protocoLED

This is the moonflower prototype as it stands (Presently!). This slide show below documents it in action. Have a look and comment with any comments and critique. Thanks!

The slide show below this documents the final prototype and details of the build.

After taking into consideration in class discussions, we revamped our old design model and thought of a new design for the moonflower. This one takes into consideration certain restrictions that the old one did not. For example, the 180 LED's required for the old lamp schematic just could not have been powered by the arduino's with the present technology and knowledge base we have.

Some of the questions posed in class and our answers to them;

What kind of light do you want to use? (What is its purpose and where does it live?)
The moonflower is meant to be both evocative and poetic. It is essentially nocturnal - lifeless during the day, it starts glowing as the light fades and is at its brightest in the dark.

As seen in the render, the moon flower is actually a random number of flowers pointing in seemingly random directions. Each flower uses one pair of white LEDs which when dark, glow softly creating an anbience that is poetic, romantic and soothing - it is a mood light focused on a more aesthetic strata.

What materials do you plan to use? How can the light change expressions?
We planned to use origami flowers made from Gateway or Tracing Paper to diffuse and shape the light generated from each 'flower'. This as shown in the render provides something evocative and aesthetic in our opinion

What are your inspirations?
Well quite obviously one of our inspirations came from the sunflower. They turn towards light, in this case the sun. The moonflower in turn lights up the darkness.

Today we improved on yesterday's code. The program now is better suited to the sensor we have with us and is now much more responsive and is also comparatively less jittery. The sensor didn't have anything written on it so finding a data sheet was difficult. The most similar component on the internet has a weak data sheet that we have displayed below. Eventually we got our values with a multimeter.

This apart, our circuit diagram from yesterday was inaccurate with its representation of the light sensor. We have remade it since then.

Today, we also tried our hand at prototyping the Light Vine Concept. This is in theory simpler but we haven't cracked the mechanics of the lemon battery yet. Our documentation is available in the above slideshow.

Our code today;


#define NUMREADINGS 10

int readings[NUMREADINGS];
int potPin = 0;
int ledPin = 9;
int val = 0;
int index = 0;
int total = 0;
int average = 0;
int ledOut = 0;

void setup() {
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
for (int i = 0; i <>
readings[i] = 0;
}

void loop() {
total -= readings[index];
readings[index] = analogRead(potPin);
total += readings[index];
index = (index + 1);

if (index >= NUMREADINGS)
index = 0;

average = total / NUMREADINGS;
Serial.println(average);
if (average >=260 ){
analogWrite(ledPin,0);
}else{
ledOut = abs(average - 255);
analogWrite(ledPin, ledOut);
delay(10);
}
}

We chose to work with a light sensor and two breadboard hooked it up in a way that LED's on one would give light when the sensor was in darkness. Check the above video for more.

This was to prototype one leaf for our "Moonflower" concept.

There was some jitter produced by the light sensor and we did try to smoothen it out by taking snippets from the "Smoothing" program. Though this smoothens the code being printed to the computer we failed to make it smooth the code to the LED's.

Our current schematics and code can be found below;

#define NUMREADINGS 10

int readings[NUMREADINGS];
int potPin = 0;
int ledPin = 9;
int val = 0;
int index = 0;
int total = 0;
int average = 0;

void setup() {
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
for (int i = 0; i <>
readings[i] = 0;
}

void loop() {
total -= readings[index];
readings[index] = analogRead(potPin);
total += readings[index];
index = (index + 1);

if (index >= NUMREADINGS)
index = 0;

average = total / NUMREADINGS;
Serial.println(average);
val = analogRead(potPin);
val = val/4;
Serial.print(val);
Serial.println("");
analogWrite(ledPin, val);
}

The idea here was to create a long belt like lamp that resembles a chain of bullets. The belt is flexible and a user has the ability to bend the belt around the workspace of his choice in a manner most suited to his work.

This concept involves an LED light that is to be fixed to a bottle, whose light intensity will be controlled by the turning of the cap. As the cap is opened, the LED turns on, and vice-versa.
Again, this idea is simple in execution, but its interaction with its users can be varied, in terms of orientation, form, material, light diffusion etc. The advantage of this would be to use recycled material in an interesting and aesthetic manner.

This idea was inspired by the properties of fluid, and how it tends to take on the form of its container. This LED wrap, is a simple blanket, that can be draped around any object, taking its form and giving light.

This lamp adopts the form a Lantern or "Laalten". It has one single cluster of bright LED's placed instead of the traditional wick of the Lantern. Twisting the knob raises and drops the LED cluster whilst also increasing and reducing the LED intensity. VIOLA! A Modern Indian Lantern!

The function of the lantern is very simple and easily constructable. The key to this idea would be its form and material. It could provide for a nice ambient lighting indoors and outdoors, as well as prove useful during the much cursed power cuts.

The idea here is very simple. Rather than privately powering a lamp in one's home, light from a street lamp can be used. It can be done by recycling the street lamp's light and energy using a solar panel to power the lamp at home.

This concept was inspired by the idea of "Vaastu". Here we have chosen to use 3-4 light sensors, 1 Adruino board and a few Leaf shaped, custom made Breadboards. Each leaf has 20 to 30 LED's pierced into it.

The light sensors are all oriented in different directions along with corresponding Breadboard leaves. The Adruino board would be programmed to light up the leaves depending on how low the reading of the sensor is. The lower the reading, the brighter the glow.

The idea behind this is to create a lamp that tries to light up areas around it that are dark. The lamp would automatically adjust itself in case of a change in environment.

Taking inspiration from "Vaastu" , an Indian School of Thought on Architecture, we chose to think a little about building a workspace around light rather than a light around the workspace. This idea is commonly incorporated in the architecture of any traditional Indian house where the "aangan" is this central source of light.

The above image juxtaposes the aforementioned traditional Indian house with one that is built along more western/modern lines. This Indian house has a skylight that lets natural light that illuminates the home. These homes are ubiquitously found in South India and in some parts of North West India like, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

James Clar

Ingo Maurer

This blog has been made to document the work we do in Anders course. It contains all our research and concepts.

It is open for any and all proactive comments and feedback.