Ok I have a few people asking me why nothing is happening.
Well there is a lot happening it just is not as obvious. Those that have been around DLA
very long know that when I am saying the least is when the most is going on.
Normally because if I am busy creating I have little time to chit chat and hang out.
Currently I have been spending many long hours each night putting the finishing touches on the Conductor firmware for this year. Many improvements, lots of bug fixes and few helpful things coming.
I also have been putting the finishing touches on all the Zeus stuff getting it ready for release. You will finally see why I have always said, for cost and flexibility, it will be hard to beat the Smart String setup. Along with the Zeus comes some updates to the SS utility software.
With the availability of the WS2811 strings to use on the smart string stuff you have a lot of choices when it comes to lights to use and the cost of the strings have fallen dramatically.
The SSC v4 coop has went nuts and the quantity has sky rocketed. This is good as this should make the cost of the SSC cheaper than anything you will find to run single strings on. We spent some fun time working out the bugs in the new V4 firmware to get it just right for everyone. I will be using some of this to update the SSC v3 firmware for those that are using the V3 stuff. This will fix a few bugs that were related between the two using the more advanced mixes of features.
With the SSC being cheap, the Zeus stuff being less than half of the other multi string controllers, the ws2811 strings being cheap and the incredible price we have been picking up the ATX power supplies for (Watt / Dollar). it is looking like the cost of RGB is really dropping.
At the same time I am working to get the schedule for the Academy done. We have some cool classes for this year. We are also making some of them longer as many people pointed out they just did not have the time needed in some of them. I know it is almost impossible to get all the info out sometimes in one class. So we are fixing that. For example this year we will have time in the advanced soldering class to really go over surface mount work and desoldering stuff.
Also this year the Soldering lab will be open from after lunch until late (5pm, 6pm, 7pm ??) so everyone can have time to get their stuff worked on, looked at, or just get tips on soldering. Since the classes will not be running we will have more help in there to assist also.
RJ
