Progress
I used the laser cutter in the Design Lab to create a miniature prototype of the layout of my installation. The prototype consists of four wall panels on a base and a mesh looking cover/lid. I began by covering the four walls with paint chips to create a sunset. I realized that creating Gliderport was not my main goal. The aspect of Gliderport that drew me to it was the sunsets. To make my life easier, the scene will be Gliderport inspired because I want to capture the fleeting feeling of its sunsets. But to say that it will look exactly like Gliderport is too much unneeded pressure.
I was also able to go home President’s Day weekend and purchase the joints I needed to connect the pvc pipes together for the box. I also grabbed another tote bag full of paint chips. Lastly I had my family help out in gathering cardboard for the wall panels. I am still not sure if I am going with cardboard as my final material for the wall panels due to it’s sturdiness, but I am hanging onto them until I find a suitable alternative.
Setbacks
My Arduino died. But luckily I foresaw this issue a month ago and ordered not one, but two more Arduinos off of Aliexpress. I soldered on sturdier wires onto my neopixles, and made the wires fairly long since I am still not sure how the final installation is going to look like. This time I did not put the wire through the hole in order to avoid the strain the wire gores through from the angle. I blobbed solder onto of the already existing solder from the previous time. Everything was looking good until the neopixles did not light up. I thought this was due to my terrible soldering job, but later found out my Arduino died. I also stripped the wires too much and as a result they started snapping (again). However this time I found heat shrink tubbing at the Design lab so I slapped some tubing onto the wires and used a lighter at my apartment to shrink it. I definitely helped make my wires more sturdy but there are still some gaps in places. I need to make some more holes in the light housing to account for the wires I will be using to daisy chain the lights. Once that is done the housing should also help keep the wires from fraying.
