The short version: everyone was right. Induction caused massive AC on the sensor data wire.

I added a makeshift low-pass power filter with a resistor and capacitor I had handy in my tool bin, and it solved the sensor issue.

Turns out, 25 meters of narrow gauge wire is a terrific antenna.

I need to do a proper measurement of the AC frequency on the power rail and design an RC filter to match it for the production design, but this is good enough for now.

I went to Firefly 2018 as DevilBunny, the Mad Which of Firefly.

And now I'm home, exhausted and sick after the hardest Firefly I've ever had in five years.

Show above: The Which's Familiar, Samhain, on the bin containing Witch Lights 2.

I have stories, pictures, and video, which I plan to release as video podcasts on this feed, featuring video of the Witch Lights test setup in my back hard at home, and my voice as I tune the animation, and tell stories of this and past Fireflies.

If there's any interest, I'll have friends on to tell their own stories.

But until then, I'm recuperating. Suffice it to say: despite major difficulties, the Witch Lights were in place and running in "Burn Night" celebration mode at the hour the bug burned. Which counts as making charrette at the last possible moment.

And that's only one thing among a week of an intensity I haven't known in... possibly ever? Certainly never without some form of accompanying trauma.

Anyway. I'll be back. But resting has to happen.