4th of july

[Jeff Millard]

Hi all,
I saw there weren't any posts here so I thought I'd discuss the plans I had for the 4th that backfired. We have a seasonal campsite with a bunch of tall pines in it. I picked out 9 of them that were a little under 2 feet in diameter spaced pretty evenly around the site.
Starting about 10 feet up, I wrapped 70ct Red LEDs, then a string of 100ct clear minis, then a set of 70 ct Blue LEDs. All lit up it was awesome! But my plans didn't end there.
I made 9 SSR's and used 3 channels from each one so I could control each color on each tree. On the extra channel I hooked up a C9 Strobe.
Then I started on a sequence of Charlie Daniel's Band "In America" It was coming along really good and I was well on track to get it done by next weekend when they are celebrating the 4th.
Last Friday evening I got off work and drove down to the campsite. When I got there, my wife told me she was really sorry, but the squirrels decided that the blue LEDs were a berry they could harvest and save for winter. They had chewed about half of them off and buried them all over the place. Squirrels aren't very technical saavy, so they didn't know to leave enough wire for me to repair the strings. So I now have 9 piles of green wire and inedible Blue berries...
Needless to say, my first attempt at a non-Christmas display has been quashed by Mother Natures little creatures...
My neighbor says they taste like chicken.... Hmmmm...
jeff

[lytnin]

Hmmm, Berries tasting like chicken....... tempting! :lol: :twisted: :lol: :twisted:

[sandy]

Oh Jeff,
that is too funny,
sorry your display is gone,
but the way you describe the squirrels is great.

I finished up some small (tomato cage) trees for the Christmas in July at our campsite.
I wanted to do a water display for the 4th,
but that will have to wait 'til the the 4th of next year.

[cgarwood]

I put some simple floodlights out in front of the garage running a fairly simple sequence with a few chase effects and color changes. No music though.

Excuse the blurriness, my camera is terrible at night shots.
http://content.imagesocket.com/images/HPIM1449d91.JPG (http://imagesocket.com/view/HPIM1449d91.JPG)
http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/HPIM1450440.JPG (http://imagesocket.com/view/HPIM1450440.JPG)
http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/HPIM145188e.JPG (http://imagesocket.com/view/HPIM145188e.JPG)
http://content.imagesocket.com/thumbs/HPIM145214b.JPG (http://imagesocket.com/view/HPIM145214b.JPG)

[lytnin]

The best kinds of ideas are the simple ones.

Very effective. Well done. :)

[lazz]

when anyone says squirrel this link comes to mind....
http://www.vtwinmama.com/demonic_squirrel_riding_story.htm

[lytnin]

Lazz,
That was soooo funny. :lol: :twisted:
Poor guys.

[kkmm]

That was GREAT! I ride a "Dragon" too, and I can tell ya, they most certainly do have the torque!

[alwysrit2]

Hi All, I just got 595 working tonight. I had a bit of issue with the port settings. I only have 10 SSR's currently and I am using 9 of them, 3 for the red, white, blue strings along the gutters, 3 for the outside pillars and 3 for the center pillars. Besides the blue, the rest is part of my xmas display.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpDofAu4YK8
Any comments are appreciated
-Don

[wjohn]

Guys

Happy 4th of July, from the Aussies on the board.

Jeff,

I cried when i read your story (tears of laughter) Each time i see a squirrel I'll break out into song and sing "I feel like chicken tonight"

cgarwood

Simple is grand. a great use of Vixen, well done.


alwysrit2

You country is proud of you.

John.

[wbuehler]

That story was great

Bill

[pete]

Here is a US flag seq I plan to do some day. the flag pic has the channel assignments on it (its just to look at. download the *.vix to your vixen/seq folder and unzip the marine snthem to your vixen/audio folder and then run the seq.

enjoy

Pete

[djulien]

I cried when i read your story (tears of laughter) Each time i see a squirrel I'll break out into song and sing "I feel like chicken tonight"

You might like to sequence this in your Christmas show - although "chipmunks" are in the title, they also refer to squirrels during the song.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00123D0QA/ref=dm_dp_trk2

don

[ppohlman]

Here is a US flag seq I plan to do some day. the flag pic has the channel assignments on it (its just to look at. download the *.vix to your vixen/seq folder and unzip the marine snthem to your vixen/audio folder and then run the seq.

enjoy

Pete

Great sequence. These little things ge me thinking about all sorts of things you can do for several different holidays.

Thanks for sharing.

