2015 Display & Build

Total Raised in 2015 for Redkite: $4,500, including $1000 from Energy Australia.

We ran a raffle and would like to congratulate the 9 winners that were drawn out. A list of prizes and winners can be found below.

1st Prize: J Rich. Signed cricket Bat by Brad Haddin (Lithgow Sports Power), $50 Gift card (Coles)
2nd Prize: C Morley. Signed Cricket Bat by Nathan Lyon (Lithgow Sports Power), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans)
3rd Prize: N Bannon. Amicro Touch Tablet IV 9.7″ (Harvey Norman), Solar Santa Light (Great priced furniture), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), 25% off Voucher for Kidding Around
4th Prize: S Wotton. Aroma Diffuser (TSG), Coffee Mug (Hopes Chemist), Natural Wax Candle (Naturally by Kelley), $25 Gift Voucher (R & K Workwear)
5th Prize: Mrs Kyle. Blissful Body Kit (Dougherty’s chemist), A Pillow (Rustic Rose), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), Gift Basket (Blooms Chemist)
6th Prize: M Scott. BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), Coffee Mug (Rustic Rose), Telstra Wi-Fi Modem 4G (Lithgow Technology Services), Coles $50 Gift Card (Coles), 2 Fancy Soaps (West End Newsagents), Kagi Pendant (Regency Jewellers), Manly Poster (Prints and Frames)
7th Prize: K Morris. $25 voucher (R & K Workwear), Lady’s Wallet (Respectfully), Aroma Diffuser (West End Newsagents), Natural soaps (West End Newsagents), Fancy soaps (West End Newsagents)
8th Prize: Jade Coleman. Woolworths Hamper (Woolworths Lithgow), $20 Gift card (Bunnings), Family pass for 2016 Ironfest (Macgreggor Ross), Fancy soaps (West End Newsagents)
9th Prize: Mrs Kett. Cheese platter (Miranne Jewellers)

Not mentioned are the Crochered Ducks that were added to a few of the prizes, and were donated by Bits and Pieces, Lithgow. There was also a 5th BBQ Secrets book from Rich Evans added to one of the prizes, but we forgot to document it, sorry about that.

Total Raised for Redkite: $4,500, including $1000 from Energy Australia

We ran a raffle and would like to congratulate the 9 winners that were drawn out. A list of prizes and winners can be found below.

1st Prize: J Rich. Signed cricket Bat by Brad Haddin (Lithgow Sports Power), $50 Gift card (Coles)
2nd Prize: C Morley. Signed Cricket Bat by Nathan Lyon (Lithgow Sports Power), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans)
3rd Prize: N Bannon. Amicro Touch Tablet IV 9.7″ (Harvey Norman), Solar Santa Light (Great priced furniture), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), 25% off Voucher for Kidding Around
4th Prize: S Wotton. Aroma Diffuser (TSG), Coffee Mug (Hopes Chemist), Natural Wax Candle (Naturally by Kelley), $25 Gift Voucher (R & K Workwear)
5th Prize: Mrs Kyle. Blissful Body Kit (Dougherty’s chemist), A Pillow (Rustic Rose), BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), Gift Basket (Blooms Chemist)
6th Prize: M Scott. BBQ Secrets Cookbook (Rich Evans), Coffee Mug (Rustic Rose), Telstra Wi-Fi Modem 4G (Lithgow Technology Services), Coles $50 Gift Card (Coles), 2 Fancy Soaps (West End Newsagents), Kagi Pendant (Regency Jewellers), Manly Poster (Prints and Frames)
7th Prize: K Morris. $25 voucher (R & K Workwear), Lady’s Wallet (Respectfully), Aroma Diffuser (West End Newsagents), Natural soaps (West End Newsagents), Fancy soaps (West End Newsagents)
8th Prize: Jade Coleman. Woolworths Hamper (Woolworths Lithgow), $20 Gift card (Bunnings), Family pass for 2016 Ironfest (Macgreggor Ross), Fancy soaps (West End Newsagents)
9th Prize: Mrs Kett. Cheese platter (Miranne Jewellers)

Not mentioned are the Crochered Ducks that were added to a few of the prizes, and were donated by Bits and Pieces, Lithgow. There was also a 5th BBQ Secrets book from Rich Evans added to one of the prizes, but we forgot to document it, sorry about that.

