MSRaynsford

I've been slowly upgrading my Christmas lights over the last few years (and apparently not really blogging it). What started as one 300 pixel string  has crept up to four pixel strings last year and I was going to add a fifth this year. The 'From Shadows' event approached with a strong venue that has power throughout and suddenly I was able to take along my light strip and put it to use displaying messages in the gaol. I purchased two more strings (because it's easier to make fonts with 7 lines) and I bought an Teensy Opto adaptor  to make connecting them all up easier. I tried previously to hang up the strips at various intervals across the distance but there was always a lot of droop in the middle and it was tricky to get all the strips lined up horizontally. This time I attached the whole length to four back boards and cable tied them every 15 pixels. This ended up with a very sturdy system where all the strips stay in alignment despite being moved around....

Not everything can or should be laser cut, but the laser can usually help you make the right tools for the things that can't. This ley line crystal is a perfect example. From Shadows asked if I could make a large crystal prop that represented the crossing point of several ley lines. I had a serious think about my options and almost completely forgot that I actually own a vacuum former  which is nearly perfect for this job. I could simply vacuum form two half shells of a large gem, paint them and stick them together to form a suitable prop. The vacuum former is a great tool for turning plastic sheets into fancy shapes but you need something to form over, if I could go down the shop and buy the right thing to form over I wouldn't need to be doing any of this at all, this is where the laser cutter comes into it's own. I found a suitable looking 3D model of a gem online, from there I used Pepakura  to unwrap the model into 2D flats with tabs in the appropriate pla...

From Shadows LRP had it's fourth event on the 25th-27th of Oct. The previous teleport return unit was quite successful so those asked for some more units to be made, only this time they should be a bit smaller so they are more manageable and store-able. Because I didn't have the original unit to hand I opted to make them half the size, in hindsight this feels a little bit small but they are super cute versions of the full blown unit.  When you push the button the software comes out of sleep mode and counts down from 10 to zero. At zero the whole thing flashes to indicate that the team has 'teleported' in or out of the situation. The unit uses a USB battery bank for rechargeable power but one charge was sufficient to last the whole weekend. As the unit is smaller is was swung around a bit more and there were a few minor issues with cables coming lose internally so I had to strain relief the battery in the middle of Saturday and, players being players, someone j...

The From Shadows team requested a large countdown timer to count 2 hours, I offered a full 99 minutes instead to save myself an extra digit but I think this giant RGB seven segment display fulfils the brief well. I opted not to use a real time clock chip because it only drifted a few seconds over the two hour period which is close enough. The illumination is provided with WS2812 LED strips and the controller is the ESP8266 so if I desperately wanted accurate timing I could always implement an NTP server and connect to the local wifi. Again, I wish I'd taken more photos of this project in action but I may well get another chance if I build another one for our local ninja warrior training gym . 

Coming in very highly on my overdue project list is this Futuristic control panel for the From Shadows event that happened over a month ago. I was rushed and wish I had photos and a video of more of the details. I don't even appear to have photos of the separate parts. The brief was for a control panel that could be split up into parts that were acquired throughout the course of the weekend. I wanted to take it a step further and split it up into parts that make the panel functional when connected back together. Two large hex bolts on the back could be removed, without tools, to provide access to two compartments. The first compartment was designed to house a 'battery', the second compartment had some exposed connectors. When the battery was inserted into the first compartment and the the connectors bridge with the appropriate loop power was supplied to the front of the device. The switches in the bottom left hand corner have illuminated LED's, flip both of...

The next prop for 'From Shadows' was this teleport return device. Units teleport into hostile territory and this is the gadget to teleport them all back again. This one has some added electronics to make it more interesting. A big red button activates the device once the small switch has turned it on. The whole thing counts down from 10 before flashing some lights to signify it's active. A nice big handle on the top makes it easy to carry. Although it's large it's pretty lightweight because it's poplar ply. The whole thing was painted with metallics and sprayed with varnish to make it water resistant. 

From Shadows Larp recently ran it's third event and I had the fun of making quite a few different props for them this time around. First up was this set of rad-field generators. Most of the shaped pieces are laser cut, the vertical poles are broom handles cut in half and the fluorescent orange core are stacked gears that were cut out of the cake rings . Texture was added to the base plate but refocusing the laser to make 5mm wide beam, this was quick and easy and showed through the paint finish. The whole unit was primed with grey paint and then sprayed loosely with army green cans, the lack of complete coverage actually gave it texture and interest. The poles were sprayed with metallic silver paint and the gears with the most fluorescent paint I could find. The upper part of the unit was only inserted loosely into the base so they could be dismantled for storage and removals. One lucky feature is that the two sides slotted together to take up half the space in sto...

Another build for 'From Shadows', this time they wanted a device that could be used to track down other devices scattered around the field. I came up with a solution that used the ESP8266 to create a wifi network (nodes not shown) and these gadgets that scanned for wifi networks and reported the RSSI. The closer you are the stronger the signal strength and you know you're heading in the right direction. The gadgets were supposed to have a modern mystical feel so I made them from fluorescent perspex, the sheet was sprayed with black and the details cut through. The whole front panel was lit from behind with UV led's so the glow only shone through the cuts. I also felt it would be good if the gadgets had to be held in both hands, under the thumb prints are two tactile switches which need to be firmly pressed to keep the device on. I think this might have caused a bit of thumb ache from the players while they were initially looking for the nodes, it certainly ma...

From Shadows LRP  ran it's first event at the weekend and by all accounts everybody appears to have had a good time (I was really quite keen to attend but sadly couldn't, true story). I did manage to get all of their currency cut in time though. I had previously made a few sample to demonstrate what was possible and I made a few tweaks on the final set. The colours now run in rainbow order which makes them a bit more cohesive and it allows me to keep the blue fluorescent for a higher value. I also rounded off the corners a lot more, the previous ones were a bit sharp. The tessellating design allowed me to cut whole sheets at a time with minimal wastage and even though there were a few alignment issues with the number engraved on the reverse it was still visible through the window so just about acceptable.