Scale Model Grand Haven Musical Fountain
Thank you for a successful show season. All shows are completed. Return here in the future for new announcements.
PAST SHOWS:
Dancing Waters - 50 Years of the Grand Haven Musical Fountain
Tri-Cities Historical Museum - Akeley Building
200 Washington Ave
Grand Haven MI 49417
March 27, 2014 through October 2014
-- Opening Ceremony Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_CnwOHbcZg
Article:
-- Michigan Live: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/grand_haven_musical_fountains.html
-- Photos:
pageradio.com/fountain
-- Lecture: The Story Behind Building the Scale Model Musical Fountain, April 28, 2014, 7-8 pm, Grand Haven Library
Award: "Best of Show" Ribbon
Maker Faire Lou
800 Block of East Market Street
Louisville, KY 40206
September 28, 2013, Noon - 6pm
Information: http://makerfairelou.org/
Maker Faire Fort Wayne
Headwaters Park East – Lincoln Pavilion
33 South Clinton Street
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Saturday & Sunday, September 14 & 15, 2013, 10 am - 6 pm
http://makerfairefortwayne.com/attend
Award: "Best of Show"
Propellerpowered Expo 2013
The Greene Center
875 Kidon Rd. Orrville, Ohio
Saturday, August 17, 2013
http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=483.0
Award: "Maker of Merit" Blue Ribbon
Maker Faire Detroit
The Henry Ford
20900 Oakwood Blvd.
Dearborn, Michigan
Saturday & Sunday, July 27 & 28, 2013
makerfairedetroit.com
The scale model uses the following Parallax products:
#SSI-IC Propeller Spin Stamp [Discontinued]
#32200 PropClip
#28850 Board of Education Development Board
#30085 Easy Bluetooth [Discontinued]
#28023 Parallax Servo Controllers (quantity 2) [Discontinued]
#900-00005 Parallax Standard Servos (quantity 21)
#27977 Serial LCD Display
Yours Truly,
Dennis B. Page
PAST SHOWS:
Dancing Waters - 50 Years of the Grand Haven Musical Fountain
Tri-Cities Historical Museum - Akeley Building
200 Washington Ave
Grand Haven MI 49417
March 27, 2014 through October 2014
-- Opening Ceremony Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_CnwOHbcZg
Article:
-- Michigan Live: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/grand_haven_musical_fountains.html
-- Photos:
pageradio.com/fountain
-- Lecture: The Story Behind Building the Scale Model Musical Fountain, April 28, 2014, 7-8 pm, Grand Haven Library
Award: "Best of Show" Ribbon
Maker Faire Lou
800 Block of East Market Street
Louisville, KY 40206
September 28, 2013, Noon - 6pm
Information: http://makerfairelou.org/
Maker Faire Fort Wayne
Headwaters Park East – Lincoln Pavilion
33 South Clinton Street
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Saturday & Sunday, September 14 & 15, 2013, 10 am - 6 pm
http://makerfairefortwayne.com/attend
Award: "Best of Show"
Propellerpowered Expo 2013
The Greene Center
875 Kidon Rd. Orrville, Ohio
Saturday, August 17, 2013
http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=483.0
Award: "Maker of Merit" Blue Ribbon
Maker Faire Detroit
The Henry Ford
20900 Oakwood Blvd.
Dearborn, Michigan
Saturday & Sunday, July 27 & 28, 2013
makerfairedetroit.com
The scale model uses the following Parallax products:
#SSI-IC Propeller Spin Stamp [Discontinued]
#32200 PropClip
#28850 Board of Education Development Board
#30085 Easy Bluetooth [Discontinued]
#28023 Parallax Servo Controllers (quantity 2) [Discontinued]
#900-00005 Parallax Standard Servos (quantity 21)
#27977 Serial LCD Display
Yours Truly,
Dennis B. Page
Comments
-Phil
Seeing the real thing might even make a trip to Grand Haven worthwhile outside of Tulip season!
I might also mention that the following early versions of contributions from the object exchange made the project much easier to complete:
Extended_FDSerial
Full Duplex Serial
Full Duplex Debug
Servo32v3
BS2_Functions
Simple_Numbers
Nibble
... and learning from the following contributions:
Eight Talking Cogs
Addressable_RGB_LED_Strip_Demo_Sparkfun_COM-10312
Serial LCD
... and many forum posts.
