4-23-2015 update

Here is a fun time lapse of me rewiring 1/3rd of the LEDs. Only 2/3rds to go!

4/19/2015 Update

Major milestone today.
I finished the electrical design and construction.
I plugged it in and ran a test Python script and everything seems good!
I then did a test fitting and damaged something and it stopped working, troubleshooting this week.

Now to start coding the actual function and a better test program that will run through ring by ring and test brightness and color as well as all lights at once.
After that some error handling.
I am still printing away the remaining mechanical pieces

https://youtu.be/Z9Jq9Q_d39I

4-16-2015 update

I have finished most of the soldering.
I destroyed 1 ring of LEDs by overheating the solder pad and ripping it off. I have one extra to replace it but it will have to wait as I left it at the office.
I have not done any quality testing on the connections yet so I won't be applying power unit early next week.

I plan on continuing to print and paint while I experiment with the code driving the LEDs. With any luck I may be done in about six to eight weeks!

4-8-2015 Update

We now have the data coming from the render farm and driving the LEDS,

you can see this here:

these 2 videos, however, are dithering and chasing tests to make sure we understand the code.
Yea i know its super simple code, but I am not a programmer so I am a bit slow.

progress and setbacks

It has been a while since i posted.
I am contemplating buying another 3d printer to wrap this up faster.

also i had a small scale industrial accident in my appartment thhat has set me back quite a bit.
i was dissolving some ABS in acetone in a non heat rated volumetric flask. I use this solution to bond the ABS to the heated build plate with a thin layer of ABS by squirting the solution on the glass plate and allowing the Acetone to evaporate.

well i got impatient and put my heat gun (on lowish) under the volumetric flask. I then left it unattended and it got too hot and the flask shattered, dumping about a half a liter of acetone down my heat gun and all over a bunch of finished parts. Yep, lesson learned.

I have begun working through learning enough about raspberry pi neopixels to write the code for this thing and made a tiny bit of progress. I have attached a video. Its not much to look at, but it does represent progress. I can change the color of the LEDs and have begun to work out how to switch them on and off at will.