Death Valley Wildflowers 2016

If you have not gone to see the wild flowers in Death Valley, you may want to go soon. The flowers have started to sprout and bloom, and it will only get better.

Over the winter season, Death Valley received a bit of rain. With the early warm temperatures, the flowers have started to bloom. The bloom started around Badwater, and more wildflower fields have started blooming to the north. A variety of colors can be found near Badwater, indicating that more colors could also be expected in other areas. These wild flowers can also be an indicator of what other areas of the Mojave Desert might see in the coming months.

According to the NWS Weather Station located in Furnace Creek:

September 2015: No Rain

October 2015: 1.3"

November 2015: No Rain

December 2015: No Rain

January 2015: 0.46"

February 2016: 0.30"

Winter Season Total: 2.06" of Rain (or 20% more rain from average, mostly in October)

This is a map of observed wildflowers. Another great map can be found here:

Near Beaty Junction, looking towards Furnace Creek	Between Artist Dr and Natural Bridge Rd
Near Mile Marker 15, just North of Badwater	Near Mile Marker 15, just North of Badwater
Overlooking Badwater	Across the street from Badwater

If you are traveling to Death Valley, keep in mind that the storms over the last few years have wrecked havoc for the roads in the area. Highway 178 going through Panamint Valley has a 2 mile section of gravel road, the south end of Death Valley the road is closed between the junction of Harry Wade Road and the Greenwater Valley Road (aka Furnace Creek Wash Road), and Wildrose Canyon is closed.

Quarter Sequence - I Put A Spell On You

Here is a quartet sequence for "I Put A Spell On You" by Freak On A Leash. This was originally done with xLights then brought into LOR. I have included the xLights files, and the graphics I used can be downloaded for free. These is a starter sequence for a quartet. If you have other elements, you will need to sequence those parts yourself, but this will save you a lot of time for the main part, as I have done the vocals. Yes, I am selling these files, as it took a significant amount of time to create and sequence. I am willing to share some of my content, but not when I have put as much work into it as I have, with the singing character parts.

Files in download: LOR Sequence File xLights XML File (Full, not just quartet) Music Link Data Screenshot from LOR Sequence File:

Download Sequence/Data --- $8 --- A link to download will be emailed within 24 hours. MP3 Audio can be found here (AmazonMP3) Channels used for the vocals:

Quartet Sequence - Uptown Funk

Here is a quartet sequence for "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars. This was originally done with xLights then brought into LOR. I have included the xLights files, and the graphics I used can be downloaded for free. These is a starter sequence for a quartet. If you have other elements, you will need to sequence those parts yourself, but this will save you a lot of time for the main part, as I have done the vocals. Yes, I am selling these files, as it took a significant amount of time to create and sequence. I am willing to share some of my content, but not when I have put as much work into it as I have, with the singing character parts.

Files in download: LOR Sequence File xLights XML File (Full, not just quartet) Music Link Data Screenshot from LOR Sequence File:

Download Sequence/Data --- $15 --- A link to download will be emailed within 24 hours. MP3 Audio can be found here (AmazonMP3) Clean Edited version by DJ Michael Dean Channels used for the vocals:

Helpful Light Show Files

Singing Characters
These are image packs to use on either a Matrix Display or a Mega Tree.

Download - Boy Elf	Download - Frosty	Download - Gingerbread Man
Download - Girl Elf	Download - Mr Grinch	Download - Olaf
Download - Singing Tree	Download - Purple People Eater	Download - Skull Charater

Singing Models for xLights
These are XLS files that you can use to create a custom model for your singing character on xLights.

Download-ChromaBulb

Download-Monster Faces

Download-Tree

Light Show Control Panel

My light show is ran from a Raspberry Pi, and I wanted to add the ability to start the show without using a WiFi enabled device. I picked up a few arcade buttons from Fry's Electronics, but you can easily find them on Amazon as well. I would have preferred to have a different color for each button, but Fry's only had the three colors. If you build one yourself, use different color buttons so you can tell a kid "Push the green button to start the show".

I didn't want to be tethered to the main controller box either, and because ethernet cables are already used everywhere else, I wanted to use the same type of cable so the control panel can be anywhere.

The box is made from Pine wood bought from the local hardware store. I used 1 1/2 wood screws for the main edges, and 1 1/4 wood screws for the wood pieces that holds the control panel itself. The panel is a recycled piece of 1/4 wood, with a thin piece of plexiglass on the top. DO NOT apply any pressure to the drill when making the holes on the plexiglass, other than the weight of the drill.

I had everything built, but only one button worked initially. After some research, I added the Pull Up Resisters (10k Ohm) to the RJ45 box so the Raspberry Pi could get a better reading on the switch position. The security key switch is used to interrupt the common ground to all of the switches, so I can disable the control panel if needed.

I used an old IDE cable to plug into the Raspberry Pi. The notch on the cable will face the CPU when plugged into the Raspberry Pi.	RJ45 box, so I can use Ethernet cabling between the controller box and the Control Panel.
Wiring for the buttons	Pull Up Resister diagram
RJ45 Box with the Pull Up Resister, and the Pin 1 with 3.3v going to the resister network I created.	Their are other ways of using the Pull Up Resisters, but I wanted minimal extra parts in the control box.  I had to grab pin 1 (3.3v) and connect that to a spider of resisters, each one connected to the GPIO wire. When the buttons are used, they will simply short the GPIO to Ground, which will drop the voltage on the GPIO pin. The only disadvantage to this design, if the cable gets unplugged or plugged in, it can make the Raspberry Pi think you hit a button when you didn't. For this reason, I used the falling setting on the GPIO Input Settings, so I could start the show, and disable the panel without restarting the show.

Linking it all together. Get scripts from https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp-scripts

Download the scripts you want and upload them to the FPP. Then create "Events" to trigger the scripts.

Assign the events to the GPIO inputs

Quartet Sequence - The Movie Melody by Straight No Chaser

Here is a quartet sequence for "The Movie Melody" by Straight No Chaser. This was originally done with xLights then brought into LOR. I have included the xLights files, and the graphics I used can be downloaded for free. These is a starter sequence for a quartet. If you have other elements, you will need to sequence those parts yourself, but this will save you a lot of time for the main part, as I have done the vocals. Yes, I am selling these files, as it took a significant amount of time to create and sequence. I am willing to share some of my content, but not when I have put as much work into it as I have, with the singing character parts.

Files in download: LOR Sequence File xLights XML File (Full, not just quartet) Music Link Data Screenshot from LOR Sequence File:

Download Sequence/Data --- $15 --- A link to download will be emailed within 24 hours. MP3 Audio can be found here (AmazonMP3) Graphics Used in Sequence Channels used for the vocals:

Quartet in xLights

Create a new model in xLights, and set it for Custom, Single Color White, with a size of 19x21. Download the CSV file below. Open it in notepad, select all, copy, then paste the text into the top left of the xLights model you just created. It should look like the screenshot below. Once that is done, the Names and Faces buttons will need to be used to complete the setup of the character.

	These are the names of each strand of lights on the singing character. These names will be used for the definitions of the character.
	Here is the important link to the Papagayo within xLights. You have to tell the software what channels to turn on for the specific phenom. These are the ones I use. I feel that using the middle lip on the HolidayCoro Trees look more happy when resting, and makes the mouth movements flow better.
Download CSV File	text