Nexus » PyroSphere

Fuel For the Fire

erin banwell — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:00:35 +0000

This year at Burning Man NEXUS is bringing it bigger than ever and we need your help – we need you to come to a sick party in San Francisco and rock out on the dance floor to some of our favorite DJs – think you can do that?

This is all in the name of supporting the NEXUS PYROSPHERE, a 37 foot tall interactive fire sculpture – designed by Erin Banwell – that we’re bringing to the playa this year.

And besides who better to celebrate your Independence with than the NEXUS family?

Friday, July 2nd

FUEL FOR THE FIRE :: NEXUS PYROSPHERE FUNDRAISER

Special guests:

R/D (the designed disorder)

He absolutely leveled the Nexus dome on the playa before Tipper came on and atomized the remaining pieces – come check out what he’s all about at this rare appearance in San Francisco.

DAVID STARFIRE (six degrees)

A long-time producer and multi-instrumentalist, David Starfire never fails to bring the tribal whomp. David’s Bollyhood Bass Remix EP just dropped with remixes by Sub Swara, An-ten-Nae, ill Gates, Mochipet and Jef Stott.

WORTHY (dirtybird)

A true hero of the San Francisco underground, OG dirtybird and Anabatic label head will be gracing us with a master class in underground techno.

with:

Little John (raindance)

Motion Potion ( the fringe collective)

Mozaic (glimmer of dope)

Haptic Synapses vs. The Antacid Crew (nexus)

Mr. Projectile (semi-sexual)

Digital Honey (raindance)

Lotus Drops (street ritual)

Buckner (vibe is alive)

Mad genius Erin Banwell’s Amazing PYROSPHERE – scale model and demonstration

Cream-Pie Catapault

Visuals by Dax & Dustin

2 rooms of sound
all-star DJ lineup
pyrosphere demonstration
port-a-potty raffle

more Nexus than you can shake a stick at !!

Enter the raffle to win your very own porta potty for Burning Man – this is no joke!!

Raffle details here: http://nexusorg.org/2010/blog/win-your-own-private-porta-potty-bm/

The venue will be transformed into a Nexus approved environment.

Mighty
119 Utah @ 15th Street

$15

$7 before 10:30pm w/ “attending” RSVP on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125384734168040

Come in your playa best and bring the heat!

NEXUS LOVES YOU

PyroSphere Progress Report: The Remote

erin banwell — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:16:19 +0000

While we have been busy building the physical structure for the PyroSphere, Steve Cronberg, our head programmer, has been hard at work in Portland prototyping the custom remote control that will control the PyroSphere’s fiery patterns.The remote is able to control which pattern is running, how long each frame of the pattern is, how long the time between each frame is, and how long each frame stays on after it has been triggered. Eventually, all these wires and circuit boards will be packed away into a tidy metal case with fancy knobs and buttons.

The remote uses a RF(radio frequency) transmitter and reciever to communicate with a dedicated Arduino microcontroller, which sends the data to a Mega Arduino that controls the flame valves.

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

Fill out the mailing address section

Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black,

Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue.

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less, maybe more)

Pyrosphere Progress Report 5/3/10

erin banwell — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:27:41 +0000

This weekend we put together the sphere. Nathan, Julie, Robert, Chris, Mike, Megan, Nate, Vaughn, and Erin B got together under the hot sun in a big grassy field and assembled the 23′ geodesic sphere.

We started at the top.

Which happened to be on

the ground.

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

The new Nexus hoodie design

Fill out the mailing address section

Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black,

Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue.

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less, maybe more)

PyroSphere Progress Report: Test Run

erin banwell — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:56:17 +0000

After much delay, we were finally able to test run the first set of 9 valves with propane . Just some simple patterns. This is less than 1/10th of the valves that will be on the PyroSphere!

Click on the images below for PyroSphere info and updates

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

The new Nexus hoodie design

Fill out the mailing address section

Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black,

Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue.

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less, maybe more)

2010 Nexus Burning Man Camp 3D Rendering!

ChrisP — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:46:35 +0000

3d animation below

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nexus Pyrosphere flame effect diagrams 1 through 3

erin banwell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:40:41 +0000

PyroSphere Progress Report: 3/3/10 Programming and Plumbing

erin banwell — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:17:19 +0000

The PyroSphere crew has been hard at work for the last few days. Steve Cronberg, the head programmer has been making major changes and adding major functionality to the code, while Erin Banwell, Vaughn Parsons, David Ampersand, and Nathan Crane have been plumbing up 9 valves onto a section of the finished sphere.