Display Images

Display Videos

Build

January

The lights from 2014’s display are all put away and I have started working on the 2015 display. At the moment I am just sorting out controllers, fixing and upgrading lights, and thats about all, but I have a few plans for this year, including:

  • Upgrade the pDMX items to plain DMX, to allow easier distribution, and more standardised communication which should allow things to be a little easier in terms of connections.
  • Repair the floodlights. These are starting to really show their age, and have a number of failures in quite a few. I have about 4 or 5 spare boards so if I have enough LED’s I’ll make them up and swap them out with any damaged sets to allow a more seamless repair path.
  • Open all the controller cases and do any repairs, upgrades and tidyups. Some of these have basically been in service for 3 or 4 seasons with no repairs needed, but I dont know the condition of the actual boards and wiring, so a good check, upgraded fusing etc will be carried out where needed
  • 6 new silhouettes for the bedroom. I have the silhouettes and think I have enough lights to put on them.
  • I will need a few additional 27 channel controllers for items this year, and maybe an additional J1Sys P2
  • New leaping arches are a definate add, and I should have enough spare outlets to allow me to use existing controllers, but they will likely need a PSU upgrade to a decent Meanwell in 2 of the boxes.
  • New Tune To signs, with the old ones being moved to the front of the yard to allow people to see them easier

LED Floodlights 13-33 were all pulled apart, tested, repaired and any damage that was found was fixed as I was going. These lights have been in service for many years and I am very surprised they are still operating so well, but I plan on giving them a slight visual upgrade as the black paint on most has peeled off, leaving the light to start to rust. I’ll get a couple of tins of different color green spraypaint soon and spray them green so they don’t stick out quite as much when on the green grass during the display.

I also did an upgrade to the snow machines so I can place a LED Floodlight under each one during their use and control the LED light remotely from the remote used to operate the snow machines. This way I can turn the lights off when the snow machines are not being used so they don’t shine towards the road, but then quickly turn them on when I want to operate the snow machines.

February

Still repairing and upgrading, but it’s pretty much as time permits. So far all of the boxes have been worked on, but some still need replacement fans for cooling as the ones I bought were pretty cheap and have only lasted 2 seasons in most cases. I still have a collection of 40 and 50mm 5V and 12V fans so they are perfect to use in the cases.

All the Lights have been repaired and stored away with the exception of the LED matrix which requires a rebuild anyway, so that should happen later in the year.

March

Mini Season is approaching in a few months, but this year I am not planning on much of a display at the mini, as in previous years there has simply been limited space for all of us to put items up, but I am doing a few talks at the Sydney Mini.

Big tidy up in the shed saw a couple of trailer loads go to the local dump, but I think I could throw the same volume out agin and still not make a dent in the mess out there.

May

Well the 2 days of the Sydney Mini are over for another year. A big thanks to my son Jacob who helped video and photograph the Mini for the 2 days, Ben for running the mini, and Craig for supplying the location and parking.

I think things went really well at the Mini, with lots of new faces learning heaps, and with a 2 day layout it gave people a lot more time to talk one on one, and yes I talked a LOT about Eddy’s 3D printer lol

June

Guess who bought a printer…. A 3D printer I mean lol

I blame Eddy and his 3D printer demonstration for making me see about 30 things I could make for the display this year, and AussiePhil provided some interesting 3D printed covers for us to drool over, and dream to build.

July

A lot of Covers done so far, with 400 completed, and more Natural ABS on the way to complete even more.

Also been flat out printing parts for more 3D stars, and you can see the results below. Once I have a few of them I’ll do a decent video lol.

August

700 LED Light covers now bagged and ready for use, and another 60 more done, and ready to be bagged tomorrow once another 40 are done.

The three stars are completed and tested, and have been put away ready for another few more to be printed later this week. I’ll start adding them to the sequences later in the month, and try to get a decent video of a few of them running.

lot of LED light covers have been done, and I have started to spray paint them with the UV and weather protection. A couple of months ago I selected 4 clear spray paint types and tested them against a control set of light covers and determined the best coating setup to protect the covers from rain and UV damage.

It appears as though most of the coatings gave adequate protection, but the best overall was a combination of Dulux DuraMax Plastic Primer and Septone Acrylic Topcoat Clear with UV stabilisers. This setup did not peal off, formed a waterproof coating and did not get any mould growth on the outside.

Now it’s time to start spraying the covers 100 at a time, or in this case 200.


September

1700 or so LED Light covers are completed and 2 coats of UV protecting spraypaint have been added to them all.

I started adding the covers to the LED’s for the show and I am quite suprised how they look.

November

Due to the increase of people walking into the yard in previous years (usually by lifting up the tape and walking under it), we decided to place a fence down the driveway to block access to the front yard entirely. I am still waiting on the gate, but the fence is in place now, and that will be an ideal place to place the old tint tubes that were next to the driveway in the past

December

When we put the show up and started running, there has been one area that I always thought looked a little poor – the leaping arches. The length of the arch was great, but the pixels on it were too small an area over such a big arch, so it looked too sparsly lit. Some people had used various covering of the arch to give the LED’s more impact, but I wanted something different, so I came up with a newly designed C7 light, but it’s a little smaller than the ones I used on the other items in the display. This C7 LED cover has a flat side that is ideal to mount against a rope or, in this case, conduit, so I went off and started printing 300 of them with 255 needed.

2015 Spend

8 Rolls Natural ABS: $240
6 Rolls Natural clear ABS: $180
Cleaning Alcohol: $25
Snow Machines Alcohol: $40
3D Printer: $1600
Steel: $90
Storage Boxes: $50
Bunnings Various: $130
Spraypaint: $400
Glue: $120
Ladder: $210
Elastic & Material: $50
Fencing: $700
Lollies: $600

Total: $4,435