We’re scrambling like mad to get one of the jellyfish completed for the 4th of July (so we can take some demo video), and that means slogging through hours and hours of repetitive tasks for the tentacles. Here are some fun facts:
Woohoo! Finally got the code figured out for the Jellyfish! It’s just one quarter of the system, but it looks pretty good. I can’t wait to see it with the tentacles attached and both jellyfish going together.
Gus finished attaching the sash to Dee’s dress, and we got it put together for a test run! Next step: twinkling LEDs for the sash and a lace parasol…
The jellyfish control panel’s finally done (and working)! Now I just have to finish writing the radio code…
One reactor earring is done. I still have to connect to the requisite ear-attachment bits, and I do have to hook it up to a tiny microcontroller, but it works pretty well 🙂 Here’s it next to Mama Reactor:
Here’s where we are for the cloth parts of our costumes: The dress is complete, except for its sash. The vest and skirt are almost done (and looking awesome). The armor is designed, and we’re about halfway through actually making it.
Of course, most of the electronics and accessories still have to be finished, but there will be *many* pictures once that happens 😀 Also, the reactor earring parts have arrived and are progressing nicely.
We finished the visualizer circuit for the jellyfish!
This thing is mesmerizing – I tacked three LEDs onto it so I could tune the algorithms, and I’ve been staring at it for hours:
Let’s try something a little different for the tentacle design. With lines this short, there should be no way for us to get SPI interference! Of course, the lines to the LEDs will be pretty long; we’ll have to see if that comes back to bite us 🙄
Oh, the missing pin on the connector is for 12v power to the LEDs. It’ll go in a little later 😉
It’s time for a side project! Also, it is time to try 3D printing. Based on a mildly-incoherent discussion during one of our costume work sessions, I’m going to try to make “arc reactor earrings”.
They’ll look like our full-sized reactor props (this: http://bit.ly/LuQVZv) , but tiny. If it works, they’ll also light up (SMD LEDs) and spin (quartz watch movement). Before you mention the weight, I’ve got that figured out, too…
The 3D model is 24mm across, to give some scale – a touch larger than a quarter.
Perhaps you’re curious why there haven’t been updates for a little while? To make a long story short, our second jellyfish’s circuitry didn’t work. The new radio link allowed us to push color and brightness updates to the lights much faster than the old system did, and the techniques we’d used to construct the first jellyfish simply weren’t able to handle the increased speed. After much panic and confusion, we bought an oscilloscope.
This is an indispensable piece of equipment when you’re dealing with communications interference! With the oscilloscope (and the help of several people far more savvy than us when it comes to RF circuit design), we finally got things working again:
While we were waiting for the oscilloscope to arrive, we’ve mostly finished the gown costume and the skirt/vest costume – and they look great! When we get more of the props integrated, there will be photos.