Building Main Street, USA in a coffee table

[Alex George] has been collecting miniatures of Main Street, USA in Disney Land hand crafted by artist [Robert Olszewski]. These models are incredibly accurate, but sadly static. [Alex] has some of the floats from the Main Street Electrical Parade that light up with the help of a few LEDs. One day, [Alex] found himself wishing he could watch a miniature parade circling around his diorama and did what any of us would do: make a tiny electrical parade move around his miniature town.

[Alex] began his build by designing a system of chains and sprockets underneath his miniature Main Street. When not on display, the parade floats are hidden underneath the town. At night, though, the parade ascends to the surface to put on a show.

It’s not an electrical parade if there aren’t any lights, so [Alex] grabbed a couple Blinkms to attach to the underside of each float. These are small programmable RGB LEDs that can repeat the same sequence of lights for the entire time the parade is visible. A very excellent job and a masterwork of craftsmanship for both [Alex] and [Robert Olszewski].

[Alex]’s ‘making of’ video and a full demo of the float are available after the break.

via boingboing

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZUFWQtqjXE&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kf3ZSLptxU&w=470]

Comments

  1. Rudager says:

    I see more than a “couple” of Blinkms on that chain. At $15 a piece I see around $700 worth. Wow

  2. sawo says:

    What a waste of money. Some ws2801 Pixels would habe done the job at a so much lower price.

  3. Matt says:

    Very nice work. Truly impressive.

  4. Scott says:

    GREAT WORK, amazing craftsmanship. Way to see your vision through to fruition.

  5. DOT850 says:

    Wow! Truly awesome! Nice work!

  6. Hirudinea says:

    Amazing, just amazing! Somebody thaw Walt out, he’ed be proud. Just one question, do the pin extensions on the LEDs have the mechanical strength to hold up in the long run? Just wondering.

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