Suppose I'd like to help build up the tradition beyond the Cache Valley. Maybe I could have some kind of replica block A in my front yard that could be lit up somehow (blue LEDs?). Nothing big enough to be seen across the Salt Lake valley or shine into my neighbors' houses, but big enough to be noticed amongst the U and Y flags in the neighborhood, especially after a win. Or something similar for the office... perhaps one of those etched crystals that rotates on a blue-lit base.

As far as I know, no one has produced any knickknacks like these to propagate the #LightTheABlue. I don't know what kind of trademarks are involved or what obstacles there might be. Any other ideas or thoughts on how to make something like this happen?

I want to do a replica when I build a house. Leds are cheap (I did a blue pole for my aggie flag on my truck)

Oh I so want one for my house now

the all seeing A

It would make a pretty sweet mailbox


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A Christmas village Old Main would be cool, and I bet they could sell a hundred or more a year forever.

I have a really tall chimney I want to put one on now. Lit up white that switches to blue after a win. Now I have to have it

I've been wanting to do it for years. Time to create it has been limited.

ProvoAggie has already done this. Amateurs...

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Mine was technically a U State logo and it was only white because the blue wasn't visible from very far and also it was destroyed in a wind storm.

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I had a 4 foot ustate light up logo complete with Santa hat that we used to put up. I'm looking for something more permanently affixed and directly wired to a switch in the house.

If/when I have the means, I would build a replica of the "True Aggie" block A as a bench in my front yard with Blue LEDs to light it up. It would be a fairly easy project and would look awesome.

Dwigt wrote:If/when I have the means, I would build a replica of the "True Aggie" block A as a bench in my front yard with Blue LEDs to light it up. It would be a fairly easy project and would look awesome.

This is pretty much what I was proposing, but I'm struggling with the fairly easy project part. I don't really know where to start. How would you do it?

Does anyone know, or know someone who might know, how the lighting of the A is controlled? Didn't they start letting the teams switch it remotely somehow? Or is that just for show? I had this crazy idea that would be seriously awesome, but I don't know how to do it. I know that there are Aggies out there who would.

Everyone has their own A. Self-built, mass-produced, whatever. It lights up using those LED strips. The LED strips are connected to a wi-fi controller. These exist, and some aren't terribly expensive. Now, rather than having to use an app or whatever to manually turn on/off/change colors of your LEDs, the controller uses a web service of some kind to know which status is appropriate at the time. Somehow this web service is linked to whatever is controlling Old Main. Or, the athletics department creates something else to the side to make this possible. I'm not sure if there are controllers out there that can be programmed to query the web every X minutes, or what. I realize I'm in over my head here. Need expert guidance.

Long story short, we all have our own As all over the place, and they are all synchronized with Old Main via the interweb. Whenever the Aggies win, everyone's lights turn blue even if you were clueless about the big tennis win over Air Force. Utah State becomes famous for being the first/only school to do this. The world is more awesome.

Who out there has the technical knowledge to be able to weigh in on this idea?

toroazzurro wrote:

Dwigt wrote:If/when I have the means, I would build a replica of the "True Aggie" block A as a bench in my front yard with Blue LEDs to light it up. It would be a fairly easy project and would look awesome.

This is pretty much what I was proposing, but I'm struggling with the fairly easy project part. I don't really know where to start. How would you do it?

If I were going to do it, I would make a mold so that I could use the same mold to cast all of them and for friends (or fellow USUFans) to borrow and make their own. This involves either making one of them from wood or otherwise to begin with, however.

See http://www.smooth-on.com/Concrete-Casti ... index.html for lots of How To videos, which includes the following.
[youtube][/youtube]

toroazzurro wrote:Does anyone know, or know someone who might know, how the lighting of the A is controlled? Didn't they start letting the teams switch it remotely somehow? Or is that just for show? I had this crazy idea that would be seriously awesome, but I don't know how to do it. I know that there are Aggies out there who would.

