Concept
Designers spend time on matching colors. However, the best matching inspirations sometimes come from the nature around us. The lamp is designed to help designers get objects’ RGB color. (See details in Instructables)
Process
Step 1 – Ideation
Project started from concept ideation. I created ideas from abstract shapes to realistic products. Sketching will help you to visualize ideas flying in your head. Meanwhile, you can also find “smart product project” online for getting creative inspirations. The channels related to smart object, physical computing, IoT, etc are listed below:
- https://www.instructables.com/Internet-of-Things-Class/
- https://www.instructables.com/circuits/
- https://www.hackster.io/
- https://hackaday.io/
Step 2 – Shopping
Once you get clear idea of concept, you can start making a shopping list. Before you go to check, make sure all the parts are available with each other. I recommend you to buy circuit on Adafruit, which has clear spec and instruction.
Step 3 – Circuit Design
Basically you can find some open resource projects to learn from. Thanks to Becky Stern’s Chameleon Scarf project.
When soldering components together, remember to differentiate channels with different colors. The circuit I designed having Uno, color sensor, neopixel strip, and photoresistor.
- Black – Uno Ground + Color sensor Ground + Neopixel Ground + Photoresistor Round
- Red – Uno 5v + Color sensor VIN + Neopixel 5v + Photoresistor Positive
- Yellow – Uno SCL + Color sensor SCL
- Blue – Huzzah SDA + Color sensor SDA
- White – pin for Photoresistor
- Green – pin number for Neopixel
Step 4 – Physical Structure
Cutting basal foam for making structure and hiding circuit. Using solid ring wood piece as the base of Neopixel strip.
Step 5 – Finalize
In order to get smooth and high-quality texture of product surface, I used aqua resin(the most typical mix ratios of liquid and powder are 1:3 by weight or 1:2 by volume) to coat the balsa foam and sanded with sanding paper.
Next Step
In order to using color efficently, the next step will use Huzzah instead of Uno and send objects’ RGB Decimal Code to users through the internet.
