Bill Porter made Hackaday.com!

Aww Thanks guys.

As with most my blog posts this came out of need solve one of my problems. My Engineering friends kept asking me to help them get started building a display like mine. Now I can point them to my blog, as I have already and gotten a few confirmations I successfully spread this CLAP 'disease'.
 
thechief96 said:
Really good article. Even I (non engineer) understood it. :)
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Really a very good read. If I had something like that after reading the AusChristmasLighting 101 manual, it would have put me further ahead on the learning curve to understand what major points most folks today are considering/using before jumping in to this hobby. At the very least, much of this would get a person started in a decent direction and then you can move into other ideas/concepts/equipment/props ect. With so many options it was hard for me anyway. Just being able to make lights turn off/on or change color is a BIG deal to some of us non technical folks.
 
Hockeyhunter1956 said:
Really a very good read. If I had something like that after reading the AusChristmasLighting 101 manual, it would have put me further ahead on the learning curve to understand what major points most folks today are considering/using before jumping in to this hobby. At the very least, much of this would get a person started in a decent direction and then you can move into other ideas/concepts/equipment/props ect. With so many options it was hard for me anyway. Just being able to make lights turn off/on or change color is a BIG deal to some of us non technical folks.
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This is the best feedback I could ever ask for, thanks a bunch. Really makes it worthwhile doing.
 
This article has convinced me to do more research into DIY before continuing with LOR. Apparently, I paid a good deal to upgrade just before the cutoff to upgrade on the cheap to be able to use the pixels, and now I want to move to a display with pixels. I thought I knew what I was going to do, but in trying to research the possible limitations of continuing with the LOR, I came across your article and now I am here! Thank you!
 
Bill Porter....I knew I recognized that name. I thought Sean's Github login was hacked and MadSci kept posting comments. I messaged Steve G. to ban him....lol. Then later I was driving up to church for praise team practice and thought you know it's Wed. night I bet Sean was on that call and let someone control his desktop while he was away.
 
Gilrock said:
Bill Porter....I knew I recognized that name. I thought Sean's Github login was hacked and MadSci kept posting comments. I messaged Steve G. to ban him....lol. Then later I was driving up to church for praise team practice and thought you know it's Wed. night I bet Sean was on that call and let someone control his desktop while he was away.
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HAhahahaha

Gil you got it on the second thought. I was in the Wednesday call when Sean was showing someone how to github and made the fake issue report. Since I know how to github all too well and saw you edit the report I just had to jump on and poke some fun. I eventually interrupted asking Sean if you had a sense of humor or was I going to get banned? A few others told me you do, but it might be a little too dry. He promised me he'd email you to explain what had transpired.

If you only new how far yesterday's call went down the rabbit hole....
 
Cora said:
This article has convinced me to do more research into DIY before continuing with LOR. Apparently, I paid a good deal to upgrade just before the cutoff to upgrade on the cheap to be able to use the pixels, and now I want to move to a display with pixels. I thought I knew what I was going to do, but in trying to research the possible limitations of continuing with the LOR, I came across your article and now I am here! Thank you!
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Awesome Cora! This community is awesome and you'll get a ton of help here if you just ask. Most of us love spreading this hobby.
 
madsci1016 said:
HAhahahaha

Gil you got it on the second thought. I was in the Wednesday call when Sean was showing someone how to github and made the fake issue report. Since I know how to github all too well and saw you edit the report I just had to jump on and poke some fun. I eventually interrupted asking Sean if you had a sense of humor or was I going to get banned? A few others told me you do, but it might be a little too dry. He promised me he'd email you to explain what had transpired.

If you only new how far yesterday's call went down the rabbit hole....
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Yes I can have a sense of humor...luckily it was night time and not 6am when I'm more likely to go postal due to lack of sleep...lol.
I was just going to change the title so whoever submitted it would wonder what happened but I didn't realize the tool was going to list a history statement saying I did it...lol. I was like darn it now they know who did it. I figured if it really was Sean we could just hit the reopen button. That tool is really loose with the comment management. Just go look at the contents of issue #799 now. I tested my theory.
 
Gilrock said:
Yes I can have a sense of humor...luckily it was night time and not 6am when I'm more likely to go postal due to lack of sleep...lol.
I was just going to change the title so whoever submitted it would wonder what happened but I didn't realize the tool was going to list a history statement saying I did it...lol. I was like darn it now they know who did it. I figured if it really was Sean we could just hit the reopen button. That tool is really loose with the comment management. Just go look at the contents of issue #799 now. I tested my theory.
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Yeah he turned your diligence of defeating me into a testament to how on top of the repository you are so it worked out. And I agree they kind of are lossey goosey but I imagine they don't have many problems with trolls on software repository issue threads so maybe they haven't needed comment controls like they need on forums.

Anyway it's nice to 'e-meet' you and I promise not to interfere with any proper issue threads. I'm a Electrical Engineer that only knows enough software programming to be dangerous, but If I ever see a way to contribute to xLights properly I'll be sure to act more maturely about it. But fake issues that Sean creates himself are game for trolling!
 
That's funny. Just like when xLights would crash in a demo and Sean would turn it into a learning experience about how to submit bug reports...lol.

I actually have an Electrical Engineering degree also but I've done software development so many years I could barely design a circuit now without using one of my radio shack notebooks.
 
Gilrock said:
I actually have an Electrical Engineering degree also but I've done software development so many years I could barely design a circuit now without using one of my radio shack notebooks.
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Ha! I'm only a young 30s something punk so I don't have any Radio Shack notebooks ( Though I did grow up hanging out in one and I'm now jealous I don't have any notebooks from them) but I do have several Digikey notebooks from all their free giveaways. I have a Digikey notebook just for this crazy lights hobby.

My Day job (working for the US Navy) there are many software Devs that have mechanical degrees, but none that have EE degrees. I'm one of the few hardware people in my lab...
 
Hi, Bill.
Just to say thanks for the inspiration after seeing the hackaday article at the start of the year.
I was going to do a show a few years back after seeing Carson Williams "wizards in winter", built my own LOR compatible controller but then things (life) ended up getting in the way.

After seeing your Hackaday article, I ordered some pixel nodes from china on ebay , CNC'd myself a singing tree, built some esp pixel sticks on veroboard using esp12 modules, downloaded vixen and started to learn how to use it.
This was back in January / February, then I ended up doing other stuff, next thing I knew it was nearly the end of October.
I thought to myself I'd better get my sh*t together otherwise this isn't going to happen (again).

Got a friend weld up a base for my pixel tree, etc, and managed to spend a few late nights tying to get 5 or so sequences finished. I think I could have spent more time on the sequencing but hey ho.
Just uploaded a video of what I've put together. I'm in the UK, and I don't think there's too many people doing this kind of thing over here yet....

So big thanks again!

Mick
 
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