In & Out RPi hats - in use

[djgra79]

I'm curious to know, out of the 20+ members who bought one of the Experience Lights in & out Pi hats from the bulk buy (thread here) who has actually incorperated them in their display this year?
Would you care to share your setup and how you've used them? Photos or vids may help others to get the idea of how they can be used and potentially spark an idea for a future project in thier own displays. (full discolsure, I bought one and have zero idea what to do with it yet!)
Were they easy to setup and deploy? Does it do what you thought/intended it to do?

 

[Croydon Lights]

I have used mine for the ELF Selfie Wings and the five buttons as per Experience lights and they have been a big hit with people queuing up for photo's but I did have to add a spot light on the back of the push button podium facing the ELF Selfie Wings to light up people faces

 

[thewanderingpine]

Mine are driving wings (completely standalone with no integration to the rest of the show).
I’m somewhat happy with my button setup - but it’s a bit prone to tipping.

 

[thewanderingpine]

The Wiring example in the experience lights video (with the common ground) wasn't ideal - but it was fairly straight-forward. Setting them up in FPP was easy.

I ordered these buttons from Ali: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003717403415.html
The frame is just some pine painted black - I'm really happy about the hinges on the back panel though -- makes it much easier to get to everything than my original plans.

The lid was 3D printed to press fit over the top and keep out a light shower (and hold the back door closed) - but the whole thing is not fully waterproof or designed for a storm.

Happy to do a demo for anyone in Eastern Melbourne.

 

[merryoncherry]

Ok, so I did get more of the Experience kit than I managed to use this year. But I have used it for a few things. Never attached the buttons to control anything in the field, as I thought the PIR sensors more fun to trigger stuff when people walk by.

They currently trigger event sequences that light lights and play audio. At halloween they triggered spooky eyes and phrases uttered by spooky tree. Currently they turn on photo stations like the NMBC characters that otherwise work as singing faces in some sequences.

In this one, there's a Pi to the right of the drive, there's a PIR connected to it, and the characters to the right come on, plus the PAR to the left so you aren't just a silhouette in your photo.


I tried to enclose and assemble each Pi in a very generic manner so that it can be reconfigured in the field. The in+out hat powers the Pi from any of the many 12V xConnects running here and there. Hard wired Ethernet, also generally nearby in my setup. As many sensors like PIR (photo left) need power and ground, I have little distribution bundles inside. I use 4-pin xConnect for the sensors then so they are field-pluggable and I have off-the-shelf extension cables... power, ground, and 2 pins for the switch contacts. The 2 light strings are configured and have usable xConnects, but I have never yet used them in the field. SoundBlaster inside for audio (not used in this particular deployment).


I use xSchedule to handle it... there are many methods but I configured a button in xSchedule and have the Pi make a URL request to xSchedule with button press command. This makes testing easy. xSchedule here is easy in one way, but discovering the tricks is hard. xSchedule should be in advanced mode, add multiple .eseq files to the same step (in this case 1 for PAR and 1 per character) so they run in parallel, and be sure to set "Delay" on each, which is actually the duration. This is not picked up automatically!

For playing sound, I send a web request from the xSchedule to the Pi FPP to do it. The Pi has audio out Soundblaster, amp and speaker plugged in. That makes sound seem to come from the prop, say Spooky Tree.



Maybe next year I will get more elaborate with it.

 

[Domestos]

I've been using mine with the EFL Angel Wings, and followed the guide by Experience Lights. The Pi-Hat works well. My only issue is the absolute garbage pixels from ETOP this year. I've litterally just given up. 200 solder sleves, countless hours and I can't even recall how many pixels I've replaced, but I am done.

 

[Jase]

I have used mine for the ELF Selfie Wings and the five buttons as per Experience lights and they have been a big hit with people queuing up for photo's but I did have to add a spot light on the back of the push button podium facing the ELF Selfie Wings to light up people faces

Kids loved that when we visited a couple of nights ago. Nice work . Spot light was a great idea. There may or may not be a pic of me standing in front of it on the AusChristmasLighting FB group

 

[Croydon Lights]

They have been the biggest hit this year but the only problem has been kids hitting the buttons while others are getting their photo take with a particular color pattern or all of them at once meaning the PI has to catch up with the sequence but with the smiles all around at night it worth the small problems but next year I will have to fix the problem with a better solution for lighting up people faces for the photo's in front of the wings I will maybe turn down the brightness tonight and see if that helps, if it does not cut down the color range to much

 

[Jase]

They have been the biggest hit this year but the only problem has been kids hitting the buttons while others are getting their photo take with a particular color pattern or all of them at once meaning the PI has to catch up with the sequence but with the smiles all around at night it worth the small problems but next year I will have to fix the problem with a better solution for lighting up people faces for the photo's in front of the wings I will maybe turn down the brightness tonight and see if that helps, if it does not cut down the color range to much

Kids. Have button... will press many times haha.

 

[Skymaster]

 

[djgra79]

So here's an idea i've had in my mind for a couple of years which I'm hoping this item can accomodate and happy to get other's feedback.
I'd like to setup a control box with buttons similar to @thewanderingpine where kids can push a button and it will light up the megatree with a pre-made effect/sequence. But when the button sequence is finished/not pressed, the megatree is part of the full show.
I'd also love it if one of the buttons could trigger a dmx fixture (smoke or snow machine)

My basic controller setup is above, to achieve my goal, where would the pi/in & Out hat combo fit into the setup?

Also if i'm reading the instructions correctly, only a 12v PSU into the hat will also power the pi attached? Otherwise if using 5v pixels, you'd need to power the pi seperately also?

 

[Dreamin]

I'm wanting to do similar with my wings. Push button to override the effects from the show while someone takes a photo, then back again.

By the look of it yes. It's got a buck converter in there for 12>5V for the pi. I actually prefer the way Hanson does his Pi where you decide what voltage your putting in, if it's 5V it powers the Pi also.

Nearly all my pixels are 5V.

 

[merryoncherry]

You can put it anywhere (as long as it is seated on a Pi). If it is not on the Pi that is the show player, it can send a network command (http for example) to another FPP, xSchedule, etc. (I ran FPP on the Pi, had it send the command to xSchedule to run an event playlist step that lit up the selfie spot pixels and a DMX flood on another controller.)

If you have 5V, maybe you are supposed to power the Pi with it directly rather than through the hat?

 

[Rickras85]

I use my two on a few of the buttons in my sleigh. When they select one the buttons it’s plays a sequence in the p5 panels next to the switches and the strip lights around the sleigh. When no button is pressed for a while it goes back to a basic screen prompting them to find the buttons a very big hit with the kids

 

[B4IGO]

I use my two on a few of the buttons in my sleigh. When they select one the buttons it’s plays a sequence in the p5 panels next to the switches and the strip lights around the sleigh. When no button is pressed for a while it goes back to a basic screen prompting them to find the buttons a very big hit with the kids

How did you get the council to install a power/controller cabinet on the footpath? ;-)

Love the sleigh, that is really cool!!