katt, migrating 🌟 🌈 @starkatt@awoo.space

Huh, this might be the first time I've built my own tool.

Neat :)

Today @rowanyote and I got a vacu-form box about half finished. Gonna use a cannibalized IR space heater which should warm the plastic really evenly.

Now playing at Rain Cafe: a pop cover of "Boombox" by Lonely Island, then what we think is a Muppets rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.

...ok.

Also that's about the same color I am, and, gosh.

Look at this gorgeous android fox!!

https://mobile.twitter.com/gatchmon/status/1026528718628511744

These aren't just simple RGB LEDs. Each individual unit contains and integrated microcontroller, which reads digital serial signals on one or two shared wires. Each microcontroller sets LED color and brightness by turning each channel on and off at specific intervals, at least hundreds of times a second.

And the limiting factor on the size of each LED unit isn't the size of the parts, it's how small it can be soldered.

So yesterday evening at Lusio Light I saw someone gliding through the park wearing gossamer butterfly wings studded with shifting and glimmering blue/green lights. It was breathtaking.

And I'm realizing that I don't know if that costume would have even been possible 25 years ago. Probably technically yes, but the engineering would be a *massive* undertaking for one person.

Today, it's doable for well under fifty bucks of off-the-shelf consumer kit electronics.

Technology is cool sometimes.

The SEO arms race is making search results garbage.

Then again, I don't actually know if original builds fall under that site's purview...

I should probably spin up a Replica Prop Forum account to ask a lot of these questions :)

This totally means I'm planning to hand-solder several dozen 5mm SMT LEDs, while they're glued in place to a plastic that melts.

I'm hoping this is ambition and not just foolishness :)

Okay so the overall plan here is to vacu-form a fox mask out of translucent plastic, then glue a bunch of addressable LEDs to the inside of the mask and drive 'em with a microcontroller.

First step is probably making sure the vac forming works out? Need to pick a plastic. Want something thermoformable, translucent, a little bit flexible, and able to be glued to with silicone or hot glue.

Maybe polystyrene?

I'm fairly confident in the mechanical construction, less so on the coding.

I wanna be the glowiest fox that's ever foxed.

Does anyone here have experience driving serial LED arrays?