The 4H Inventors have started building.  We tackled gluing the wood together.  We need two inch on each side, I purchased 4 1/2x8 ft 1in thick dimensional wood.  We are gluing it to another piece of the same wood to get the length we need of 8ft 10in.  See pictures below, very messy :D

Now we need to wait for the glue to dry, I only have so many clamps.  So we started working with the LED prototype that each of the kids have build.  The prototype is 15rows or 20 LEDs, exactly 300 LEDs (one 16.4ft LED strip).  One of the kids in the group has modified the neomatrics library and built his own fonts, using 14 rows instead of the library default of 7 rows.  We are also experimenting with diffusers.   I purchased a 1/8 frosted white one piece of acrylic.   The distance from the LEDs is very important.  I wanted to make sure the kids understood why the diffuser was so important.  As a side benefit the location this LED panel is going to live, Rabbit Barn, has lots of hair in dust in the air.  The diffuser will protect the LEDs and will be much easier to clean.

No diffuser

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0gj8vrenmy61q7/LED-no-defuzer-apr-2019.m4v?dl=0

With diffuser   (we are just using white coreplast in the video.  Makes a hugh positive benefit)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dtjb2pr02pan3o9/LED-Defuser-Apr-2019.m4v?dl=0

Can't wait to see this 8ft 4in long !!  We did some tweaks to the program.  The code was not originally written to show multiple phrases, we added spaces for the time being.  The finished version would like the first phase to be one color and the second different etc.  (total of four phrases).

The prototype really helped the kids understand what we are building.  They have lots of ideas, first we have to get the basics working.