This weekend was our opportunity to set up the VIXToscope for real at our wonderful Northwest arts & music event, Any Patch of Grass (http://apog.life). I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to exhibit - it was a fantastic event, with a high density of really cool, chill local creators, supportive people and really bumpin' music. The organizers were great, it was a…
This weekend was epic from any number of perspectives. First and foremost, a most amazing birthday celebration for my wife - we had an awesome time eating crepes in the morning and spoiling ourselves at the Six Seven this evening - nothing beats that awesome day! Yet we did make a critical milestone for the VIXToscope -- ordering sheet metal. And that tops off…
We're finally at the stage of committing to actual physical hardware, things that are going to be part of the finished VIXToscope... but we're still transitioning to the stage of having high confidence that the designs translate to physical reality and buying lots of production things. This is a critical milestone where we move beyond POC (Proof of Concept -- "yes, we see a…
All these LEDs on the outside have to be powered and managed by something on the inside. Kevin and I have settled on a 'Hub' design where each hub consists of a PSU (Power Supply Unit) supplying 5 volts, and an ESP32 controller running WLED firmware. These hubs will take in 120 volts + Ethernet, and will emit 5 volt power + control signals…
We're looking to exhibit the VIXToscopes "I - Gateway" and "II - Infinite Recursion" at two different events this year (and hopefully, with more to come, like SeaCompression in October). The big focus, of course, is Burning Man 2024, but we've also been invited to exhibit at APOG -- "Any Patch of Grass" -- held the weekend of July 5th through July 7th in…
Getting close to ordering stuff for the VIXToscope! Kevin has done some helpful proofs-of-concept, driving addressable LEDs via an ESP32 + WLED software from the Resolume ArtNet output, and we now need to transition to doing production builds of the actual strips and panels. One of the most vital things is to fit within the total power budget, and here's where I'm starting to…
Whoo! That was a race and a half, but the art is finally submitted to the Burning Man Art Support folks. Long form, lots to fill out (their time estimate is laughable, took me multiple hours), but feels great to be done. Some of the questions, especially about LNT (Leave No Trace) were good, made me think a bit harder about sequencing. The part…
I am very gratified to have someone volunteer to help on the LED engineering -- thanks Kevin! We might need some more people to help build the LED assemblies, but its great to have someone already looking at the engineering aspects. I only have a loose idea about what I want, but its basically a big triangle of LEDs in the middle of each…
I'm trying to sprint to the finish line of getting my art application into the art support people. Because this is a bigger structure (15-20 feet high category) I have to supply drawings, including construction drawings, as well as a rendering that will appear in various places. To do this, I'm laying everything out in Autodesk's Fusion CAD program. Although I've briefly used older…
Take the next step down the rabbit hole into the realms of Infinite Recursion. Look for the 17' high prism on the playa housing the VIXToscope, providing an oasis of cooling shade during the day and thousands of LEDs dancing in the night. Remember what the dormouse said, then step inside to melt your mind. For Burning Man 2024, we're bringing a giant mind-melting…