[Connor] was working on a project for his college manufacturing class when he came up with the idea for this sleek desk lamp. As a college student, he’s not fond of having his papers glowing brightly in front of him at night. This lamp takes care of the problem by adjusting the color temperature based on the position of the sun. It also contains a capacitive touch sensor to adjust the brightness without the need for buttons with moving parts.
The base is made from two sheets of aluminum and a bar of aluminum. These were cut and milled to the final shape. [Connor] found a nice DC barrel jack from Jameco that fits nicely with this design. The head of the lamp was made from another piece of aluminum bar stock. All of the aluminum pieces are held together with brass screws.
A slot was milled out of the bottom of the head-piece to make room for an LED strip and a piece of 1/8″ acrylic. This piece of acrylic acts as a light diffuser. Another piece of acrylic was cut and added to the bottom of the base of the lamp. This makes for a nice glowing outline around the bottom that gives it an almost futuristic look.
The capacitive touch sensor is a pretty simple circuit. [Connor] used the Arduino capacitive touch sensor library to make his life a bit easier. The electronic circuit really only requires a single resistor between two Arduino pins. One of the pins is also attached to the aluminum body of the lamp. Now simply touching the lamp body allows [Connor] to adjust the brightness of the lamp.
[Connor] ended up using an Electric Imp to track the sun. The Imp uses the wunderground API to connect to the weather site and track the sun’s location. In the earlier parts of the day, the LED colors are cooler and have more blues. In the evening when the sun is setting or has already set, the lights turn more red and warm. This is easier on the eyes when you are hunched over your desk studying for your next exam. The end result is not only functional, but also looks like something you might find at that fancy gadget store in your local shopping mall.
Eh, “capacities touch sensor” – How about some proofreading before posting ?
I know, doesn’t anyone edit this stuff? Oh wait, that’s my job. fixed
Good idea but LEDs have shit spectrum. I’ll stick with a 40W incandescent.
wait – brass screws in aluminium? isnt than an open invitation for corrosion?
Maybe if he doesn’t take it outside it’ll be ok ;)
Well, it’s ionized aluminum, which will eliminate a lot of the brass-aluminum interaction. Plus, without salt, galvanic corrosion can’t take place. For normal day-to-day use, this is probably perfectly fine.
Not if there’s no current through those parts
“Sleek desk lamp” sounds like an item in Animal Crossing.
Touch sensative LED desk lamps are not quite new. There’re dozens out there on Amazon.