Everyone has their own A. Self-built, mass-produced, whatever. It lights up using those LED strips. The LED strips are connected to a wi-fi controller. These exist, and some aren't terribly expensive. Now, rather than having to use an app or whatever to manually turn on/off/change colors of your LEDs, the controller uses a web service of some kind to know which status is appropriate at the time. Somehow this web service is linked to whatever is controlling Old Main. Or, the athletics department creates something else to the side to make this possible. I'm not sure if there are controllers out there that can be programmed to query the web every X minutes, or what. I realize I'm in over my head here. Need expert guidance.

Long story short, we all have our own As all over the place, and they are all synchronized with Old Main via the interweb. Whenever the Aggies win, everyone's lights turn blue even if you were clueless about the big tennis win over Air Force. Utah State becomes famous for being the first/only school to do this. The world is more awesome.

Who out there has the technical knowledge to be able to weigh in on this idea?

People in the Athletics department turn the A blue with a laptop. I'm not sure if the old main tower is connected or just show.


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toroazzurro wrote:Does anyone know, or know someone who might know, how the lighting of the A is controlled? Didn't they start letting the teams switch it remotely somehow? Or is that just for show? I had this crazy idea that would be seriously awesome, but I don't know how to do it. I know that there are Aggies out there who would.

Everyone has their own A. Self-built, mass-produced, whatever. It lights up using those LED strips. The LED strips are connected to a wi-fi controller. These exist, and some aren't terribly expensive. Now, rather than having to use an app or whatever to manually turn on/off/change colors of your LEDs, the controller uses a web service of some kind to know which status is appropriate at the time. Somehow this web service is linked to whatever is controlling Old Main. Or, the athletics department creates something else to the side to make this possible. I'm not sure if there are controllers out there that can be programmed to query the web every X minutes, or what. I realize I'm in over my head here. Need expert guidance.

Long story short, we all have our own As all over the place, and they are all synchronized with Old Main via the interweb. Whenever the Aggies win, everyone's lights turn blue even if you were clueless about the big tennis win over Air Force. Utah State becomes famous for being the first/only school to do this. The world is more awesome.

Who out there has the technical knowledge to be able to weigh in on this idea?

That would be a very cool thing. Is there an Aggie shark tank?


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toroazzurro wrote:Does anyone know, or know someone who might know, how the lighting of the A is controlled? Didn't they start letting the teams switch it remotely somehow? Or is that just for show? I had this crazy idea that would be seriously awesome, but I don't know how to do it. I know that there are Aggies out there who would.

Everyone has their own A. Self-built, mass-produced, whatever. It lights up using those LED strips. The LED strips are connected to a wi-fi controller. These exist, and some aren't terribly expensive. Now, rather than having to use an app or whatever to manually turn on/off/change colors of your LEDs, the controller uses a web service of some kind to know which status is appropriate at the time. Somehow this web service is linked to whatever is controlling Old Main. Or, the athletics department creates something else to the side to make this possible. I'm not sure if there are controllers out there that can be programmed to query the web every X minutes, or what. I realize I'm in over my head here. Need expert guidance.

Long story short, we all have our own As all over the place, and they are all synchronized with Old Main via the interweb. Whenever the Aggies win, everyone's lights turn blue even if you were clueless about the big tennis win over Air Force. Utah State becomes famous for being the first/only school to do this. The world is more awesome.

Who out there has the technical knowledge to be able to weigh in on this idea?

Great idea! I feel like there should at least be a simple app that was a picture of old main and the A turned blue whenever a team won. That way even the people who aren't hard core enough to build a concrete A in their yard could be included.

I wonder if there would be a market (both for Aggies and for other schools) to make a simple little desktop version of their logo or letters with a 3D printer and then connecting an LED or 4 up to it to light it and have it connected over WIFI (see This $8 board (down to $2.50 if you are willing to wait for it to be shipped from China) can run a simple webserver and other networking code, so it could easily poll some server to determine when the lights should be on/off (https://github.com/iot-playground/Ardui ... Server.ino). You could get a 10 pack of multicolor LEDs with the driver chip included (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1655?g ... fgodb6UGiw) for $4.50. The 3D printed materials would be less than $5 (excluding printer costs).

