Kinetic Chandelier
It was supposed to be a chandelier for the entryway, but it was pretty unreliable, and didn't make much light and kind of noisy for a light fixture. But it was pretty to look at.
This is my longest running project, and the first one that taught me a lot about PCB design, soldering, 3d printing and coding for microcontrollers.
It was shown at the 2023 Art, Tech, Psyche symposium and then on display in the Harvard Science Library for the spring semester that year. It took a lot of work to make it reliable enough to run for weeks on end, and it was still mostly all running by the end.
Construction
- 35 individually addressable LEDs, each one in a ping pong ball
- 35 pulleys with individual stepper motors
- 7 custom PCBs with stepper motor drivers and I2C connections for 6 microcontrollers
- It uses Teensy 3.5 microcontrollers, which aren't made anymore, but are great. Small, cheap, reliable and very fast.
- A lot of hot glue, cardboard and electrical tape.
- It runs through a set of different patterns, all with some random element, so it'll never repeat exactly
