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  • Author Author: Fred27
  • Date Created: Date Created
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Time to put up the Christmas lights - with a difference.

Fred27

I've not been as active as I'd have liked on E14 over the last year or so. That's something I hope to change. I've mainly been busy with a new job (with lots to learn), but also the change from Jive to Verint at the same time didn't help. Nothing felt quite in the same place.

Anyway, I feel it's time for something Christmassy. Something silly. Something fun. Something likely to fail, but that doesn't really matter.

I'm really not a fan of putting up Christmas light. We tens to hang then along the roofline of our house. It looks good, but it's high. I always end up standing at the very top of a long ladder, often with the top rung about knee height and my hand against the wall. It feels dangerous. Frankly, it is dangerous. Each year I swear I'm not doing it again. Time to get smart about it.

  • in reply to Fred27

    Sometimes the low-tech ways work best huh?

    Looks good lit up though.

    How long before soffits, fascias, bargeboards and window frames come with LED lighting fitted as standard I wonder.

    Does the drone manual advise on keeping fingers away from moving parts? Head bandage

  • in reply to Fred27

    Perhaps if the drone hook projected forward it would have helped keep the rotors further away from the roof and also give you a better camera view to see what you were doing up top.

    Did well to get onto the hook on the first attempt though.

  • I finally managed to get the lights up without the drone. I leaned out of the bedroom window with the string taped to the end of a very long drain rod, and hooked it over that way. I did the same at the other end of the house too. This is the final result.

    image

    To add injury to insult, when sending the drone up to take that photo I managed to catch my finger in the prop and have 3 nasty slices out of my fingertip!

  • Ok - so maybe some of you are wondering how it went.

    My first attempt was pretty close. I managed to get the string over the hook, but it was doubled over and came off again when I pulled the end I could reach.

    I was encouraged, and so I tried again. Unfortunately, this time a gust of wind blew the drone just slightly forward into the house. The hook caught and it pitched forward a little. Maybe one prop touched the roof, becuase it lost control, got tangled in its own string and fell 2 stories to the ground. Grimacing

    Also, my 8-year-old camera had forgotten to start recoding and I'd forgotten to start the drome filming too, so I have no footage of the event itself. However, here's the aftermath.

    Luckily, the drone still flies fine and the camera and gimbal seem undamaged. All I can see is a crack in the plastic that doesn't seem to affect it too much.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Come to think of it, a couple of hinges at the lower ends of the bargeboards and a winch in the attic connecting to the apex and you could be sorted Slight smile

    Makes painting them less risky as well.