So, for somewhere around $15 materials plus whatever markup would be, I could make a small 3 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch model of the cement A platform. Not as cool as a huge one in your yard, but definitely pretty cool to put on your desk at work.

jpswensen wrote:I wonder if there would be a market (both for Aggies and for other schools) to make a simple little desktop version of their logo or letters with a 3D printer and then connecting an LED or 4 up to it to light it and have it connected over WIFI (see This $8 board (down to $2.50 if you are willing to wait for it to be shipped from China) can run a simple webserver and other networking code, so it could easily poll some server to determine when the lights should be on/off (https://github.com/iot-playground/Ardui ... Server.ino). You could get a 10 pack of multicolor LEDs with the driver chip included (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1655?g ... fgodb6UGiw) for $4.50. The 3D printed materials would be less than $5 (excluding printer costs).

So, for somewhere around $15 materials plus whatever markup would be, I could make a small 3 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch model of the cement A platform. Not as cool as a huge one in your yard, but definitely pretty cool to put on your desk at work.

Feel free to send me a couple of the betas to test for you. 1 for work office and 1 for home office.


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jpswensen wrote:I wonder if there would be a market (both for Aggies and for other schools) to make a simple little desktop version of their logo or letters with a 3D printer and then connecting an LED or 4 up to it to light it and have it connected over WIFI (see This $8 board (down to $2.50 if you are willing to wait for it to be shipped from China) can run a simple webserver and other networking code, so it could easily poll some server to determine when the lights should be on/off (https://github.com/iot-playground/Ardui ... Server.ino). You could get a 10 pack of multicolor LEDs with the driver chip included (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1655?g ... fgodb6UGiw) for $4.50. The 3D printed materials would be less than $5 (excluding printer costs).

So, for somewhere around $15 materials plus whatever markup would be, I could make a small 3 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch model of the cement A platform. Not as cool as a huge one in your yard, but definitely pretty cool to put on your desk at work.

Yeah!! I want it!! I think once a smooth technical setup was in place it could work for larger displays as well, if desired.

toroazzurro wrote:

Dwigt wrote:If/when I have the means, I would build a replica of the "True Aggie" block A as a bench in my front yard with Blue LEDs to light it up. It would be a fairly easy project and would look awesome.

This is pretty much what I was proposing, but I'm struggling with the fairly easy project part. I don't really know where to start. How would you do it?

The is a house in Southwest Logan that has a mailbox stand like this, except it looks like it is made of metal.

Sold. I will need at least 3 myself.


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jpswensen wrote:I wonder if there would be a market (both for Aggies and for other schools) to make a simple little desktop version of their logo or letters with a 3D printer and then connecting an LED or 4 up to it to light it and have it connected over WIFI (see This $8 board (down to $2.50 if you are willing to wait for it to be shipped from China) can run a simple webserver and other networking code, so it could easily poll some server to determine when the lights should be on/off (https://github.com/iot-playground/Ardui ... Server.ino). You could get a 10 pack of multicolor LEDs with the driver chip included (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1655?g ... fgodb6UGiw) for $4.50. The 3D printed materials would be less than $5 (excluding printer costs).

So, for somewhere around $15 materials plus whatever markup would be, I could make a small 3 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch model of the cement A platform. Not as cool as a huge one in your yard, but definitely pretty cool to put on your desk at work.

This sounds sweet! I would be in for one if it happens.

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aggietime wrote:

jpswensen wrote:I wonder if there would be a market (both for Aggies and for other schools) to make a simple little desktop version of their logo or letters with a 3D printer and then connecting an LED or 4 up to it to light it and have it connected over WIFI (see This $8 board (down to $2.50 if you are willing to wait for it to be shipped from China) can run a simple webserver and other networking code, so it could easily poll some server to determine when the lights should be on/off (https://github.com/iot-playground/Ardui ... Server.ino). You could get a 10 pack of multicolor LEDs with the driver chip included (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1655?g ... fgodb6UGiw) for $4.50. The 3D printed materials would be less than $5 (excluding printer costs).

