Molecular Shape Desktop Lamp

by TecnoProfesor in Circuits > LEDs

1645 Views, 15 Favorites, 0 Comments

Molecular Shape Desktop Lamp

20200422_170939.jpg
IMG_20200420_142227 - copia.jpg
IMG_20200422_182504.jpg

I present you a desktop LED lamp we can use to visualize some molecular geometries or simply to use as a led lamp with differents color effects controlled by an infrared (IR) remote control.

I hope you like.

Supplies

  • Arduino NANO or compatible microcontroller
  • Adjustable DC to DC step-up voltage boost converter
  • An old movil battery 3,7 V 1020 mAh
  • Micro USB charger for battery
  • 6 ping pong balls
  • 1 plastic big ball
  • 7 Leds
  • 1 hollow metal tube
  • Wires
  • Soldering kit
  • Cardboard
  • Wood
  • Wooden square rods
  • Plywood
  • Insulated tape
  • Black drinking straw
  • Black flexible putty

Build a Wooden Box

Planos.jpg
20190529_115131.jpg
20190530_133941.jpg
20190530_140403.jpg
20190530_142140.jpg

  1. Cut four wooden pieces as you can see in the drawing
  2. Glue all the pieces to mount the box
  3. Cut a piece of plywood (8,27'' x 7,87'') and glue to the box using wooden square rods
  4. Decorate the box as you like

Install a Hollow Metal Tube

20200413_204326.jpg
20200413_204249.jpg
  1. Cut and glue a piece of carboard as you can see in the first image
  2. Open two holes above and below the box as you can see in the first and the second image
  3. Pass through the holes a hollow metal tube (21 centimeters = 8,26")

Install the Strip Led for the Big Ball

20200414_083340.jpg

The first strip led in the big ball is the first one we have to mount.

In the image you can see the three cables inside the metal tube and the strip led fixed using insulating tape.

All the strip leds used in this project only have one led.

Pass Through the Metal Tube All the Wires

20200414_202456.jpg
20200415_171522.jpg

At this moment we have to decide how many ping pong balls we are going to mount in our molecular shape lamp because we have to use one strip led for each ball.

For each strip led we have to use three wires: 5V (red), ground (black) and data wires (green).

Each strip led has only one led.

Open Holes on the Big Ball

Ideal shape.png
20200414_093923.jpg
20200414_210738.jpg

Once you have decide how many ping pong balls you are going to mount, you have to open several holes on the big ball from where the balls will be connected to the lamp.

The diameter of each holes is equal to a drinking straw diameter.

You have to decide what will be the molecular shapes you want to visualize in your lamp to open the holes in the right way. In the first image you can see the position and the angles between holes I have opened on my lamp to visualize a trigonal bipyramidal molecular shape with 5 ping pong balls.

Using this configuration you can visualize a tetrahedral, trigonal planar or linear geometries in the lamp just lighting the right strip leds.

You have take into account that all the visualized geometries are not perfect just only a good aproximation to a real one.

Once all the holes are opened you have to pass through them three cables as you can see in the last image.

Mount the Ping Pong Balls

20200416_165942.jpg
20200416_170140.jpg
20200416_173224.jpg
20200421_094452.jpg
  1. Place white insulated tape in a piece of black drinking straw as you can see in the first image. This will allow to hold the ball temporarily while we fix it definitely (step 6 below)
  2. Pass through the drinking straw three cables and insert it on one of the holes in the big ball as you can see in the second image
  3. In that position, solder the leds to the wires
  4. Open a little hole in a ping pong ball to allow to insert the led inside it.
  5. Place the ping pong ball
  6. Apply a little of black flexible putty to close the hole and fix the ball as you can see in the last image

Testing the Balls

20200504_144814.jpg
20200504_144839.jpg
20200504_144744.jpg

Once you have finished one ball you must test it.

Mount the IR Receiver

20200417_202615.jpg
20200417_203547.jpg

  1. Open a little hole near the metal tube base
  2. Solder the wires and isolate them to avoid short circuit
  3. Pull the wires until its final position as you can see in the second image

The Circuit

20200422_200430.jpg
20200422_181944.jpg

As you can see in the first image, I have used an ARDUINO NANO microcontroller where I have soldered eight wires: seven output pins to control the led strips from D2 to D8 and the D9 output pin for the IR receiver.

I have used a old movil battery, a micro USB charger and a step-up voltage boost converter DC to DC (3,7 V to 5V)

The ARDUINO Code

Imagen JPEG - copia.jpeg

To control the LED strips, this time, I have used the FastLED library.

If you use the on-line ARDUINO IDE you donĀ“t have to install anything but if you use the ARDUINO IDE from your computer you have to install the library FastLED.

Basically the code is waiting you push one of the following buttons in one IR remote:

  • POWER button. The first time you push it, all led strips will turn on slowly and the lamp will show you the colors you see in the image. The next time, all led strips will turn off.
  • #0 button. The lamp will show the linear molecular geometry.
  • #1 button. The lamp will show the trigonal planar molecular geometry.
  • #2 button. The lamp will show the tetrahedral molecular geometry.
  • #3 button. The lamp will show the trigonal bipyramidal molecuar geometry.
  • #4 button. All the strips will turn on showing random colors every 250 milliseconds initially. Every time you push the button, the color change frequency will increase 250 milliseconds.

How It Looks

Molecular Shape LED Lamp