Clik here to view.
Motors Done!
I have all sixty of the air pumps soldered to connectors and mounted on vibration dampening foam. Thirty are in a line on top 1 and 7/8″ apart, and the other thirty motors are mounted offset just...
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First Light!
I have mounted and wired all sixty RGB LED’s under the tube support shelf. These RGB LED’s are in serial strings of 20 each, and I was able to connect them end-to-end, making the wiring much easier...
View ArticleBubble Display update: 24 motors connected
Here is a video of the bubble display base with 24 (of 60 total) motors connected running a test pattern. Next up….lots more soldering. I’m very glad I was able to find strings of 20 RGB leds already...
View ArticleElectro-Mechanical systems complete
All sixty RGB LED’s and air pumps working under computational control. Next up, physical assembly. Related posts: Bubble Display Prototype 1 Bubble Display update: 24 motors connected
View ArticleClik here to view.
22 of 60 tubes running – First scaling up problem rears it’s ugly head.
Here is a video of 22 tubes running with water: Now for the bad news….22 tubes actually measure 22 1/8″ wide. (apparently each tube is actually 0.00568 inches larger than 1″) This means my entire...
View Article60 tubes working!
Yes, I finally have all sixty tubes mounted and working. I still need to swap out two or three of the under-performing motors, and calibrate all motors, and do a lot of cosmetic finishing work (cover...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bubble display fiber optic relay
Because the air hose is connected to the center of each square acrylic tube, the 60 LED lights on the bubble display are mounted almost between tubes, very close to the left edge of each tube. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bubble Display Frame Trim
Now that I have the electro-mechanical systems working, I am focusing on finishing the trim pieces for the frame that will hide the electronics and top of the tubes. This mostly consisted of notching a...
View ArticleText on the Bubble Display
The text of the logo is recognizable even in water. With glycerin I think it will be even nicer looking. I’m actually cheating by rendering text as a bitmap image and then using software to load the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finishing the trim pieces
I am finishing up the trim pieces for the bubble display. The last component is the top cover that will hide the top of the acrylic tubes (and hopefully keep bugs out of them!). I cut the side off of a...
View ArticleBubble Display Overview Video
I spent a lot of time last summer and fall building this 62″ wide bubble display. So much time that I didn’t get a chance to edit together and post an “overview” video showing the whole thing in...
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Bubble Display Source Code
This is a source code dump that includes the arduino code that I wrote for the bubble display. It’s not very nice looking, but it may help others to learn what I did on the software side of things....
View ArticleBubble Display update: 24 motors connected
Here is a video of the bubble display base with 24 (of 60 total) motors connected running a test pattern. Next up….lots more soldering. I’m very glad I was able to find strings of 20 RGB leds already...
View ArticleElectro-Mechanical systems complete
All sixty RGB LED’s and air pumps working under computational control. Next up, physical assembly. Related posts: Bubble Display Prototype 1 Bubble Display update: 24 motors connected
View ArticleClik here to view.
22 of 60 tubes running – First scaling up problem rears it’s ugly head.
Here is a video of 22 tubes running with water: Now for the bad news….22 tubes actually measure 22 1/8″ wide. (apparently each tube is actually 0.00568 inches larger than 1″) This means my entire...
View Article60 tubes working!
Yes, I finally have all sixty tubes mounted and working. I still need to swap out two or three of the under-performing motors, and calibrate all motors, and do a lot of cosmetic finishing work (cover...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bubble display fiber optic relay
Because the air hose is connected to the center of each square acrylic tube, the 60 LED lights on the bubble display are mounted almost between tubes, very close to the left edge of each tube. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bubble Display Frame Trim
Now that I have the electro-mechanical systems working, I am focusing on finishing the trim pieces for the frame that will hide the electronics and top of the tubes. This mostly consisted of notching a...
View ArticleText on the Bubble Display
The text of the logo is recognizable even in water. With glycerin I think it will be even nicer looking. I’m actually cheating by rendering text as a bitmap image and then using software to load the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finishing the trim pieces
I am finishing up the trim pieces for the bubble display. The last component is the top cover that will hide the top of the acrylic tubes (and hopefully keep bugs out of them!). I cut the side off of a...
View Article
