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element14 presents Forum What to do with 60+ glass bricks?!
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What to do with 60+ glass bricks?!

lorrainbow
lorrainbow over 2 years ago

Hey folks,

I saw these glass bricks on Facebook marketplace and just had to have them!
Facebook post selling 70 retro glass blocks/wall bricks with phot
It turned out the person selling them is a friend whose website I updated lately so she was happy to give them to me for free! There's about 68 of them. They're covered in expanding foam and paint. I've started to clean them up using a scraper and some nail polish remover for the tough bits.
A single cleaned glass brick with a banana on top for sale
But the question is - what to do with them!?! They're 19*19*8cm. They're hollow in the middle so not too heavy. 
I'm going to get 9 cleaned up and stack them in a grid and light up the centre one from different angles. I want to see what's the best way to light them up. And then.... ??
  • A giant wall for Tetris? 
  • An igloo? (Thanks for the idea mayermakes !)
Also, how do I stack them? And where! I don't want them to fall on anyone but I also don't want to permanently stick them together. So a frame of sorts? It feels like an outdoor display to me.. so how do I waterproof the electronics?
Any ideas are welcome! 
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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to lorrainbow

    Not necessarily a problem. ( If you drop one, then you will have an even number... Slight smile )

    7x7 would require 49.

    5x5 would require 25.

    3x3 would require 9.

    Lots of other non-square combinations will result in odd numbers as well.

    I suspect getting additional blocks would be quite easy as well.

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago

    Are there enough glass blocks to make a top cap for your garden wall, which can then be illuminated as part of your interactive projects?

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago

    You could perhaps turn them into scaled up pixel strips. Attach them to plastic lawn edging for the strip and space them out proportionally. 

    Or you could perhaps turn them into modular light blocks by setting each of them into its own wooden frame, which can have connection options both mechanical and electrical.

    Could do Solas type stuff but on a larger scale.

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago

    If you are into extreme plumbing, then you could plumb them together and pump coloured liquids through them. I've seen a couple of designs where with careful selection of liquids then you can alternate colours as they are pumped around the system, then have them separate back out again on the return flow. You can end up with an organic lava lamp sort of effect if done right. (or probably a complete mess if done wrong...)

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to lorrainbow

    MSGEQ7 based audio spectrum analyser

    7 frequency bands so that works out well for rainbows as well...

    7x8 matrix = 56 blocks

    7x9 matrix = 63 blocks

    image

    Odd number might work out better as you can do a centre zero stereo mode with left channel up and right channel down.

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago

    You could use them for edge lighting outdoor paths or steps (which might be in-keeping with your rainbow staircase).

    Similarly, you could use then to edge light garden decking or perhaps a stage, or a slightly raised garden border.

    Could make a cube shaped planter out of them 4x4 on each side.

    Or a round wishing well with an apex roof that has solar panels to charge batteries during the day for powering the lights in the evenings.

    61 of them would stack into a hollow 6x6 pyramid (it worked for the Louvre in Paris).

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago

    If you have 60, then that would allow you to do some sort of an analogue clock with divisions for 60 minutes / 60 seconds.

    Sticking with clocks then you might be able to build a giant 7-seg display timer out of them.

    Sticking with circles, you could use it for angles (6-degree intervals), compass rose, etc.

    Divide them into two semicircles and you could have stereo VU meters, perhaps augmented with a LED pixel strip / EL wire on a servo motor as the twitching needle.

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  • wolfgangfriedrich
    wolfgangfriedrich over 2 years ago

    Light them up individually, as Dave suggested and then have them play Conway's game of life.

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  • dougw
    dougw over 2 years ago

    If you put "one-way" mirror film on both back and front of each block and addressable LEDs on the sides, you could create a really wild reconfigurable building block infinity-mirror sculpture.

    You could make a fairly unobtrusive 3D printed frame for each block that interlocks horizontally to adjacent blocks and hides wiring. Pillars at either end would vertically lock the rows of blocks.

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

    Nice idea.

    Other cellular automata are available too Slight smile

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