So, for somewhere around $15 materials plus whatever markup would be, I could make a small 3 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch model of the cement A platform. Not as cool as a huge one in your yard, but definitely pretty cool to put on your desk at work.

This sounds sweet! I would be in for one if it happens.

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Crap. Now I have to build at least one to see how it turns out. Ordering parts from Adafruit now.

15% of the way there. The basic 3D model is done and will kick off the 3D print tomorrow.

I still need some. Just to clarify.


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jpswensen wrote:15% of the way there. The basic 3D model is done and will kick off the 3D print tomorrow.

Can you share the 3D model file? I've got a friend with a 3D printer...

treesap32 wrote:

jpswensen wrote:15% of the way there. The basic 3D model is done and will kick off the 3D print tomorrow.

Can you share the 3D model file? I've got a friend with a 3D printer...

I will definitely share both the Solidworks (modeling software) and STL files (the file format most 3D printers expect). I have attached the initial version, but I am sure I am going to have to iterate a couple of times on the base plate to mount the LEDs and wireless board. I will upload an updated file with a complete bill of materials once I have finished. This version is about 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm (or 3" x 3" x 3" for the crazies).

Also, the 3D printer I can buy time on here at school only ever has the "ivory" colored ABS plastic. If your friend has their own machine, they can probably buy ABS or PLA in a color close to Aggie Blue. I am just going to paint mine for testing. If I ended up getting a good setup and was able to start selling these for USU and other schools I would probably get and Ultimaker 2 printer (about $2500). Although I'm not sure that going through all the licensing hassles would be worth it.

jpswensen wrote:

treesap32 wrote:

jpswensen wrote:15% of the way there. The basic 3D model is done and will kick off the 3D print tomorrow.

Can you share the 3D model file? I've got a friend with a 3D printer...

I will definitely share both the Solidworks (modeling software) and STL files (the file format most 3D printers expect). I have attached the initial version, but I am sure I am going to have to iterate a couple of times on the base plate to mount the LEDs and wireless board. I will upload an updated file with a complete bill of materials once I have finished. This version is about 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm (or 3" x 3" x 3" for the crazies).

Also, the 3D printer I can buy time on here at school only ever has the "ivory" colored ABS plastic. If your friend has their own machine, they can probably buy ABS or PLA in a color close to Aggie Blue. I am just going to paint mine for testing. If I ended up getting a good setup and was able to start selling these for USU and other schools I would probably get and Ultimaker 2 printer (about $2500). Although I'm not sure that going through all the licensing hassles would be worth it.

Awesome. He was saying he may try transparent plastic for the A's and we could see how that looks. We could always paint it after the fact as well.

Would you need licensing permission to build the True Aggie A?

treesap32 wrote: Would you need licensing permission to build the True Aggie A?

I figured you would because the A is loosely based off of Aggie A, which most pictures like the one found on http://www.warblogle.com/2011/08/30/mis ... te-aggies/
have the little TM symbol next to it. I free-handed mine in Solidworks, but assume they could still come after you if it holds a close enough likeness.

WOW. This is awesome. I am too backwards to even "paint" my old main A picture blue with a computer program for a screen saver or an iphone wallpaper. Lots of schools light up something after a win. You may have a future side job.

It looks awesome! If this ends up going big, I'll point back to this thread when I ask you for a small cut for lighting the spark

The specific "True Aggie" would have to be copyrighted, it might be if it's considered art. A $150 with an intellectual property attorney may be necessary. The CLC (athletics) licensing seems pretty simple for the local license, but this would probably be through the University (=slow moving bureaucracy).


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Very rough prototype done. I can't quite space the LEDs right on my protoboard and I think I may need to tone down the brightness. I also think it looks better live than in the picture. For some reason the picture from my iPhone is too saturated and it messes with the other colors.