Years ago, I had an idea. After a lovely dinner at the Lotus Garden, I would gather up the paper umbrellas from the cocktails and hide them around May's house.

In 2016, Mavis got revenge by planting dozens of paper umbrellas around the house before we arrived ...

... in the tissue boxes ...

... even in the soap.

We tried to surprise her with a real paper parasol, but somebody (Bill) was not a very good lookout and we got caught.

In 2018, I surprised her by making a paper umbrella wreath for Christmas.

New idea for 2019. The basis for this project is a simple 8x8 LED matrix used as an audio visualizer.

This is the Piccolo Music Visualizer by Adafruit, a project I referenced often. (link above)

This was the goal, to build an 8x8 umbrella grid and have it respond to music.

I looked at a lot of mechanisms, like this cam-scotch yoke.

... and this crank & piston from YouTube.

My first attempt used a stepper motor and Legos. You can see the whole rig torque as the arm goes around.

Another stepper motor attempt. This one moves a bit better.

A complete redesign, this one is capable of lifting a row of umbrellas.

Then I found this on YouTube. A kid built a cardboard horse run with a simple cam and crank mechanism.

My brother Jim and I sanded down some wooden disks to form the cams that spun on a dowel.

The cams push cardboard flaps to move a stick up and down.

Testing went well, so it was time to build the real version.

This is the under-side. Plumbing parts I got at Ace Hardware are glued onto the ends of the dowels to connect the servo motors.

Umbrellas UP! A Raspberry Pi computer controls 8 servo motors that spin the cams to lift the umbrellas.

Flexing was a big problem. I had to tie the cam rods to the flap rods to keep them from separating when pressure was added.

Here is the final version of the project.

About a month later, I discovered this YouTube video. An art installation very similar to my idea.