This project hasn’t been forgotten about, just put to the side because of the hot weather and lack of desire to try and cool down the garage and work in there.
today I was able to drill out Blinky, wire and add the LEDs. The wire I’m using is too thick for the job, which made the wiring job difficult. As it is, I’m worried the data outline connection failed due to the copper pad separating from the LED strip. But, if that turns out to be true, I can just make sure the fish as at the end of the line.
I thought I would likely be trimming down the back end of the eyes, and it turned out to be correct. On a positive note, the lighting isn’t overly sensitive to how the LEDs are positioned. For part of the build, the outdoor LED ‘bulbs’ would have probably been a better choice. As it was, I squished the little bits of ribbon with an LED on them down in the hole and it seems to look good.
I haven’t decided how to close up the eyes. I need to be able to get in there when one fails…and I’m sure it will. I’m thinking of using some kind of gel that just creates some loose adhesion and will also make it water proof…Vaseline??? That probably won’t hold up over time, so I need to look around.
There is a little bit of animation, but just using in one of the built-in WLED animations. I’m still a long way from getting this finished and actually designing animations for it.
I still haven’t designed the fish trap. I need to do that before I finish Blinky’s mount. I have some rope netting that I will probably paint/age. But, the basics of the trap need to come together so I can figure out how much is wood vs what might be printed…if anything.