The Pixel Grid..

[mrpackethead]

Ok, so i'll post some more pics here, as teh final bits of construction go together.

I finished the first pixel sticks.. These are 4m long, with 10 JEC RGB pixels on each.. In total there will be 16 sticks, which will hang on the ridge cap of the garage.

Also ( just because i can ), heres a pic of the christmas cake i built just prior to it going in the oven. Yes that is a wooden box its being baked in... It works really really well.. Off to pour in some more of the magic 'preservative' into the cake!!

[toodle_pipsky]

Stuff the Christmas lights stuff! Please send cake to Ingrid . . . .! ;)

Nice work on pixels and cake.

[tconley]

Ledtrik on steroids

[mrpackethead]

Just finished the power supply units tonight.. This is a combination of a 48V-12V DC regulator ( at 1.5A or so ), and dmx splitter.. One of these babys per stick.

I'll draw up a wirign diagram in visio so those you are interested can see.

[mrpackethead]

Hi all... just an update.. I've been busy building sequences for the pixel grid to play in vixen.. Basically i'm running the grid as a very very low res display screen, on which i'm playing 'movies'...

SO, heres the wrap on how i've done it so far.

My "movie" is created with Quartz Composer.. Its a graphical programming environment that ships in the development packages for Macos. Im using Quartz becuase its easy and i know how it works.. However thats largely unimportant, you can use anything that can produce a quicktime movie.. So, i produce my movie.. I use the audio track that i'll be using as part of the modulaton of the images, as well as some other non-audio related stuff.


(1) Create Quicktime move in Quartz composer..

(2) Export as a quicktime movie..

Dimensisons 16 x 10
Duration pick the appropriate time

(3) Open in Quicktime Player...

File ---> Export
Movie to Image Sequence
---> Options Format PNG
---> Frames per second 40 # for 25ms resolution
---> No space beofre Number

(4) Use imagemagik to convert the entire directory to a 10x16! ppm file.

run from within the folder that contains the .pngs

mkdir ppm && for i in *.png; do ./convert $i -resize 10x16! -compress none ppm/$i.ppm; done

(5) then use this perl script to read all the data out of the PPM files.

$numberfiles=2100;


for ($count=1; $count<$numberfiles+1; $count++)

{

if ($count < 10)
{ $pad = "000"; }
elsif ($count < 100)
{ $pad = "00"; }
elsif ($count < 1000 )
{ $pad = "0"; }
else { $pad = ""; }

$file = "SnowFall" . $pad . $count . ".png.ppm";
print "file is $file\n";
open (ppmfile, $file);

$dummy1 = <ppmfile>;
$dummy2 = <ppmfile>;
$dummy3 = <ppmfile>;


$channel = 0;




while (<ppmfile>) {
for $chunk (split) {
$channel++;
if ($channel < 10)
{ $pad2 = "00"; }
elsif ($channel < 100)
{ $pad2 = "0"; }
else { $pad2 = ""; }
$channelfile = "channel" . $pad2 . "$channel.dmx";
open (chanfile, ">>" ,"$channelfile");
print chanfile "$chunk\n";
close chanfile;
}
}

close $ppmfile;
print "$count of $numberfiles \n";
}


That produces a whole bunch of files, each one contains the data for one channel..

I then feed that into another perl script that pulls all these files and converts these into base64 and produces the info that sits in teh <eventdata> part of the ..vix file.

More later, and i promise a more detailed HOWTO after its all up and going, right now i've only got two weeks to go.

[mrpackethead]

Well, all the pixels are lined up on the sticks, and wired up..

Next job is to run up all the power supplyies, and put it up..

the end of this project is close.

[mrpackethead]

Wow! Its up.. Last Jan, i'm not sure if i even had any idea how much work this was going to have been. Perhaps thats good. I would have not even started it.!

Not entirely happy with the spacing of the sticks, i think i'll go back out and just tweak them a little, to make them spread out a little.

Also, shot of the dmx splitters and inline power supplys to power up all the pixels.


PS, sorry about ahte crappy images, they are just camera in phone, which is handy, but not exactly great quality.

[kmc123]

It looks COOL!!!

I want to see a video of it in action!!!

[mrpackethead]

It looks COOL!!!

I want to see a video of it in action!!!

1st of December, 8:30pm NZDT ( GMT +13 ).. We will be streaming our "lights on" party to the world... I'll also post to youtube or somthign i guess.

A.

