On the morning of January 1, 2019, the La Cañada Flintridge Rose Parade float’s new animation system successfully made its debut, animating the float Tree Frog Night.

Testing, calibrating, and programming of the animation system requires some support hardware. The system uses several communications busses, as well as several hardware enable and status lines which all need to be accessed for programming.

The new La Cañada Flintridge rose parade float’s animation system has a controller unlike anything used in the parade. The custom controller has a 12 inch waterproof touchscreen that sports a custom control GUI and convenient system configuration capabilities.

The new La Cañada Flintridge rose parade float’s animation system is built in several modular pieces. Four identical units will be valve bank modules, which are responsible for controlling a bank of four hydraulic animation channels.

Our float is equipped with a custom-built intercom and radio system to allow the float’s crew to communicate both within the float, and with external crew. Since the intercom box is mounted in the middle of the float where it’s not easily accessible, we needed some way to be able to remotely control the radio.

As of 2018, the La Cañada Flintridge rose parade float’s animation system is nearly 20 years old. As the system continues to age, components that are no longer manufactured are slowly beginning to fail. Starting in 2017, I began work on a replacement.