New Display Element, Spiral Northpoles

[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

 

[Bird]

Looks very nice. Great job & design.

 

[Bird]

Sorry to switch topics, do you have a link for a 'how to' on your driveway arches, materials etc.?

 

[mborg10]

Very cool setup

 

[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

 

[BundyRoy]

Sean, when you make Christmas displays you sure do go all out. What exactly does the Corey uSC do. Does it boost up the signal strength to get you further distance instead of using null pixels.