Interactive beacon for Camp Woop Woop - Burning Man 2016
A beacon of light to rise far above on top our far-sight tower, guiding souls around the 9 o'clock part of the playa. Even those who are Home get lost sometimes.
- It will be bright!!!
- It will be colourful!
- It may be locally interactive.
- It may even be remotely interactive...
Our vision is a long pole hopefully a lot more than 20ft ABOVE our highest tower with a few really bright LEDs on top that are visible over 1000ft away which means you may be able to glimpse it from the esplanade. 500ft is minimal since that's the distance to Duck Pond.
The system will default to sending out WOOP WOOP in morse code, one seqence in pink and another in a random RGB color. It will try to beam as much power as possible towards the inner 180 degrees but may have some power towards the rim. No power should be wasted upwards and very little downwards.
The beacon may be powered by a generator we will bring or perhaps a few car batteries charged during the day. We will determine this asap.
If we have time we will add interactivity such that people on top of the tower can hit a button and override the default WOOP signals. We may add the ability to select color in some way such as a cheap piano keyboard. Not sure yet.
If we have time we will add remote interactivity with an extra button on the Jelly such that the light can be controlled far far away, hopefully about a mile away.
If we have time we will add an LED in the Jelly next to the remote button that will blink when the tower blinks, allowing morse communication.
If we have time we will add lights leading up to the big LEDs much like a strong-man circus where you hit the button and the light string snakes up to the big LEDs to lights up.