[Virtus]

I love it when someone comes up with a cool reutilization of effects...great concept and incredible foresight/vision!

[Macrosill]

Looks good MPH! I want to see videos as well.

[mrpackethead]

Looks good MPH! I want to see videos as well.

Ahh, well you'll have to wait.. though a couple of people got a small sneek view of testing last night... amazing watching the cars slow down.. Have a couple of wee bugs to sort out.. I took out two power supplys last night, due to transposing polarity.. ( ugh )..

[Wombat]

We Want VIDEO's or it just didnt happen!!! :)

Wombat

[mrpackethead]

We Want VIDEO's or it just didnt happen!!! :)

Wombat

... You, along with the rest of the planet will just have to wait. You are all like a bunch of kids on christmas eve. proding the presents under the tree trying to guess what the presents are...

I promise a video on 2 Dec or thereabouts. I still have the icecles to put up, they are important part of the show. they frame up things...

And also, just because it has'nt happened in your mind, does'nt alter my reality.

[mrpackethead]

Ok Ok, got bullyed a little so, i've put up three photos..

Good news is that the grid is up, all done and ready for 1 Dec.. Finally Horray!

[jderba]

You did a great job on those, they look awesome. Can't wait to see them in action

[tconley]

Now you have a Giant full color Led Triks.....


When do we get to see you picture staring back at us like Danny Devito in Deck the Halls?

[tconley]

What are you using for cases for each of the pixels???

[mrpackethead]

Now you have a Giant full color Led Triks.....


When do we get to see you picture staring back at us like Danny Devito in Deck the Halls?

This is'nt like a led tricks at all.. Its very different.

[mrpackethead]

What are you using for cases for each of the pixels???

http://www.sistemaplastics.com/klip+it/klip+it+storage

[RJ]

Very Cool setup! I also would love some videos of it when you are complete and running. Should be great.

RJ

[mrpackethead]

Very Cool setup! I also would love some videos of it when you are complete and running. Should be great.

RJ

I am complete and running. There is no videos because you'll just have to wait, till after our "lights on" party. You don't watch a movie before its premiere do you?

[omzig]

You don't watch a movie before its premiere do you?The critics do.

[mrpackethead]

The critics do.

Ahh and thats where RJ fits in. Of course that has to be a two sided equation.

[Wombat]

yeh I want to be at the Pre screening

[mrpackethead]

Sorry no videos, just one photo taken from the phone..

Very much a success, we've had 100+ people through tonight, and its been rainy and horrible.. Am absolutely worn out and tired...

Pleased its all done.

[phenagan]

So, are we going to get to see videos of this?

[mrpackethead]

Yes, i actually got around to videoing it last night oddly.. However i'm really really dissapointed with teh quality of it.. theres next to no colour. I had to stop the camera exposure down. But you'll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQzBGEXcS44

I'll go and mess about tonight and try to get some of the better stuff edited out. I'm thinking that i might need to borrow a better camera.

[NogginBoink]

Wow.

Just... wow. Sequencing that would drive me stark raving mad. (And would take me from now until Christmas 2010!)

[mrpackethead]

Wow.

Just... wow. Sequencing that would drive me stark raving mad. (And would take me from now until Christmas 2010!)

That sequence took less than 10 minutes to build. About 20 minutes for my crappy perl scripts to render out.. Its not hand programed! I build animations in Quartz Composer, then export them as a series of images ( one per frame ).. The perl scripts read the images, and hack them into .vix format for vixen to play.

[mrpackethead]

Have managed to organise a three CCD camera, which should apparanetly do a much better job of capturing the colours..

Newsflash: Mrspackethead has decided she wants pixel grids on two more roofs next year.

Newsflash2: have debugged the problem in the code, that makes the sequences appear somewhat odd. Simple but annoying mistake.

[mrpackethead]

highland cathedral. ( still on the old camera )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApWlQ_gEtps

[phenagan]

Which recording of Highland Cathedral is that?

The grid looks great! Thanks for sharing.

[mrpackethead]

Royal Dragoon Guards, on the CD " Highland Cathedral ". I saw it performed in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Tattoo.. And said.. thats gotta be blinkyed.

[djulien]

I then feed that into another perl script that pulls all these files and converts these into base64 and produces the info that sits in teh <eventdata> part of the ..vix file.

Is there documentation on the event data format, or is it obvious after you decode it using base64? Is it just something like a grid where the rows are the time intervals and the columns are the channel dimmed values?

thanks

don