13. Applications and implications

My final project will be called ‘Angry Cloud/Peaceful Cloud”

What will it do

The project will be a table-top sculpture of a cloud with embedded, addressable LED’s. It will have three modes, selectable with a rotary encoder or a push button. Those modes will consist of:

Peaceful Cloud (Passive): The LED’s will run an animation program that simulates a gentle lightning storm as seen from a safe distance.

Angry Cloud (Active): Using the same animation program, the intensity of the lightning effects will increase the closer a person gets to the cloud. The distance will be found with an ultrasonic sensor. Once a person gets too close, the color will switch from a natural palette to a red palette. Hence, angry.

Night-light: The entire cloud will be dimly lit, with no flashing.

Who has done what beforehand

I found this a few years ago. It’s a neat idea, but it just fades in and out. There is no animation to make it look realistic. I want to take this a step further

There is also this design. It does have more functionality than what I plan on doing; it is sound reactive and can generate noise through onboard speakers. I don’t think the speakers are necessary. Thunder is very viseral, and a tiny speaker will never be able to recreate that. There is also a very simple, limited animation. Just looking at it, you can see that it’s just two LED strips that blink. I’ve personally never been a fan of sound reactive devices, they never seem to be accurate or all that engaging.
Also, it’s ludicrously expensive. I want to make this as inexpensive as possible.

• The Cloud

What will you design and what parts and systems will be made

The two-piece core (top and bottom) of the cloud using recycled packaging foam. It will be a 3D CNC machined to produce the general shape of the cloud. This will provide a base to fix the addressable LED’s to and glue the polyester fiber fill onto.

A custom circuit board using an ATtiny 1614 to process information from two HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors. That information will be then sent via I2C to an Arduino Nano that handles the LED animation code.

The reasoning behind this is due to the way the LED animation functions, the Arduino doesn’t have the capacity to handle two ultrasonic sensors and run the animation code simultaneously.

A CNC cut wood base for the lamp.

A 3D printed housing all of the electronics and provide stability to rest on a table. Also to add some decorative flair.

This can possibly be molded and cast, but I haven’t decided yet.

Both the codes for the lightning animation and to process two ultrasonic sensors as well as interface the two with I2C.

Laser cut a decorative panel for the switch and rotary encoder.

A 3D printed hollow tube for the wiring to run from the base to the cloud.

Again, possibly molded and cast.

A vinyl decal with my logo

Bill of materials

• Bill of Materials

What process will be used

CNC machining - foam core of cloud, wood base

Electronic design, production, and embedded programming - HC-SR04 processing unit

3D printing and/or Molding and Casting - Housing for electronic components; hollow support tube

Laser cutting - support interface for cloud core; decorative switch label for rotary encoder/switch

What questions need to be answered

There are a number of things I’ll need to figure out for this project. First, I’ll have to learn how to model a 3D ‘organic looking’ cloud shape for the foam core that can be milled. Second, learning how an addressable LED library works and how to animate the LEDs to my liking. From the input week, I learned how an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor functions, what I’ll have to learn is how to get two functioning at the same time. I’ll also have to learn how the I2C protocol works and how to transmit data from the ultrasonic control unit to the Arduino Nano.

How will it be evaluated

I would like it to be evaluated based on the separate functions of the program.

1. Does the passive lightning animation function?

2. Does the active animation function as planned as somebody approaches the cloud?

3. Does the active animation color palette change when the proximity threshold is met? Does the color palette return to normal as the person retreats?

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