Friends & Fireworks

This past Canada Day, I spent some time in the middle of nowhere with some friends.

Back in December, while on our way to a meeting in Toronto, Ethan and I had a long conversation about the feasibility of programatically launching fireworks with some inexpensive microcontrollers.

Having missed the opportunity to try out that idea on New Year’s Eve, Canada Day ended up being the next best option. So, I found myself in a kitchen surrounded by wires, observing what I can only assume will be the first of many firework controller iterations to come.

While we awaited sunset, many of us (who had not seen each other in a while) had a great time catching up.

As most of the group went on their forest walk, a few of us stayed back to set things up for the night.

Of course, I must show off Ethan’s “it’s totally fine bro” design of a breakout board:

A few minutes before launch, things were getting wired up, and I was getting my cameras in place.

..and just like that, it was time to launch some fireworks.

The 360 camera on the ground also captured some interesting footage:

After the ~15 minute show, we cleaned up the "launch site"

..and I also managed to snag this photo of the moon on the way back inside: