Because... of things... Solarbotics didn't do a booth or official presence at this year's Bay Area MakerFaire. We opted to do something fun this time, building a custom just-for-the-fair piece of sorta-interactive LED artwork. Following on the success of the quickie LED floor mandala resting area we did at the NYC MF, we turned it up to 11 for the Bay area, making a WiFi-enabled version of the same thing.
Here's the technical detail on what we did:
The project is based on a modified "Double Rainbow" controller, with the Ardweeny brains replaced by a ESP-12. We set up the three major axis as "always on", with six zones controlled by the controller for animations. We advertised the WiFi SSID point and the URL for people to login to select one of the 6 animations available.
Dan set us up a nice 10' layout cord to speed layout of the major axis:
The franken-Double-Rainbow merged with the ESP-12F.
Setup at the Faire grounds, with our co-founder & CFO, Cheryl. The darkroom (Expo hall..2?) has a very hard rubber floor, so installing them directly to the floor would have turned the LEDs to dust with all the foot traffic. It took us 2 hours and some negotiating to find a 12'x20' carpet at a local Home Depot to mount the piece.
Floor Mandala in full operation! We had zero complications with the piece, other than the WiFi point saturating and not allowing us to login ourselves. Nothing a quick reboot didn't fix.
Sunday, and the lights have just come up at the Maker Faire. Cheryl, Alan Yates, and Elizabeth (sales coordinator extraordinaire) and two other tired attendees are getting ready to wrap up.
Peel up the art and signage, and you get ...more art! Remember, this was brand new (end-of-roll) carpet. That's what several thousand dirty feet can do to a carpet over a long weekend.
Interesting thing about going from a static LED display (in NYC) to a dynamic display is people (especially children) were interacting with it as if their footsteps were making things happen. Huh. We didn't expect that. I suppose the most natural interaction with blinky lights is to turn them on and off physically (not via your cell phone). Lesson learned for next time!
What's new at Solarbotics? We've just released our Sumovore Baseplate Upgrade Kit which will let you replace the mounting tape & zip-tie restraints with a black powder-coated steel baseplate! This upgrade makes the Sumovore much more robust, and also increases the mass for a more competitive edge. Note that all new Sumovores from Solarbotics will […]
It's time to put away shovels, and clean up! We're making space in the warehouse, so we're moving out these big boxes of 3D printers! While supplies last, in-store only, final sale! Small, tidy, and lots of really good features - the Sermoon v1 Pro - 32% off! Super high detail printing with a Creality […]
Other than the new goodies, we have one more thing to announce: Solarbotics, as an official MakeFashion partner, has been supporting local and international designers by consulting, providing materials, tech support and snacks. One of the projects we have been working at is Pumping Fashion Lit (by Dee Fontans and Eric Willis). It is featured […]
On Tuesday July 1st 2014 we are closed for Canada Day. We will return to our regular phone calls answering and shipping next day on Wednesday. Happy 147th birthday, Canada.
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.