ePlaya

by **mojo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:00 am

Does anyone know how to contact the Playaflies? We need to find out how to get the kit and synchronized setup.

I'm a little concerned that we can only fine 2006 info.

Thanks in advance for your help.

by **sputnik** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:33 am

I suspect you'll have to buy everything yourself, but I've put some feelers out for you.

by **Selarom** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 11:49 am

makemeaplayafly@yahoo.com is in the instruction page:
http://www.playaflies.com/howto.pdf

by **mojo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:31 pm

Thanks! If there are any playaflies out there listening, is there a time/place to meet this year?

by **yellowdog** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:36 pm

Good luck with this. Sounds like we are on a similar path. Building Playaflies SEEMED like such a good idea back in March... I tried several avenues to contact Michael Brown or Foam or anyone else with Playafly experience, having technical questions, but without success. So I plowed ahead with radical self-reliance and friends and guesswork. I'm in the midst of constructing 6. I'd be glad to help you as much as I can, PM me, but I warn you I am clueless about electrical stuff and I am learning by trial and error. I estimate I am 90% complete (such a silly delusional fool I am)! The instructions are awesome, but I have hit some roadblocks...it would be SO good to talk to someone who has successfully done this.
Playaflies are SO COOL and I am determined to make this work. I'd love to see yours (and mine) flashing on the Playa! And I'd love to arrange or join a swarm if anyone's interested.

by **LeChatNoir** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:54 am

Wasn't Badger involved with the Playaflies project last year?

by **Toolmaker** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:38 am

What kind of problem are you having?

by **yellowdog** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:38 pm

Toolmaker wrote:What kind of problem are you having?

Everything tests fine until I add the bucktoot, then get one weak red LED out of 22 LED's and nothing else. Bypass the bucktoot and all is good. LED Supply.com suggests using resistor instead of bucktoot (ie resistor>LED>LED string) because (quote)with each LED cycling thru RGB at random, the forward voltage is different for each at any one time. Why, then, is a bucktoot driver called for in the instructions? And if a resistor is needed instead, where would it be installed? WTF? I'd really like to see this work. So close.

by **Toolmaker** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:25 pm

There is a wiring diagram here..

http://www.playaflies.com/michaelb/play ... iagram.jpg

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/0 ... flies.html

Not sure whats up with Chinchilla camp or the inventor. Double check everything in your wiring.. make sure polarity is observed and you have good soldered connections. Hope you get it working.. they look real bad ass at night. Worst case scenario there is a product ready made that you could buy but I think they run like 200 bucks or so.

by **yellowdog** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:24 pm

Ha! thanks Toolmaker! The problem was that the original instructions on the Playaflies website have the bucktoot wired BACKWARDS. Your link to updated, hand-drawn wiring diagram, confirmed by the bucktoot spec sheet from LEDSupply, shows CORRECTLY red and black to the power side (not the LED side as the website indicates in detail). Otherwise, you burn out your $17.50 bucktoot and get no PRETTY. Now I've got PRETTY! Yay! Thanks for the help!

by **Toolmaker** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:02 am

yellowdog wrote:Ha! thanks Toolmaker! The problem was that the original instructions on the Playaflies website have the bucktoot wired BACKWARDS. Your link to updated, hand-drawn wiring diagram, confirmed by the bucktoot spec sheet from LEDSupply, shows CORRECTLY red and black to the power side (not the LED side as the website indicates in detail). Otherwise, you burn out your $17.50 bucktoot and get no PRETTY. Now I've got PRETTY! Yay! Thanks for the help!

think nothing of it..

glad to hear you got up n running

by **playaflies** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:15 pm

Hey -

sorry to get onto this thread so late. I was juet told there was some discussion on the playaflies. Yellodog, So sorry about the photographs and directions on the website. No one every gave us a heads up on that and when we built the site we were crazy in production on making them and missed it entirely. I will post a correction on it immediatly! Hope you didn't kill a bucktoot!

