Mechanical Light Sensing Trillium Flower S.A.D to Glad

First off, this is a work in progress and this instructable will change as I become closer to the completion of my final design.

For my project I have created a mechanically actuated light sensing flower heavily inspired by the Western Trillium flower, pictured above. As a high school student in the Mid-West, I do not get enough sunlight because I have no way to know how much sunlight I am getting in an environment where every little bit counts. This is one of the most complex designs to be optimized for 3d printing that I have ever worked on, the size constraints proved extremely challenging. For more on the idea and reason, keep reading past the supplies step below.

BOM (While I DO NOT intend for this to be built freely, these are the parts I used.)

First, I had to "obtain" one LDR or Light Dependent Resistor from a night light (pictured above)

The rest was bought on Amazon:

1x M1 Machine Screws between 2-4mm in length

1x SEEED Studio Microcontroller

1x Linear Sliding Motor

1x 606ZZ Bearing

1x MF105ZZ bearing

And all printed parts.

The idea formed when I was struggling to come up with a problem to solve 1 month after the project had opened. A problem that many people in my area face is the severe lack of vitamin D (or Seasonal.Affective.Disorder hence the joke in the title). This, I believe, may be a helping hand in an attempt to be healthier by sensing sunlight and giving visual feedback once the sensor reaches a threshold predetermined. This allows the user to track how much sunlight they are getting without having to interact with an unresponsive mobile app and in a way that I believe is quite stylish as well. For the aesthetic design, I chose a Trillium flower because during this time of year there are hundreds of them near my house. I love their fragile beauty, (they are nearly impossible to transplant) and their tri-petal design. I am a delta 3d printer guy, and the 3 petals feel like the delta z-towers.

I started by loading up my CAD software of choice (Fusion360), these are screenshots of the first attempt at the CAD for this model which quickly developed into the next few screenshots which is featuring the most current design. For the first few weeks of designing this model, I was just working off my drawings and as the CAD progressed, I stopped looking at them and started using the CAD as my drawing. This proved to me that I am finally starting to understand Fusion360, a large achievement for me.

In retrospect this protype makes me laugh, but it was just a proof of concept that validated one mechanism for opening all petals at once smoothly. In time I shifted to the more streamlined "Flat pack" rotary style that the final model uses.

The above screenshot is referential to how many attempts and prints it took me to achieve the final design for 1 component. This shows that engineering is definitely not a "First try" kind of thing.

Challenges:

The main challenges with this design were with the nature of its small size. I had to print all parts at a 0.05mm layer height with a 0.2mm nozzle. Another challenge was with the fact that due to size constraints, I had to use a linear motor for a rotary movement resulting in a more complex mechanism. (second photo). keep in mind that this entire project fits in the palm of my hand measuring at in at only 50mm tall (complexity is not wanted). In the future I will change this to a geared track with a rotary motor.

After many iterations, these are the final screenshots of the main orthographic views of my model. While many things did change, the main structure stayed the same including the incredibly small size that made this thing nearly impossible to 3d print via a traditional 0.4mm nozzle. Many parts had to be optimized with "thick" walls in order to be printable at all.

While many components are 3d printed, there is also a significant portion of hardware involved. Including bearings, linear motors, and many screws. The one piece that I am still waiting on at the time of submission is the metal "stem" piece that allows it to be easily worn in a shirt pocket. This piece will be part of the final design.

(This is a dummy flower consisting of only the petals and stator pieces.) I believe this finished result, apart from the Prusa orange colour, has quite the appeal aesthetically especially once I put more time in and develop a proper stem to hold it.

While no excuse, I didn't hear about this contest until the end of March, so I never completely finished it. But, when I do finish the mechanism, I would like to add more sensors, and the final form factor for this device would be a pin format for dress clothes as I wear those mainly. For the next prototype I envision using Copper Filled PLA to create a copper finish and possibly some composites as well. I would like to focus heavily on the aesthetic design as the orange is just a prototype colour.