Like every week I started the week planning the assignment.

I would like to use the break week to advance as much as possible with the design of my final project. But, being honest, I really need a break, my brain and body need a break, the Fab Academy is being awesome, but also very intense. I really need to rest, so I decided to take 5 days off and then come back to work full of energy.

What will it do?

The Fold Lamp is an interactive piece of furniture which is able to recognize the ambient light and the presence of the user. It can be used to personalize the light of small-medium spaces, illuminating just one part of the room without disturbing the rest of the people in that same room, improving the quality of the ambient and saving energy.

It could be catalogized in the consumer electronics or furniture group. But I would like to propose a new one: lighting.

Who's done what beforehand?

I got inspired by Lumiou which is an object that unfolds from a book into a multi-purpose portable lamp.

I also found very interesting the following projects from previous years of Fab Academy:
Wim Lanz
Georges Hanna
Kevin Cheng
Massimiliano d’Angelo

What will you design?

My idea is to design almost every part of the lamp, from the structural parts to the electronic boards, keeping in mind the size of the different components (bulb, sensors, motors...) and with the aim to get a final design as integrated as possible, paying very attention to the final packaging of the final product.

What materials and components will be used?

Fabrication:
> MDF wood 3mm.
> PLA filament.
Electronics:
> 1 x 9V power supply
> 1 x Servo motor
> 1 x Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04
> 1 x IR phototransistor
> 1 x servo motor + ultrasonic sensor PCB: 1 ATmega328p; 2 10kΩ resistors; 1 1uF capacitor; 1 10uF capacitor; 1 XTAL 20MHz; 1 Regulator 5V 1A ZLDO1117; several pin headers.
> 1 x phototransistor PCB: 1 ATtiny44; 2 10kΩ resistors; 1 1uF capacitor; several pin headers.

This may changed after the Networking and communications and Interface and application programming weeks.

Where will come from?

The fabrication materials would come from local suppliers; the electronic items from Digikey; and the motors and sensors would be gotten through Amazon.

How much will they cost?

What parts and systems will be made?

> Electronics
> External and internal structures
> Mobile and folding parts

What processes will be used?

> The digital design process will be developed in Rhinoceros 3D.
> The structure will be made by laser cutting and 3d printing processes.
> The electronic boards will be made by precision milling processes. And the components and sensors will be soldered by hand.
> The programming part will be developed in C code using Arduino.

What tasks need to be completed?

I already decided which sensors and motors I will use for my final project thanks to the input and output devices weeks, however, there are still a lot of things to learn, such as, for instance, how to communicate an input and output devices. But having clear which devices I will use, I can start working in a final design with real measurements. I hope to have an almost definitive design before the Networking and communications week. Then, in the following weeks, I will figure out the rest of the things that I will incorporate into the final project.

What is the schedule?

My idea is to make the final presentation on 12th or 14th of June, that means that I have almost two months to develop my final project, and there is still a lot of things to learn.
This is the schedule:
.- Networking and communications. (In this week we will learn how to send information between boards and the computer. In my case I am planning to have several boards connected by a flat cable because I would like to have sensors in different parts of the lamp).
.- Mechanical design. (We are remote students so to do this assignment and the machine design one we had planned to meet in Fab Lab Leon the weekend of the 28th of April, that means that we will have two days to make two assignments, so it will be necessary to work on this the previous weeks, so everything would be ready/almost prepared before to get there. That also means that probably we will need to leave for later the assignment of the networking and communication week.)
.- Interface and application programming. (I still don't know how to apply this part of the Fab Academy to my final project.)
.- Machine design. (Hopefully, If we reach to finish the machine during the weekend in Leon, I will use this assignment to continue developing my final project and probably to make-up previous assignments.)
.- Wildcard week. (For this assignment I would like to use the vacuum thermoformer machine, making a 3D design and mechanizing it in the CNC and use it as a masterpiece to make a plastic replica, and then maybe use the plastic mold to make composites.
.- Invention, intellectual property, and income. (I still don't know how to apply this part of the Fab Academy to my final project.)
.- Project development.
.- Jun 12 or 14: Project presentation.

Pufffff, I am getting nervous...!!!!

What questions need to be answered?

> How to fit all the electronic components, motors, and sensors in the base of the lamp. Work in the final design of the lamp.
> Figure out how to connect a bulb to a PCB to be controlled through a light sensor.
> Decide the final material for the exterior folding layer (paper, textile, composites...)
> Decide if I prefer to develop a "90º section" (four sections design) or "180º section" (two sections design) for the prototype.
> Networking and communications (the lecture of this topic will take place in two weeks).
> Interface and application programming (the lecture of this topic will take place in four weeks).

How will it be evaluated?

My lamp would be physically divided into several sections which would work independently but in the same way than the others, so I would consider my final project as a success if I would be able to program one section of the lamp, making that, at least, by a distance sensor and a motor the exterior layer of the lamp folds and hides allowing to let the light pass.
The next spiral would be that by a light sensor the bulb turn on/off.
And a future spiral would be to change the color of the light through a Bluetooth component and a phone app.

Extra: Final project. First approach.

After this assignment I started working on a possible final design for my final project. Please visit Final project. First approach to know more.