You have created a tremendous resource for makers!
A write-up can be found at the parallax link in the first post.
See you at the shows!
- Dennis
It looks like you did an amazing job on your project. I am also in the Detroit area and plan on bringing some robots to the Maker Faire at the Henry Ford and to the Expo in OH. Perhaps I will see you there and get to see your project in person.
Robert
I hope to see you at one of the shows! If you see my project and the attached poster, please stop by and say, "Hi!"
Dennis
Exhibit photos: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-oGuMqi3LBeUXFnMlQ2dU10MjA&usp=sharing
Meet the maker: http://www.makerfairedetroit.com/2013/07/18/meet-the-maker-dennis-page/#more-2236
Tiny video: http://vine.co/v/hArFg0dWXMb
Your half way to a mini Coast Guard Festival
The response to the musical fountain exhibit was amazing, receiving "Best of Show." There were plenty of exhibits that could have won the award and I am pleased that the fountain edged out the competition this year. Next year, watch out! There were some amazing "in-progress" projects that, when finished, promises to dominate the Propellerpowered Expo next year. (More about Propellerpowered Expo 2013 at http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=483.msg2902#msg2902).
Award presentation photo:
Controlling all those servos and lighting is a great way to show off the propeller.
Chris Wardell
Seeing this amazing project in person was awesome! Your workmanship, attention to detail, engineering and problem solving skills were inspiring.
If anyone who hasn't seen it gets a chance, it's well worth a trip out of your way to see it and meet Dennis! It is an impressive feat of model making, engineering and programming! What a great showcase for the Propeller as an embedded complex process controller.
I am from Michigan and have seen the real fountains in person and would love to see the model in person too.
When I was a co-op at Rapistan (in Grand Rapids) I met an engineer working there that told me about when he was in high school how he and a buddy did some maintaining on the original fountain. It was stories like these and my own experience at Disney that propelled me to be an entertainment engineer.
Way to go recreating a classic in small scale!!
The number one comparison of the model was to the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas, Nevada. While there are similarities, the Bellagio uses modern technology, such as, laminar flow nozzles that make the water appear solid and air-assist canons that send water to great heights. The prototype fountain in Grand Haven, Michigan, uses 1962 technology with a single source of water pressure, individual valves and standard turbulent water flow.
The number one question is if the model responds to the music. Since the prototype fountain does not respond to music, the model was designed to use the same pre-programmed choreography as the prototype. At one time the public could download software from ghmfsoftware.com and submit their own choreographed creations of their favorite music. The choreography software can still be downloaded, but the software is no longer supported and the "submit" link has been removed. Perhaps public creations will be accepted sometime in the future.
One of the original fountain committee members in Grand Haven shared with me the idea of connecting a midi keyboard so that the public could "play" the fountain. The fountain would also be responsive to pre-recorded music. I may decide to pursue this in the future. The technology to accomplish this is well known. I understand that more energetic music would cause more water to rise higher with brighter colors, but there's still work to do on figuring out just how the fountain should look for various notes, chords and tempos. There are 20 water/motion features and 200 lights to be controlled from the music. The challenge will be to make attractive patterns that translate artfully in response to the music. I'm still thinking about it.
Thank you all for your kind comments. I was thrilled to be able to meet some of you. I also enjoyed seeing your creations as well.
I will post again in the future if anything new happens to the scale model Grand Haven Musical Fountain.
For an exhibit described in post #1, I just finished setting up the model in the Tri-Cities Historical Museum. After 50 years, this is the first time the Tri-Cities Historical Museum has an exhibit of the Grand Haven Musical Fountain. The Grand Haven Musical Fountain was completely renovated this year with new plumbing and LED lighting. Artifacts of old equipment and stories from founders will be exhibited. The model will be a centerpiece to show what the fountain looks like.
The exhibit opens on March 27, 2014 and will run into September. See the attachment for what I call the "unveiling" to museum staff.
Attend the events and the exhibit. It'll be fun!
See you there.
Doubt they would use it though!