Interactive Window Display
Introduction: Interactive Window Display
For a long time, I tried to develop technical gadgets whose purpose can be concluded in a single sentence: "It checks that thing. Huh-huh." I've came up with thought - I did not focus on decorative design at all. Hence, we've decided to collaborate with a pretty talented graphic designer and created an interactive showcase for a travelling agency (COVID-19 is still at large, right?) with a sense that may become true in a relatively short time.
As it can be seen in the illustrations, there are laser-cut 3D objects with embedded electronics in it. To make it much easier to debug and accelerate the engineering process - Arduino Nano was chosen to be the brain of the project.
Step 1: Preparartion - Materials and Tools
As I've mentioned in the previous state, the decorative showcase consists of two main designs: Mechanical and electrical.
Electrical design is much easier to understand, since it has a single purpose - attach to the decorative model a portion of an interactive circuits with ability to operate without user interference.
Overall design implies the use of more advanced tools than Arduino and Soldering Iron, but it can be handled easily with the use of a pair of hands.
So, we've covered the basics and the introduction to the project, let's proceed to the required materials and tools
Tools
* Soldering Iron
* Cutter
* Plier
* Tweezers
* Laser-cut engine (Optional)
* Small-size scissors
* Sharpening file
* Hands
* Soldering tin
* Hot Glue Gun
* 26AWG 2A wire (any wire can be used, since there is no harsh energy transfer between the parts)
Software
* Arduino IDE
* Adobe Photoshop
* Adobe Illustrator
* Image2LCD (In order to create 1-bit binary images)
* KiCAD/OrCAD/PADS Logic/Altium Designer (Electronic Schematics - Optional)
Materials - Mechanical
* 1 x A0 foldable 0.3mm cardboard
* 6 x A2 foldable 0.3mm/0.4mm cardboard
* 2 x unfoldable 40x10x2mm cardboard rectangle shapes
* 2 x unfoldable 20x10x2mm cardboard rectangle shapes
Material - Electronic
* 52 x White LED (Plane Runway & House lighting)
* 8 x RGB LED (House lighting)
* 1 x 0.91" OLED LCD (Advertising)
* 2 x HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensors (For interactive system)
* 2 x 54HC595 Shift register
* 1 x Arduino Pro-Mini/Nano (They have similar properties)
* 8 x 2N2222A NPN Transistor
* 5 x 2N1132A PNP Transistor
* 15 x 1K TH Resistor
* 15 x 100R TH Resistor
It looks like we are about to begin. So let's build it! :)
Step 2: Schematics Design
Electronic schematics design provides a complete step-by-step guide for controlling a decorative lighting model with Arduino Pro Mini/Micro/Nano.
Let's split our single-page schematics into separate groups and explain them step by step:
Plane Runway
The easiest part of the circuit so far. As it can be seen from the schematics, there are a total of 8 parallel lines (directed in X-plane), whose purpose is to supply current to the adjacent LEDs that are located on the same parallel. 51
Let's dive into calculations:
A NPN transistor when is driven open (Via B-E junction) - NPN is saturated and acts as a switch for our application. There are 4 LEDs connected in parallel, thus calculated current for every runway parallel is:
I(total)[mA] = (5 - <PHONE_NUMBER> = 8.48
I(Single Led)[mA] = 8.48 / 4 = 2.12
This is a satisfying value for the amount of intensity we interested in.
Transient Lighting
In order to create a smooth-transitioning lighting at the buildings (Houses and agency buildings) there are several RGB LEDs that are tied to the Arduino PWM terminals, in order to observe transitions in colors. If we are relying on the physics of the human eye, we cannot observe very fast transitions of an observable object. Thus if we apply continuous rapid changes on a LED - we may observe only the mean intensity value. So, this is the main reason to implement relatively high-frequency PWM in this case.
Advertising LCD
This part of the circuit is not mandatory, but it improves the overall project observance level. As it was mentioned in the 1-st step, the LCD is of OLED type, and is monochrome by definition. 152