Saturday, April 27, 2013

Looks-Like Model

After completing our program and adding a second "mode" in which the motors winch the lights up and down with a speed proportional to the light sensed, we focused on the physical design of the project. We had originally planned to house the lights inside of cardboard spheres, but these were not available. Instead, we created papier mache spheres formed around ping-pong balls.

These were cut in half and the insides were reinforced with glue at the suggestion of my roommate Cassie.

I made one extra as a test, and we poked LEDs into it and twisted wires to create a rough model.


We were a little scared at first to solder over the paper, but we got the go-ahead and created this much more sturdy version, complete with purple paint as well! 


We presented this as part of our looks-like model to the class.

The other part of our model was the winch and cricket assembly that will hold the hanging spheres. Our model is still crude because we have not decided on how we will raise these up, on some sort of stand, to have the spheres hang. For the moment we had them hang down from the edge of the table, though we want a "lamp" with a single stem so that it is more attractive and portable. 

No comments:

Post a Comment