Retro Lamp goes HypnoOrb

December 3, 2009December 3, 2009 Doc2 Comments

Candice saved this hideous old lamp from a bulldozer (literally) and for the last year and a bit we’ve had it hanging up in our basement for extra ambient lighting. The light was setup only to be turned off/on by pulling/placing the plug and that part’s so sketch that we rarely use the thing. So when it came time to replace a bulb, I decided to use a HypnoOrb instead of a more typical bulb.

Check out the Photos here.

Essentially what I did was very carefully solder wires on to the light socket and connected them to a power adapter. The power adapter was then connected in to one of my Arduino boards programmed with the HypnoOrb code, though slightly modified to respond a little nicer to the potentiometer input.

I of course had to also hook up an RGB LED to the whole deal and I goofed with that for awhile. I ultimately decided to try using this whole setup with no resistors on the LEDs.

Now, normally you should never do that as if you don’t limit the current through a diode with a resistor, you could (more like definitely will) burn out the LED. But I knew that for some reason with the Arduino that doesn’t seem to happen. Anyway, this time I opted to leave the resistor out for maximum brightness.

A couple of hours, some solder and a TON of hot glue later, It’s all come together rather perfectly. Bamboo Skewers were key in providing a little needed structure and of course much electrical tape and some soldering filled in the gaps. I also added a little off-on switch and latched on a potentiometer to set varying speeds of operation.

You can Get the code from here.

For other HypnoOrb specific stuff, check out the project page here.

Some HypnoOrb Progress

March 2, 2009March 2, 2009 Doc11 Comments

While my latest round of HypnoOrb progress hasn’t yet resulted in another fully functional design, it’s a good step in that direction. I’ve been learning to make good use of Cadsoft’s free version of their PCB design tool called Eagle. At this point I’ve been kind of stuck on getting the path of the wires routed well. The free version of Eagle provides some routing features, but I’m told it’s best to go with some other tools, tools that I’m pretty sure cost the GDP of a small nation, or possibly continent. But fear not, this is a fairly simple board, so I think worst case I should be able to manually route it in a very awesome way…. I hope. Anyway, below’s an image of the latest layout I’ve got…

HypnoOrb Prototype MK2

January 16, 2009January 16, 2009 Doc

Arduino Independence

January 13, 2009January 16, 2009 Doc

Getting the Arduino Processor to function on a breadboard

The next step in my HypnoOrb project is to figure out how to get the Arduino microprocessor (AKA ATMega168) that makes the whole thing work function with as little hardware as possible. Thanks to this awesome site, I found, I now know what I wasn’t doing right before finding that document. I hope making a reference to that helpful tutorial here will help others find it faster than I did. Have fun!

Arduino on a Breadboard — RGB LEDS under a bag

World, meet the HypnoOrb

December 3, 2008January 10, 2009 Doc2 Comments

Using the toys I’ve been enjoying ever so much lately, I’ve managed to really nicely smooth out the programming in my Arduino for my RGB LED. It’s so awesome that I’m given it a name! Meet the HypnoOrb!

At this point I only have the raw prototype, but I’m considering going ahead an making more of them. I have to work out pricing and smooth of some aspects of the design. If you’re interested in getting one, please contact me or post a message here – the more interest I see on this thing, the faster I’ll work at finding an inexpensive means of producing them.

Here’s the HypnoOrb source code for the Arduino environment.

The HypnoOrb’s name was inspired by our master, the HypnoToad.