I recently built a new Programmable Orb Light Painting Tool.
In a future post I'll detail more about the construction of the tool (with photographs of the home made disaster
) - for now I'll just list the components...- an Arduino (Uno) (basically an open-source electronics prototyping platform - basically a programmable micro controller with inputs, outputs and other goodies)
- an addressable chain of RGB LED pixels (basically a bunch of LED lights which can be driven to display any of millions of colours - I've used a dozen here)
- a battery case (to hold 6 x rechargeable AA's)
- a switch, about 1.5m of cable and a 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel power plug
- A round plastic food storage container
- a wire coat hanger
- a dog lead
- a soldering iron
- a drill
- some wire, header pins (90 degree), solder and electrical tape
For now I've just programmed the LEDs to cycle through a rainbowish swath of colours. Tonight I went out at twilight and gave it a try to see how this bizarre creation would work. Note - the actual landscape I've used here is pretty boring (I just went to a local oval where it would be dark). This was just to test the tool and see how the orbs would look.
this second with a quick touch of light painting on the stones and ground with an LED torch as well
My initial thoughts...
- this tool is a lot brighter than my previous orb making tool (which was just one or two fixed colours) - the LED spread is also wider - this means I don't have to spin the tool for anywhere near as long or for as many rotations - the ones here were two slowish rotations but I reckon I could get away with doing them quicker - my previous tool required at least four slow rotations to burn in
- I reckon I need to program less blue and more other colours
- the dog chain was a good idea but I'll need to wear gloves in future since the rope rubs on the fingers when you spin it
