Blog

The LED Controller Board

Bill Watson — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:33:31 +0000

Here’s what a full LED board looks like. Yes… it does look like a little glowstick dancer

Controller Board with 5 LEDs

Leaf Etching Is About To Happen

Bill Watson — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:20:41 +0000

I got a quote today for etching the leaves that looks good. Their laser is six times the power of the Epilog I have been using and the etches are much deeper and whiter. Their bed is much larger too. So even though the speed is about the same, the process will take less time. The picture below shows what the etch looks like with the full LED board that has two white LEDs in addition to the Red, Green and Blue LEDs. I’m really happy with this white… neutral/warm and even.

A Production Leaf

The Final Adjustments

Bill Watson — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:54:34 +0000

Monday the tree finally settled into it’s final form. Here’s a picture of what it is going to look like. Next is the adding the leaves.

The Final Form

Here’s another view of the tree…

Another View

Art in the Making

Bill Watson — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:17:21 +0000

Steve Brown was over to help build the tree and work on the LED boards and took this nice picture.

: Beautifulness

The original can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdbrown/3534264504/

The First Light Tree Sculpture is Built

Bill Watson — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:02:05 +0000

After a lot of adjustments, the first full tree sculpture was finished Thursday. It looks good but still has more changes that need to be done. A day of evaluation, rest and attending to other construction issues has slowed things down a bit.

The First Full Tree

The Tree Base is Built

Bill Watson — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:57:31 +0000

Kiwi came over today and we made a tree base.

: Tree Base

Tomorrow we should have the whole tree built.

Building Trees Has Started

Bill Watson — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:44:55 +0000

After shuttling bamboo to the garage early this week, I’ve begun the actual building process.

Sorting Poles

Wednesday was a day of stacking, sorting and knocking out the nodes between all the cells to help prevent splitting.

One Tree of Poles

Thurday was the first day a real tree stood on it’s own three feet.

Beginning the First Tree

A Quick Status Report on the Light Trees

Bill Watson — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:12:25 +0000

Where are things at the moment? So far nearly all the electronics that’s going to the playa is either finished, in manufacturing or waiting for final assembly. The LED Controller boards are done except for soldering in the LEDs… this is the biggest electronics task left to do. The Director boards are done and the Power Supply boards should be back from manufacturing in a few weeks. The LVDS Extender prototypes have been tests and it won’t take long to make the final boards. I’m skipping the USB Controller hub for this first version of the trees.

Software is another story. The manual control app has been done for a while but the fancy software hasn’t even begun to be worked on. That’s what July and August are for.

The materials to make the tree sculptures is mostly bought. The nuts and bolts will be expensive but are easy to get at the great surplus place down by the shipyards. The leaves are all cut and the brackets are all fabricated. Drill jigs are already made for drilling the holes for the LEDs and bolts. Etching the pattern on the Plexiglas is the last major task.

It’s time to focus on making big trees!

Welcome to the Light Trees blog

Bill Watson — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:56:19 +0000

I’ve added a Wordpress blog to the new website as a place to journal the progress of the Light Trees project. Keep checking this page for the latest developments.