The Kluster
To quote a friend, 'This is way too much effort for Christmas Lights'
The Kluster
The Kluster is our state-of-the-art development and testing system where we design, prototype, and validate all Baldrick products before they reach our customers. But it didn't start that way - it began with a customer's problem and some old plywood.
How The Kluster Came About
The story of The Kluster begins with one of our customers who was having issues with 15 Baldrick8 boards on a large mega tree. When Dom heard about the problem, he knew he needed a way to replicate and test the setup to understand what was going wrong.
So Dom took some old plywood he had received, cut up a load of positive and negative cables, found 24 Baldrick boards and added a pixel to each. This simple setup became the foundation of what we now call The Kluster.
The early days - Baldrick boards mounted on plywood with basic power distribution
Evolution: From Simple Testing to Smart Monitoring
After fixing some pixel issues, we then expanded The Kluster to have a monitoring system called Edmund which monitors all development data from the boards and allows us to test new features for issues.
Being a remote team, we wanted the ability to press buttons and turn off boards without someone physically present, so The Kluster and Edmund were expanded to manage relays and have an API for end-to-end testing.
Today, Edmund and The Kluster now do pixel color monitoring, allowing us to track and analyze the performance of individual pixels across all our test boards in real-time.
The current Kluster setup with multiple KLUSTER boards and monitoring systems
The Kluster Today
The Kluster now has instances of every board and revision in the Baldrick family (and a few not yet released) and is still under continuous development. We've recently upgraded Dom's old plywood for some good-looking laser cut mounts and we've got some custom PCBs on the way to help us monitor a bit more.
A single KLUSTER board showing the detailed components and monitoring capabilities
Continuous Innovation: The Kluster is constantly evolving, from simple plywood mounts to sophisticated monitoring systems.
Edmund: Our Smart Monitoring System
Edmund is the brain behind The Kluster - our custom monitoring system that tracks everything from power consumption to pixel performance. It allows our remote team to:
Remote Control
- • Power boards on/off remotely
- • Monitor real-time performance
- • Test new firmware features
- • Debug issues from anywhere
Data Collection
- • Track power consumption
- • Monitor temperature and performance
- • Log error conditions
- • Generate test reports
What We Test
The Kluster houses every Baldrick board variant, allowing us to test new features across our entire product line before release. This ensures that when you buy a Baldrick product, it's been thoroughly tested in real-world conditions.
Hardware Testing
Every board revision is tested for power efficiency, thermal performance, and reliability under various load conditions.
Firmware Validation
New firmware features are tested across all board variants to ensure compatibility and performance.
Real-World Simulation
We simulate actual customer setups to catch issues before they reach our customers.
Long-term Reliability
Boards run continuously to ensure they can handle the demands of seasonal lighting displays.
The Future of The Kluster
We're constantly improving The Kluster. Our latest upgrades include laser-cut mounting systems and custom PCBs designed specifically for monitoring and testing. These improvements help us test more thoroughly and catch issues faster.
Always Evolving: From plywood to laser-cut mounts, The Kluster continues to grow and improve with every iteration.
The Kluster Legacy
What started as a simple solution to a customer's problem has grown into our most valuable development tool. The Kluster represents our commitment to quality and our willingness to solve problems with whatever materials we have at hand.
Every Baldrick product you use has been tested in The Kluster, ensuring it meets our high standards for reliability and performance.