Disco Dance Floor

In late 2011, Jen and her friend Kyla decided they wanted to build a light up dance floor for Burning Man 2012. Kyla had Jen email a small group to kick off the project. Garth was the first to respond to Jen, who she had never met. He said it would be tough and wasn’t sure he could help. In 2012, Jen and Garth meet for the first time, start dating, yet no dance floor is made for Burning Man. Fast forward to their wedding planning when Jen suggests they build the disco dance floor, marking their very first interaction. Garth was reluctant, knowing the effort involved, but finally caved. With the help of many friends, the result was truly magical when they stepped on it for their “first dance.” The rest is history.

Additional details: Github

The disco dance floor is a a pressure sensitive, light up dance floor. There are 64 (8 x 8) tiles that are independently controllable via a web app hosted on the Raspberry Pi that runs the main floor code. A custom Raspberry Pi shield handles serial communications to each square’s ATTiny device. The ATTiny controls the light strips for its square, as well as reading the velostat weight sensitive strips to determine if there is someone stepping on it. MIDI control devices can also be connected remotely to the floor to add additional ways to control the operation of the floor.