Week 6: Midterm :: "Reflect"

The reflect project is inspired by how we interact with light, it is a playful project. It is a reflection of ourselves as seen through the interaction with light. Inspirations are how we use light to symbolize life and the everlasting. As the viewer moves their hand up and down in the beam of light it affects the audio and the light quality. Audio is created through generated tones from the basic stamp. The closer we get to the light the more it dims and the sound goes away. So "we" snuff out the light, but otherwise it glows.

:: Materials::

:: Links ::

: http://a.parsons.edu/~rkeller - dimmer code
: jamco - dimmer kit
: parallax - speakers, amp and basic stamp
: NOHO Lighting & Electrical Supply CO Inc (212) 995-2711 - Halogen bulb, transformer and socket
: The Complet Sculpture - 90 Vandam (212) 243-6074 - Plaster and wire mesh

:: Building the Casing ::

I had two days to build the casing and without any prior knowledge to how to carve or bend wood, I decided to use an crafty approach by doing a plaster mold with a wire-mesh under layer.

:: Building the Components ::

I built the componets in the order they are necessary.
#1 First putting together the dimmer kit from Velleman, being wary of the placement of the components and the polarity of the diods. One of the most important things to watch out for is to make sure you are building your kit for the voltage you will be using.

I used 110Volts AC that left the dimmer and went into a transformer that brought the voltage down to 12 Volts for my halogen bulb.

#2 Hooking up the velleman kit to the stamp and testing with a POT and my halogen light. I used a 100K POT to interface with the dimmer unit. Their is a 4.7 µf capacitor that runs from the input of the dimmer kit to the input of the stamp I/O pin. CLICK HERE TO SEE DIMMER VIDEO. Thank you Elaine for gettin it working with the POT.

#3 Getting the light to work with my IR sensor was a tough trick. I had to call in Marko for help on this one. The simple 4.7 µf Capasitor to the stamp was not sufficient. We used a 44 µf capacitor; and then added a 1.2k resistor to the ADC chip. By adding a higher number capacitor the light became a more even and smooth transition. We had to message the numbers in the code because the numbers were so jumpy, thus making the light jumpy. We ran a pulse width modulation (PWM) of 50 out of PIN 8 to get it working. See the pictures below.

Click Image for a larger view

BASIC STAMP CODE FOR DIMMER, SOUND and IR

:: Schematics ::