Plumbing:

The sphere is able to be divided into 10 identical diamond shapes, each of which contains 9 flame valves. Each of these “diamonds” will have its own propane tank, plumbing, and electrical; and all of the diamonds will be plumbed and wired identically. So our first task is to design and build one diamond. Once that one is complete, we’ll build 9 more just like it.

Programming:

Steve has completely rewritten the code so we can change patterns, speed up or slow down any pattern and more!

Here’s a short video:

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

The new Nexus hoodie design

Fill out the mailing address section

Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black,

Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue.

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less, maybe more)

Nexus Pyrosphere Hoodies

Nexus — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:57:39 +0000

Are you dying to get your grubby little mits on one of these premium, straight off the press, made to order Nexus hoodies, and contribute to the PyroSphere simultaneously? Last year we successfully raised enough dough to offset nearly half of the propane bill! Lets do it again! This year’s hoodie design will incorporate the PyroSphere silhouette with the Nexus logo.

So… If you like massive, mind-blowing fire art front and center at Nexus, and don’t mind looking cool at the same time,
buy a freakin’ hoodie!

So here’s how it works:

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)
Fill out the mailing address section
Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black, Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less)

PyroSphere Progress Report: Sphere Construction

erin banwell — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:43:45 +0000

Today was a productive day for the Nexus crew. It all started with big poles.Many, many big poles. 1300 linear feet of 1.5" steel conduit were manhandled mercilessly.

A few hours later, 280 of these bad boys were cut to size.

Then we had lunch.

After lunch, we threw the poles into trucks and brought 'em on down to 'Ye Olde Nexus Metal Shoppe.

It took some custom jigs to assure consistent craftsmanship on each and every pole. Chris made the jig for the holes, and Aaron modified a jig for the press.

Robert fine tunes the press jig

Here’s a video of the press in action.

Now we just need to do that 559 more times…….

……to be continued.

Click on the images below for PyroSphere info and updates

Nexus Pyrosphere

erin banwell — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:23:37 +0000

Coming to a Burning Man 2010 near you…

The Nexus PyroSphere

The PyroSphere is a 22 ft diameter geodesic sphere, elevated on five 15 ft legs for a total hieght of 37 ft. The sphere itself has 92 flame effect valves, each located at one of the sphere’s 92 vertices. Each flame effect valve is an 1/8 inch solenoid (electronic) valve, which emits a small, 3 to 4 ft fire ball. Each of the 92 valves is controlled individually by a microcontroller, creating a “persistence of vision” illusion similiar to the Burninator installation of 2009, only spread out over the surface of a sphere, creating 3 dimensional fire animations. Directly below the sphere, sits a 6 ft diameter clear bowl full of water. LEDs light up the water from below, as it bubbles fire, creating a camp fire style gathering area.
In it’s essence, the PyroSphere is a gathering place. A place of warmth, and conversation. The PyroSphere’s dramatic silhouette combined with hundreds of elaborate, rapid fire patterns, will be visible from far across the playa.
Interactivity:
The PyroSphere’s patterns will be designed by the masses! Mark Pauley aka: Pauley Unsaturated , who works for Apple, programming Safari among other things, is finishing up the “PyroSphere Editor”: a simple program hosted on the web that allows the user to make patterns for the PyroSphere. The user selects which flame effect valves fire off, and in what order, etc with a simple, visual, point-and-click interface. When the user is finished with their pattern, the Editor outputs a 3d animation which is viewable by anyone visiting the site. People view the pattern animations, and rate them from 1 to 10. The most popular patterns will be assigned a pattern number and used on the playa, and the creators of these patterns will be emailed the number of their pattern so they can request it from the PyroSphere Operator at any time during operation on the playa. The PyroSphere editor will be widely publicized well before the event, to allow as many people as possible an opportunity to contribute.

Click on the images below for PyroSphere Updates

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 to get a hoodie.

Fill out the mailing address section.

Choose your color, and size. Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black,

Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue.

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less, maybe more)

: The new Nexus hoodie design

The Pyrosphere Crew:

Erin Banwell: Artist/creator, design, management, R&D, flame effect expert, electronics, junior programmer, foreman, etc.

Steve Cronburg: Lead programmer, R&D, electronics, design

Nathan Crane: Flame effect expert, Fuel plumbing, design

Robert Cordtz: Sphere construction manager, visionary

Vaughn Parsons: Expert brainstormer, resident wise guy, any job that entails bloody knuckles….

Mark Pauley: iPhone App programmer

Josh Silverstein: Organizer, motivator, crew management

Chris Nowak: Base design and construction

Chris Pomodoro: Architectural design

Donate to Help Our Crew Build the Pyrosphere 2010!

Every little bit helps…