Introduction
This interactive table light fixture was inspired by the work of famous mid-century designer, Gerrit Rietveld. Each panel is touch-activated and is independent from one another, allowing for endless color possibilities.
Process
The making part went pretty smoothly since I’ve used acrylic in a previous project at POD.
Struggles
1. Soldering
Pretty amazing how big of a difference 1mm makes. I initially bought 4mm extra narrow LED strip and it was impossible to solder. The wires kept falling off. I ended up getting a new 5mm strip last minute and it worked much better.
2. Switching from Huzzah back to Uno
I initially started on the Huzzah board but couldn’t figure out how to sync the LED strip to the sensors, even though the sensors were working. Because I didn’t need internet connectivity anyway, I decided to switch back to Uno.
3. Coding
Coding has always been my weakest skill. After a lot of back and forth, I came across the “buttoncycler” code which I was able to modify and perfected with the help of Becky.
4. Only 2 out of 3 panels work…
In the initial test, all 3 panels work perfectly independently but once assembled, in the first test run, something must have happened because the sensors become not so sensitive anymore and I had to tap repeatedly in different spots for quite a while to trigger the animation.
Next Steps
- I would love to take apart the two panels that are not working and try to fix them.
- I did not anticipate the wires to be so bulky – makes sense since there are 4 from each panel – I would like to try using all white wires for a more refined minimal look.
