RGB Circuit Sculpture Lamp
Introduction: RGB Circuit Sculpture Lamp
This instructable combines art and sculpture with electronics into a single project. This steampunk-inspired circuit sculpture looks impressive on or off and casts a soft glow onto its surroundings.
I enjoy making electronics projects and always aspire to make them as neat as possible. To take this a step further, I wanted to make a project where the circuitry is the main feature. The brass wires in the circuit provide all the power and signals to control the LEDs as well as making up the structure.
The circuit is powered by USB-C and uses 4 WS2812B LEDs. There is also a button integrated into the circuit to cycle through different effects and turn it on and off.
This project requires confident soldering skills as well as plenty of time and patience!
Supplies
Tools:
* Pliers
* Wire cutters
* Drill
* Soldering Iron
* Solder
* Helping hands (Very useful)
* Vice (optional)
* Multimeter
* Small file or sand paper (~240 grit)
Components:
* Brass or Copper Wire (1.5mm diameter)
* 4 WS2812B PCD mounted LEDs
* Seeduino Xiao Microcontroller
* 470uF Capacitor
* 2N7000 Transistor (Or similar N Channel MOSFET)
* 2* 10K Ohm Resistors
* 270 Ohm Resistor
* USB-C Cable for power
* Breadboard and jumper wires for testing
Important Tips!
You will need roughly 3m of wire to account for mistakes and off-cuttings.
You can choose between brass and copper. Brass has a more golden color while copper is lighter and slightly pinkish. Copper wire is also much more malleable, making it easier to work with and bend. The downside of this, is that the finished sculpture will be much more delicate.
If you have any spare mains wire that is used to provide power to wall sockets, the insulation can be stripped back to extract the copper wire inside and this can be used.
The capacitor isn't strictly necessary however it helps smooth the current and fills in the gap!
Step 1: Designing and Testing the Circuit
First, the circuit needs to be designed and tested. The Seeduino Xiao outputs a maximum of 3.3V on its digital pins however the LEDs need a 5V signal to operate. For this reason, a voltage boosting circuit is needed. The circuit shown in the schematic was constructed on a breadboard and connected to the microcontroller to make sure everything worked properly.
The Xiao pinout can be used to determine where the connections need to be joined. My xiao board already had male mounting pins soldered on so that it could be mounted to a breadboard. I would recommend that you do not solder the standoffs and just place the board on top as they will be needed to be detached later. 982
The connection should be good enough for testing.
Connect your board to a computer via a USB-C cable. You need to install an Arduino compatible IDE installer such as the Arduino IDE or Visual Studio Code and platform IO. This page on the Seeduino wiki provides a useful guide on the setup as well as some basic programs for testing.
The provided LED_Pin_Test program below can be flashed to the board and when run, should output a signal on pin zero which is the pin that will be used to control the lights. This signal should be boosted from 3.3V to 5V through the transistor circuit.
Connect a multimeter to the LED signal wire and the other end to ground. When running the code, the multimeter should show a 5V signal that switches on and off every second.
Step 2: Straightening the Wire
The copper/brass wire will come bundled in a loop which is of no use for this project. The wire can be straightened using a drill and some pliers or vice.
Firstly cut a section of wire roughly half a meter long. Take the very tip of one end of the wire and bend it around to increase the size of the wire. Place this end of the wire into the drill and tighten the chuck until it is secure. Take the other end and either clamp it into the vice or hold it with the pliers.
Hold the wire taught and turn on the drill slowly. The wire should start twisting around and straightening. Keep rotating the drill until the wire is perfectly straight.
When released the wire, watch out for any tension in the wire, as on release, it can spring back a few rotations. This can hurt if the end catches your skin. Either wear gloves or make sure the wire is under no tension and stand back when releasing the wire.
This video provides an excellent demonstration of how to do this.
Step 3: Constructing the Outer Cube
The next step is to construct the outer cube. 991