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Modeling and planning

A project log for Very large LED Display

Build 8.2 ft Serial Addressable LED Display. Will be used to display message and basic animation. Leading 4H club project

hamblinjoehamblin.joe 03/31/2019 at 17:460 Comments

My goal for this project is to have 4H kids be a major part of the building.  I need to plan carefully for several reasons.  The major one is we usually can only meet every two weeks, so not having some part or needing to run out to the hardware store is not an option.  Also, I need to have projects to keep everyone busy and also major focus on safety.  Lastly several of the parts are expensive don't want to have to replace anything.  I now have all the parts I need, fans (120v), fan grills, power supplies, USB extender and wall mount plug, 120v with 10A fuse and lighted on/off switch.  I 3D printed 60 strips to hold down LEDs, I have 200 #4 3/8 screws ( I will need at least 150).  I also 3D printed a bracket to hold the 120v plug and USB plug.  I have the very large one piece of white acrylic.  

  The first build session will be April 5th.  I'm going to focus on the plan and show the kids the Fusion plans, let them ask any questions.  This will let them see the finished products.  I'm going to ask them to think about any possible problems and walk through these.  One of my biggest concerns is to make sure the LEDs are lined up correctly and spaced right.

I'm including several screen shots form fusion so you can see what it will look like.

We will mainly be working on the wooden box in the first build session.  We need to cut the hard board to the correct size and cut the notches in the wood for the acrylic and LED panel.

I'm going to cut some test cuts this week and use some small 1/8 pieces of acrylic to test with. I might need to get a different circular saw blade.

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