Mother Goose - beginnings - electrical and building

The Mother Goose project required a lot of planning that I didn't put in place up front.  I like doing things as I go.  I did try to plan ahead and not just glue everything I had made so far in place.  I tried to think of what I still had to do that would be affected if I glued this down now.  

Beginnings of this project specifically

• Mother Goose = book - check, decided it would be smaller
• Multiple rhymes = many rooms or sections - check - I make these as I go
• Lighting? yes
• Which rhymes - well I made a list of ones I was familiar with, then browsed the internet for more ideas and also I saw what others were sharing
• Cover? yes, yes, yes - with the plan of the rooms/sections I figured the football case I had heard about would be good.

beginning

back of cover, planned hill and the pumpkin, oh also planning where the switch goes

Electrical layout

When planning electrical, need to know what type of lighting will be used; what will be the energy source; if battery, where will it go plus how to access it later to change it; where will lights be; and will there be a switch and where will it go.  So I am using 3v chip LED, 3v battery and holder, with a push button switch and I will use the round inset of the case for the battery.  Oh and I want the switch accessible with the cover on.  This is a lesson learned from previous projects.  Where the lights will be - yet to determine them all.

Another factor to consider is the number of lights relative to the power source.  I figured I could put all I needed onto one battery but if I had to have to switches and batteries - that was doable no issue.

When I built the shoe-house I did choose to light it.  I knew I could add lead wires to reach.  Which is what I had to do.  I also lit the pumpkin inside.  Although I learned that if I leave the lights on then the battery drain is enough to not light the inside of it very well.  So there is a lesson - turn off the switch.  

I debated lighting the book sections.  The bottom row might could have used it but why do one row and not the other.

I concluded the bottom level all needed lights and best lighting position was to the outside.  I did some tests with the lights once the sections were assembled to see if two was needed for each section.  I was fine with one for each section (plus the extra inside the pumpkin).

All my lighting products came from a company called Evans Designs.  I did have to order some lights as I didn't have enough of the chip lights on hand.   

At one point I assembled the wiring - which includes both levels.  It would have been nice to have had a connector so I could take that back apart.  This was because I hadn't landscaped the upper level yet.  So when I did, I put paper over the entire bottom section to try to avoid the foam going inside the bottom sections.  So that is a lesson learned as well.  And yes, Evans sells connectors.

Building

One of the lessons I learned for this type of combined project that will come in handy with another planned project is the rooms.  I came up with the walls but didn't actually make the rooms until I needed to assemble it.  That made it harder to get things to line up and did require that I trim up some pieces.  However this is the nature of doing your own thing.  Short of making several mock ups and figuring out every step before assembling, the way a kit maker has to do, I just do it this way.  I am not going to have everything all made and everything ready to put together so I know the dimensions of everything in order to do all that pre-planning. 

I guess that is indeed why I dive in and just get started on my ideas.  I do some planning.  Sometimes I do more planning than before, other times less planning.  I do vary my attitude about how much planning.  Which can result in my over thinking some aspect.  That ends up then with me realizing I have spent way too much time figuring something out instead of doing something simple that I know will work just as well.

I did have a layout of what rhyme goes where.  Actually several of these from a quick sketch to then the finally layout where I determined the extra walls I had to add and how big each room was going to be.  

One thing I didn't plan for initially with the pink foam levels was the wood edging I added to finish these off.  But that worked out as I had to line up the rooms and they didn't end up too big.  I did have to trim the pink foam to match up to the rooms once they were all combined.  I had built onto a layer of matt board I would have had that too big and had to trim to fit my cover.