[djulien]

Here is a US flag seq I plan to do some day. the flag pic has the channel assignments on it (its just to look at. download the *.vix to your vixen/seq folder and unzip the marine snthem to your vixen/audio folder and then run the seq.

I was also thinking of maybe a patriotic display if time permits. A flag seems to be the most natural theme to use. Regarding the construction of the flag, would you use a blue backlit panel for the upper left area, or just lots of blue LEDs or mini-lights interwoven with the stars?

don

[pete]

I was think of possibly backlighting behind 4mil plastic or something along those lines.

Pete

[pete]

Well, I final got around to finishing a sequence I started last year for the fourth. Now I just need to get all controls(my 595 and ssrs) in working order and build the actual display. I have attached the sequence for anyone else planning on doing something similar for the 4th. This makes two seq. done.. Hmm... I best get a move on it.

Enjoy

Pete

[rstehle]

Nice Job! Keep us posted as to your construction progress!!

[dhavard]

Hey Pete, just wondering what you used for your stars? I am trying to figure out a way to build a decent sized flag and was curious on what you used for lights for your stars since you had 1 channel per star.

[pete]

I was going to try using 5mm LEDs 8000 mcd, driven directly off my 595. But you could use c7 or c9s if you have the ssrs

[dhavard]

For the life of me, I can't figure out what dimensions to make my flag...lol it's driving me crazy. I went and bought a 4x8' sheet of plywood. I am thinking I need to shorten it to 4x6' but still confused on the best way to make everything proportional to the real flag. Any ideas on exact measurements?

[pete]

Try here there is a good description. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States)

[dhavard]

thx..ya i have looked at that.....think i need to sleep on it :)

[ppohlman]

How about I help you out a little bit.
I put together a little Excel spreadsheet that calculates all of the dimensions for you.

Just enter in the desired height (hoist) of the flag and it will figure out the other dimensions in feet as well as feet/inches.
The file that I saved uses 4 feet as the height so that you can use your 4x8 and cut it down.

[dhavard]

WOW you are the man!!! That is exactly what I needed!! My math skills aren't the best..lol and when i get into conversions I loose my mind.....i really appreciate this!!!

[ppohlman]

I'm glad I could help you out.

[dhavard]

Well the construction of my flag is underway. I have everything cut to scale and I painted it white yesterday. It will be 4' tall and 7'7.2" Wide. I started my outlines for the stripes and hopefully can get everything taped and ready to paint by tomorrow. I'll try to take some pics and post them. I was trying to think the best way to mount the lights (mini's). I saw some cork board at Lowe's but it just didn't see sturdy enough. I thought about drilling holes in the plywood and go that route but that would take too long..lol I wish I could find some Red c7 lights but I haven't had any luck with that. Guess I will just have to make use of what I have ;)

[BadWolf]

Well, I final got around to finishing a sequence I started last year for the fourth. Now I just need to get all controls(my 595 and ssrs) in working order and build the actual display. I have attached the sequence for anyone else planning on doing something similar for the 4th. This makes two seq. done.. Hmm... I best get a move on it.

Enjoy

Pete

Pete, thanks for the sequences. Here is how my flag turned out using them. Sorry about butchering your sequencing for the stars, but I didn't want to use up 50 channels for them. I wanted to do the whole flag with a Ren24. Now I wish I had one more channel for strobes!

pv_WMu0qXS4

Later. . . . . . .Brad

[jrock64]

Very nice Brad.
Great animation.

How many channels did you use for the stars?
and how did you wire them to get the vertical AND horizontal sweeps?

Joel

[BadWolf]

Very nice Brad.
Great animation.

How many channels did you use for the stars?
and how did you wire them to get the vertical AND horizontal sweeps?

Joel

Thanks. Pete did a great job on the animation, and it looks even better in its original form with 50 channels for the stars.

I used 10 channels for the stars, 10 groups of 5. Once I stared at the starfield long enough I noticed that there were 6 columns of 5 stars and 4 rows of 5 stars.

Later. . . . .. . Brad

[mwo040]

These look great does anyone have any other sequences for fourth of july? I am working on some plans to add a fourth of july display to my infield campsite at Daytona speedway and I am looking for a few additional songs. I will be seriously working on getting my flag together I have figured it will be approximately 8ft x 12ft. Might even make the telecast of the race one or all nights. Any help with sequencing would be great. I would really like to find god bless the usa by lee greenwood and the star spangled banner. I am planning to use 64 channels. Thanks.