For once not a sound-based project. The Idea was to build an lamp in the shape of a 20-faceted Icosahedron. Each facet contains a NeoPixel, the lamp should be able to show animated pattern for which the color of each facet can be defined individually. It was a remarkable and fun project to do since it involved many different skills
- Visual Design / Math: Each facet is a truncated triangular cone consisting of five individual pieces. Calculating the shapes of these piece took some brain twisting. Icosahedron_calcs.pdf
- Woodworking: Of course the parts could also have been done using a 3D Printer. However I chose to make them with a mechanical saw out of 5mm thick plywood since i like to work with my hands also. I think craftsmanship is an important skill to have, although one can get around it easily especially in urban living situations.
- Hardware-related Programming: Since each facet hold a NeoPixel there must be some kind of microprocessor controlling the NeoPixels. I chose an STM32 Nucleo board holding a STM32F303.
- System Design: There must be a way to “program” the lamp while the lamp itself should look more like a piece of design furniture rather than a nerdy DIY-Gadget. I came up with a bluetooth-serial interface which can be controlled from a PC by sending out command on the terminal to set colors etc. or
- Android Development: by a more or less useable app which allows to set colors and define sequences of color transitions. Since i only own an android tablet, android was the obvious choice.
