Bloggage!
Hmm, I wonder when the last time I posted was. Lets just take a loo….. oh. Sorry bout that, my bad. Things got really busy at the end of the term there, and then I just sort of crashed. I’ll try to sum up everything.
For one thing, the final project for theater went really well. On our last run the day before class, we recorded a crappy ass video (second run in an hour and the board op stopped paying attention, so I was off and he was off and blah). However, having the video gave me a chance to see what I was doing, and change bits for the run the next day. And people were going crazy over it! Huge smiles from several people, lots of clapping, one person was just waiting for us to ask for questions (you could tell), just to ask how often I act. When I said never, she and several other people had this look of utter shock and contempt, and the teacher basically said I had singled myself out and would now probably have people trying to make me audition. They can try ;p
Remind me to post the video at some point. Its on Facebook, but I need to embed it and change permissions and stuff.
As to the other project, the crazy sculpture thing, I’m theoretically still working on it. I haven’t actually touched it since the year ended, but I figure I have to go get my stuff eventually so I’ll have to work on it once I’m in the room. I learned tons on the project, and have all sorts of awesome projects lined up for myself in electronics… just not sculpture based, heh.
In fact, one project I’m fast tracking is to build a dmx to microplex converter. To explain quickly, modern lighting uses a digital signal protocol called DMX (digital multiplex). so it sends data for 512 channels at once, saying that it should go to a value between 0 and 255 (off to full power). In the old days, they would control thing with analog signals, and eventually started using analog multiplexing.
The footlight club has an analog system, which means they can’t bring in any boards that a designer might have available because they need to also have the microplex output and most boards these days only do DMX. The solution is to take in the DMX signal, acting as just another device in the line, and output it using the microplex protocol. I have the design just about fleshed out (thanks to copious data provided by a guy who designed his own and sells them as one of the big names but was kind enough to put his research into the protocol and schematics online for hobbyists to tinker with). I just need to test it and get Paul (TD of the club and an EE) to take a look with his actually knowledge of these things. But then I’ll be the hero of lighting designers at the FLC if it works ;D
Ok, this poast is through. And yes, you read that right, I finally proclaim a post to be a poast for the first time in a while. Yays.
-K