[Andrew] shows us one way to reuse all those strands of Christmas lights you used for decoration this year. He had a friend that was helping with stage props for a local musical and ended up using his skills to build a lighted sign with some animation capabilities.
The original plan was to cut out letters for a sign by hand and ring them with white Christmas lights. It is possible to hand cut parts reasonably well, but [Andrew] knew he could get a much better result in less time using a CNC ShopBot to make them. He didn’t know the spacing for the lights so waited and drilled holes for them by hand. Each strand is connected to a relay, then driven by an Arduino. They turned out great as you can see in the clip after the break.
This is a timely hack, because it uses plain old while incandescent bulb strands which will be going on sale in the next few days. Usually you can get them on clearance for a dollar or less so plan ahead and hit the big box store early.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ann0Kh1x2Ws&w=470]
He took down the xmas lights before xmas is over?
Nice hack, and I’m glad he had the good taste not to shake his ass in the video.
Would using lights that where used to celebrate Jesus birthday to to build a sign advertizing burlesque be on route to hell? I always figured the Hackaday staff would lead us astray. :) No worries, who would send hackers to hell risking they may figure out a way to cool it down some?
Aint’ no place fer religion here- (GAWD Damnit!) LOL!
Aint’ no place fer religion here- (GAWD Durnit!) LOL!
Yee Gads. Listen to those relays click. Three words good hacker: Solid State Relay. Or just try to enclose the relay box with a little noise dampener.
SSRs?
They ‘leak’, and hella ‘spensive, going by the theory theres tons of clackers laying around