounting popper backing plate. I ended up adding a few more holes in each prop so I could cable tie them in place. Problem solved—no more strain on the seed wires.

I found it was better to put on SLF Design’s pixel poppers before inserting them into the prop, but it's worth trying a few different methods to see what works best. They were very easy to print, and I could get around 150 per print.


And here’s one final photo of most of the props. I seem to be missing a tombstone and cross for some reason—still not sure why I didn’t add them in. Oh, and this photo was taken before coloring in the RIP in black.


Thanks for reading and lets get spooky!

 

[Johnnyboy]

Mini Update

More Coro Drilling
After drilling 2400 holes last year https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/2023-journey-first-display-for-johnnyboy.15380/post-132480 I needed to drill more! A quick drip to bunnings for 6x4m lengths of 25mm electrical conduit and 900 holes later it was done. I didn’t procrastinate like last year and it was over in just a few short hours, much better than continually putting it off. So far I’ve pushed 400 pixels, with about 300ish pixels to go. I need to jump up on the roof to get the final measurements. These will add to the top roof ridges and garden front.

Boy does it make a mess!

I did 3D print and try the https://sfl-designs.com/STL-File-1-2-Standard-PVC-Pixel-Drilling-Jig-1-Spacing-p462885200 jig, but found my drill didn't have enough travel to go all the way through with the stepped drill bit. It would have worked fine with a forstner bit, but i've not had much luck getting a clean cut and wanted to stick with stepped bits. Even if it did work, i think my method was much faster.

Baldrick STL mounting plate
My 3D modelling skills are what you would call average, but I can generally modify someone else’s ok, and that’s exactly what I did! I took the excellent mount design from Greg Macaree https://www.baldrickboard.com/docs/baldrick8/baldrick8-stl-mounts and modified it to fit a LRS-600 PSU. It’s a super snug design and I gave it the ‘she’s not going anywhere wiggle’ and it passed with flying colours.

It took a few prints to get it right…..


For those wondering about the weird black/grey print colours. I ran out of grey and only had black to chuck in the printer. I kinda dig it.

If anyone would like the STL, just let me know. FYI it doesn’t fit the LRS-350 PSU, I’m hoping to make one in the next few months.

Now to go sequence some Halloween songs

 

[Bumpy2020]

Very good write up
Do you have more details on the garage door matrix ?
Id like to try and build something similar

 

[kevr]

Seeds, Seeds, and More Seeds!
From my experience so far, seeds are fantastic, but mounting them can be a bit of a challenge. For my matrix, cable ties are the clear winner—no need to overthink it. However, when it comes to coro props, especially the larger/thicker/wider 4-wire seeds, things get a bit trickier about what is the best way to do it. The below is my journey to see what works and is the most user friendly.
View attachment 26684

From my googling I found three designs that I liked the look of:

• SLF Designs – Seed Pixel Poppers Seed Pixel Poppers (sfl-designs.com)
• Seed Insert Coro with Locking Tab Seed inserts for Coro by livinglarge1970 - Thingiverse
• Seed Pixel Socket 5mm Seed Pixel Socket by doid100 - Thingiverse

When I first started exploring options, the SLF Designs version wasn’t available, so I focused on the first two to modify to the best of my ability.
View attachment 26685

Seed Insert Coro with Locking Tab
This design showed the most promise because it elevates the seed above the surface of the coro and is thick enough to push right through. However, the circular cutout at the top was initially too small for 4-wire seeds, so I had to modify it through several iterations to get a snug fit that would allow the seed to pushed into place rather than slid in. (the arrows below in red are all the same width so you can see how much I had to modify it)

I printed off a hundred to test them out, and let me tell you, it was a bit of a headache. The seed’s width in the mount was just slightly wider than the 12mm pixel hole. This meant I had to feed the wire through the hole, push the mount through, and then position the pixel into the mount—a slow and tedious process. I also tried pushing it through from the back, but that caused the wires to scrape on the coro, leading to some exposed wire through the sheathing. Not ideal. Once in place, though, they were solid. Another downside was the extra seed cable length needed to go through the coro and back. It worked fine for closely spaced HD props, but for the ones I was using, it would have required splicing in additional cable.
View attachment 26686

Seed Pixel Socket

This design was initially intended for thinning pixel strips or HDPE-type products like matrix mesh. Using it as designed places the pixel at the back of the prop, shining through the hole—similar to the SLF Designs seed pixel but without the opaque cover. The advantage of this design is that it doesn’t require extra cable length through the coro prop.

o bring the pixel to the front of the prop and minimize cable length, I made several design tweaks. I ended up calling it the “Tie Fighter”! Using two of these—one on the front and one on the back—locks the seed into place with minimal excess cable. Installing them was still a bit of a hassle, though: you had to poke the seed through the coro, install the front Tie Fighter, pull the slack, and then attach the back Tie Fighter mount.
View attachment 26688

SLF Designs – Seed Pixel Popper
Unlike the freely available 3D printable STL options above, the SLF Designs poppers are a purchased item. They come in two parts: a front section and a back clip. Getting the clip in place was challenging at first and required considerable force. I eventually found a technique that worked: placing the front part into a 3D printed pixel pusher to hold it steady while I installed the seed and back plate with my thumb. This method prevented it from moving around. I got pretty quick at it after doing over 900!

Installing the front part of the seed into the coro first, then adding the seed and backplate, was tricky because it moved around too much. The best approach was to get the popper in place before pushing it into the prop.

Pushing these poppers into 10mm xcore coro was a breeze and actually quite fun. If only all pixels were this easy!

I initially had some concerns with the colour of the poppers being black and not reflecting enough light but after reaching out to SLF Designs, Jason showed some photos of prototypes using white filament. The light blead through the white was terrible and think the black is the better choice. I did consider adding some aluminium foil inside to reflect more light, but it didn’t seem worth the effort given how they look without it.
View attachment 26689

How they look lit up
Below are some photos of my modified Seed Insert with Locking Tab design and the Pixel Popper designs. The separate cross photo above shows the original Seed Pixel Socket. The look of the seed, whether at the back or front of the prop, will be fairly similar, so I haven’t included every variation.

Colour reproduction in the RGB is very similar across the designs, with only red showing slight differences through the Popper. The variation isn’t as pronounced as it seems in the photos—it's more noticeable from different angles. I’m not sure why there’s a colour difference straight on; it might be a camera/phone issue.
View attachment 26690


My Choice
Overall, I found the SLF Designs Poppers to be the best fit for my needs. I love the clean look and how they allow you to use every bit of cable between the seeds. To address the issue of cable length, I’d recommend ordering seeds with a 12cm spacing rather than the 10cm ones I chose. It doesn’t seem like much, but that extra bit of flexibility makes a difference.

I have bought the files for the Poppers, do you have any tips for printing them.