Vermes
Advanced Member level 4
The Mushroom is an advanced disco effect. It looks like a moving 3D. It works on two rotating LED diodes, the visible rays arise because of lens placed in front of the the lid.
The housing
A tin was used as a back part of the housing. Front was made of bowl from an old wok. As a cover, a reel from washing machine was used because of its proper shape.
The lens
The lens used are 10x magnification, 5cm diameter. They were taken from 14 school magnifiers.
The front cover
14 holes of 15mm diameter were drilled in the front cover. The lens were connected to the cover from inside with sanitary silicone.
Diodes and the power transmission system
Diodes are Royal Blue CREE – the strongest ones available. They were mounted to three radiators twisted into one. The current is passed by the springs, which rub on rails (rims).
Control system
The main element of program is processor Atmega8.
System functions:
- sound controlling (the rays of light are moving to the sounds, depending on the program)
- six different programs are available, e.g. changing the direction and speed of rotating depending on the rhythm, stopping, moving every second sound etc.)
- strobo effect (frame movements of people are visible) – the rays are blinking with a determined frequency
A stepper motor with gears is responsible for rotating the radiator with diodes (that's why there is a lot of possibilities of rotate speed and direction)
Between the radiator with diodes and the stepper motor with gears there are pieces of pumice placed. It's a plaster-like, the warm isolator (glass pumice crashes under the influence of temperature).
Besides the isolation (not to melt the motor gears which are plastic), it was used in order to enlarge the distance, so the diodes may be respectively high above the rims with power supply.
Because the tin wasn't pretty enough, a plate with electronics was made and placed in a cut hole in the tin. Another advantage of that was making it easy placing the diodes, sweetches and the display.
Turning on the LEDs, the strobo effect and turning off the LEDs is made by only one button.
Another button is to change program from 1 to 6.
If none of the programs was chosen, a 'light snake' appears on the display.
The red diode signalizes catching single-channel sound by the sound iluminophony.
The green diode signalizes working of the system.
The blue diode signalizes working of 3W diodes (it lights when 3W light; it blinks when the strobo effect is on; it doesn't light when the 3W don't light).
LED 3W power supply was made on L200. The housing with the radiator doesn't heat up so much (it's lightly warm).
The housing is grounded, the fuse is used.
There is a microphone socket in the housing, made of old pc headphones. The position of the microphone can be set in any direction, it also can be bended, twisted and directed toward the speakers.
The system works without the microphone as well, but randomly. With the microphone it works only in the rhythm of the sound.
Link to original thread – LED Mushroom - pierwszy na świecie polski projekt DIY
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