Snow at Copper

Sometimes you spend your days building signs.  Other times you do this.

Arduino Touchscreen Photo Booth

Quick Video Walkthrough

Guitar in Progress

I made good progress this weekend, I think I have about 4-6 hours left.

Two new projects in the works

Two fun projects that I'm waiting on some parts for.  Hopefully I can start going full steam ahead this weekend. 

The first another Guitar for the Guitar town charity auction.  It will be similar to last year with a led VU meter embeded into the guitar but I plan on having an amp included inthe guitar so you can just connect your speakers and ipod and there you go. 

The second is a timelapse dolly system.  I've been doing quite a bit of research and I believe I have purchased all the parts for a basic system.  I hope I can start with the timelapse portion this weekend and add the motor controlled dolly next week.  I have some big plans for caputring Summit County once this is built. 

Photos of both coming soon.

Ponoko test

So I've started trying to figure out ways to take some of my manual labor out of the process of building these signs.  Most of the difficulty comes from building the actual housings.  My first attempt to speed this up uses a website called ponoko.com to create the black plastic that blocks the view of the pcbs.  You can see my design for the 1 LED sign to the right.  The blue lines are cut lines and the grey is for engraving.  Hopefully this will allow a spot for the polarized lense to fit.  My design is 20% through the process of being built, I'll let you know when it comes in.

iPad, new issue of Wired

I guess I'm in this month's version of Wired also, plue on the new iPad Wired app.


Check out around 2:57

 

Wired Magazine :: May 2010

The Mountain is closed

Says so right here, kinda cool how that works.  

Testing is Almost Complete

Here's a bit better of an image. 

Trail Map all Wired, Boxed Up

Yesterday I built the backing to the sign and today I finished the wiring including creating a key in the upper right hand corner.  I'll just let it run for a few days in my office to make sure everything is good and then hopefully we'll get it mounted outside.  

Polarizing Issue

I'm trying to solve a little issue with direct light on the LEDs.  In the extreme environment of a ski resort there can be a lot of light directed at the LED matixes.  I've found some polarizing filters that seem to do the job pretty well.  I have some circular ones coming in Monday if they work better we'll be sitting in the cold installing them on Mon.  sweet. 

Another Blog Hit

Over a month old, but I just found it.

http://hackaday.com/2010/02/11/arduino-helps-you-ski-copper/

Final sign is lit up and running with first snow

2 Signs Up One to Go

Checking for accuracy.  Yes my fat ass did rip my pants today.

The public already interacting.

It's correct! 

3rd Sign Complete

Just need to winterize/waterproof and finish the power source.  Hopefully we'll get these bad boys mounted Tuesday or Wednesday.

Sign #2 Complete

I also made a slight change to the G to improve legibility.  Hopefully I'll finish the 3rd tomorrow.

First Sign is complete!

Just a photo, time to get back to work.

All three sections are wired

Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced sections are wireed and programmed.  We're finializing the artwork for the dibond 8' x 4' signs.  Once they are in house I'll start on the final build!  The end is near.

Intermediate Trails Final

Today I finished the Intermediate trail setup.  All of the matrixes are mounted in their housings and everything is wired in the order they will appear on the sign.  I should be able to get all of the other signs built this week and then we'll just have to mount them,solder all of the final connections and bring it outside.  I think it's looking good though.

Build process begins

Yesterday I completed building all of the rear portions of the signs.  Today I've marked all of the drill locations for the fronts and hopefully will head over to carpentry to use the drill press later today or tomorrow.