Beacon4

From Hackstrich
Revision as of 19:14, 25 April 2012 by SarahEmm (talk | contribs) (Somehow I was doubling the power draw per metre for the LEDs.)

Beacon4 will be the fourth incarnation of the flagpole beacon, for Burning Man 2012. This year the plan is to take a different approach, and light the entire scaffold tower rather than just a beacon on top of the flagpole.

Project Status

  • 2012-04-24: Permission received!
  • 2012-04-23: Requested permission from NeonBunny to attach LEDs to the tower.
  • 2012-04-22: Started putting together idea.

Outstanding Issues

  • Software we were thinking of using was QLC (but it only supports 4 universes) or MagicQ (but it's x86-only which means more power draw)
    • If we go x86, the fit-PC might be a good choice, it's a 6-8W x86 box in a small metal enclosure

Ideas/Plans

  • Main idea is to cover most of the scaffold tower in addressable LED strips, driven by one or more StrichLux modules
  • Art-Net will be used between the controller and the StrichLux box
    • Backup plan is to have a USB hub and one OpenDMX USB interface per universe, driving the StrichLux boxes via IO-DMX input modules
    • IO-DMX input module could be brought along either way and swapped in if someone wants to manually control the "display"
  • BeagleBone is being looked at to control the whole display
    • <1W idle, 1.75W full load
    • Comes with onboard Ethernet
  • Need to find a fanless very low power 4 or 5 port Ethernet switch
    • Allied Telesis AT-FS705LE V5 might work, it's rugged, low power, and cheap

System Components

  • BeagleBone (controller)
  • 4-port fanless Ethernet switch
  • 1 or 2 StrichLux boxes (transform engine/protocol converter)
  • Many LED strips (need to work out dimensions)
  • Power setup (need to work out power details)
  • Debugging terminal (XO-1?)

Power Details

  • Power requirements (peak)
    • BeagleBone - 1.75W
    • Ethernet Switch - 1.7W (assuming AT-FS705LE V5)
    • StrichLux box(es) - ???
    • LEDs - 10W/m (need to measure to confirm)

LED Details

  • Length required (very roughly until I get real numbers from Skibit)
    • Main vertical bars: 4 * 20ft = 80ft
    • Ladder vertical bars: 10 * 3ft = 30ft (but 2 of those are near ground level)
    • Rigid guys: 4 * 6ft = 24ft
    • Ladder rungs: 8 * 4 * 1.5ft = 36ft
    • Total: 170ft (plus probably want a bit extra just in case, so 11 strips or 180ft)
    • That's 1760 LEDs and 550W peak!