Leaderboard

I got a gift card for Christmas for some geek stuff, and thought I could turn it into a more advanced rev lighting. I figured this could be a fun project with my skill set. I've a strip of fully programmable lights (5 meters, 300 lights), an acceleration + gyro chip, a bluetooth chip so I can control it by my tablet, and a 9v battery attachment, all plugged into an Arduino board. I've spent a few hours the past two weekends getting the parts figured out and a mockup made, and I've got some simple patterns identified and programmed. As typical, videos of light shows aren't nearly as pretty as the actual light shows. I also have a "sudden stop" that flashes red for a quarter second, not shown in the video. Those are the patterns on the slowest speed, moving one pixel at a time. They can be made MUCH faster. I'm planning on attaching the patterns to acceleration forward/back and left/right to pull the lights to the side as long as the speed is increasing, then return to neutral. That should give long arc-wise turns throwing the lights to one edge, and launch/landings to have the lights bounce around. I want the circles attached to bicycle spins. And sudden stops on ground or midair will have the red flash. Any other ideas to program in to the thing before I start attaching it to a real kite?

Every time I'm approached whilst flying I always think ,.. Well, it's one of two choices, either "they" want my autograph or I can't fly here anymore. When sharing this thought out loud as they approach, I generally am able to disarm the situation humorously. At the monument grounds in Washington DC, I've had the park ranger cite the kite flying rules my club helped to write. We have the duty sergeant's desk (number programmed into our phones), if we need him <LOL> to reign-in one his overly enthusiastic amigos! It is best if someone else calls, so the ranger doesn't feel threatened and escalate the situation further. Then there's the presidential helicopter overhead and snipers on roof-tops too, so we feel safe.

Ozone came in....Happy camper!

UPDATE 1-28-19 First...Can you believe it's January 28th already??? What do you do when you take your daughter to Eastern Florida State College for a 3 hour exam? Fly in a field across from the student center of course. Until security comes in a golf cart and asks "what are you doing?" My standard smart ass answer "isn't it obvious?" The puzzled look on his face means no, it's not obvious. Me "flying a kite" His answer "not on this property" Me "ok I'll leave" I did try 2 new things 1) i wrapped my lines around a nice smooth pole to try a dog stake style, pole dancing move... FAIL 2) tried to dunk into a retention pond... FAIL The open come fly on me field...Fail The moral... She scored well on her exam!!!!! I did equalize my lines when I got home... Tops where an inch or more longer than the bottoms. Not any more!!

We put it through the Paces in Corolla back in 2017 with 240' lines. The White kite is dogstaked on 240's the Red/Black kite is on 120's