Applications and Implications
CO. Light
CO. Light is a concreted and interactive RGB lamp thought and designed to be made in any Fab Lab, that means you can do it by yourself following the instructions and using the open source files.
what will it do?
CO. Light is a concreted lamp that lights with a RGB LED system. With a control built in you can interact with the lamp and will let you turn on/off, dimming the light intensity and change the RGB game colors.
who's done what beforehand?
-HUE by Philips is a bulb powered by LED technology. The bulb let the user through a mobile application interact with the RGB color range creating amazing atmospheres, turn off/on the bulbs remotely and set it as a wake up alarm. Works with wifi.
-LIFX by Phil Bosua is a wifi enabled, multi-color, energy efficient LED light bulb that you can control with your smartphone. Basically does the same as HUE by phillips although offers more bulb plugs.
There are other similar projects like Lumen Bluetooth that is on commercial development and basically does the same except that works with bluetooth and cannot wake you up.
what materials and components will be required?
where will they come from?
-I found all the components inside the Fab Lab, they are Fab inventory parts. (they were bought in Digikey.) -Cement, plastic fiber and wood were bought in the local Home and construction store.
how much will it cost?
Components and materials cost 45€ (60USD)
what parts and systems will be made?
-Concrete base and shade -Wooden structure -5 Node boards -1 Master board -Cable system -3D printed potentiometer knobs -Electricity power supply
what processes will be used?
-Project Management -Design -3D model -3D printings -Computer controlled machining -Molding and casting -Electronics design -Electronics production -Input, Output, Networking Devices -Programing output and networking -Potentiometers (input devices) -Power supply -Assembly
what tasks need to be completed?
All the tasks were completed successfully.
what questions need to be answered?
-I would like to use a High Power RGB LED in the future, is there any other suggestion instead of it?
what is the schedule?
+May 19 to 25: -Computer controlled machining with CNC for wooden structure -Electronics and production design for the Fabduino board, control board and Light system board -Documentation
+May 26 to 31: -Molding and casting for concreted base and shade -Electronics production for the Fabduino board, control board and Light system board -3D print Control case -Test -Documentation
+June 1 to 3: Details and Photographies
how will it be evaluated?
I mainly consider that a similar or same project is well done when is friendly with the user, that means when the object by itself does what it says it does and when has a intuitive usage. If this is ok, is because it is electronically working properly and the object is readable and intuitive by the user.
If someone else made this project, I would evaluate it like this:
+Design -Function -Applicability -Fabrication system -Assembly system -Materials -User interaction
+Light system -Function -Technology used -Energy use -Lighting intensity -User interaction
+Electronics -Functions -Control (wifi, bluetooth, radio, wired, etc.) -Interface -Power connection -Circuits
If the object has an incredible looking and has what I mentioned before, would be a great product and project, that can be studied commercially.