To your question on using a bucktoot rather than a resistor- it has to do with driving the leds and making them as bright as possible for as long as the battery has some power. If you overdrive a LED you cook it. When a battery is freshly charged, it has almost 13 volts. After riding for a couple of nights the batter power can drop below 10volts. The bucktoot compensates and produces an even 30 milliamps of current even when the battery voltage changes. This keeps the leds as bright as possible for a longer period. LEDs are rather sensitive and bucktoots are good at keeping them happy and PRETTY!

Hope this helps. There are just a few of us coming out this year. I'd love to do a group ride if people are interested. Perhaps Wednesday night at 10pm in front of the man. Pass the word. Contact us at makemeaplayafly(at)yahoo(dot)you know the rest.

I'll keep an eye out on this thread now.

Cheers!
michael (aka) miss brown

by **yellowdog** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:11 pm

YAY MISS BROWN! Thanks for inventing the coolest looking thing on the playa (OK that's a bold statement, but I DID say something like that the first time I saw them dancing across the playa in 2006.I hope we can elicit the same response from someone who sees them for the first time this year). And thanks for the detailed and easy to follow instructions on the Playaflies website. They are quite a bit of work, but now I am a master solderer!
One more question: the bit about mounting to the bike calls for 3 feet of rebar in the supplies section, but rebar is not mentioned again. I guess it sticks out of the conduit, inside the PVC pipe? For extra stiffness? (insert penis joke here) (ooh I said 'insert penis") Is the rebar really necessary and worth the extra weight?
Oh, and there was some mention of Playaflies 2.0 with synchronization? Whats up with that?
Oh,and how sturdy do they end up being in real-playa conditions? I figure if 66 LED's on 3 sets of playaflies function for one whole night, I'll be happy. I'll bring stuff for repair, but can't realistically envision me troubleshooting and squinting and soldering instead of saying, "Screw it, turn it off, lets go play", you know?
Any battlefield issues you have had? How have they held up?
Oh, and How many playaflies do you think exist in total?
Meet-up swarm sounds great.
If I can just figure out when midnight is...
Or for that matter when Wednesday is...

by **Mata** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 6:05 am

Bump!
I'm wondering about about that rebar thing too. I think it's a misprint. I believe the recommendation is for the conduit only, but I'm not sure.

If anyone has an extra one of these, just basically a piece of conduit pounded flat at one end, or can make one for me, I'd be really appreciative and can come by and pick it up on the playa. It would complete me. Or, it would complete my playa fly. Which I'm attaching to an electric bike with a sound system and some other goodies.

Cheers.

by **yellowdog** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:09 pm

Mata wrote:
If anyone has an extra one of these, just basically a piece of conduit pounded flat at one end, or can make one for me

No worries, I have two extra. Check at Otter Camp or Nipple Dip near 3:30 and F (both are registered), they will know where we are. Ask for Karl and Janet. We'll be there Sun. or Mon. We'll drill it to fit your bike.

Where will you be?

by **Mata** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:05 am

Thanks! See you on the playa.

by **playaflies** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:16 am

Hey, you guys make good editors. The rebar stake is used to store your Playafly during the day outside your camp. We pound them about a foot into the ground and then you have 2 feet sticking up. You can sleeve your pvc pipe onto it. In our camp we had about 20 playaflies and we could have a garden out front in the evening before riding. It helps protect the arms from getting bent outta shape.

by **danibel** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:11 pm

Hello!

I would love love love to birth a playafly for my second trek to the playa this year. I found the website but nowhere to order a kit. There was a parts list but none of the part numbers match the items on the sites. Does anyone know how to get one of these kits or an updated list?

I am budget challenged but willing to take my time and birth a pretty. =)

Any help appreciated!

Dani

by **yellowdog** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:29 pm

Danibel, Although I am not part of the Playafly originators, I believe that there are not really any kits. However, everything you need is in the Make Me a Playafly instructions. I did it, having no experience or skills. Ended up costing about $150 each in supplies. They are TONS of fun to have and share. Feel free to PM me with questions. You will have many.

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