Phil’s Basement Pt. 1

We powered the Lamina Atlas light engines for the first time on the 19th. We had one warm white and one daylight white light engine.

We concluded that one light engine is NOT bright enough, while two SHOULD be sufficient. There wasn’t a real discernible difference in the color of the projected light, but you can see the difference on the light engine itself – especially when it was powered on 5v. The daylight white is also much brighter than the warm white. The light engines produced an unforeseen amount of heat that melted the electrical tape in one test, which also caused the LED to turn blue!!! (because the LED was inverted and lost contact with the heatsink)

Criteria

Function Criteria:

1.	Height Adjustable (24″ minimum)
	Ideally 10″ to 24″ of clearance for detail and general work (and to clear monitor height)
2.	Swivel
	Lamp head needs to adjust to spatial changes in environment, e.g., placing foreign objects on table that may interfere with light
3.	Minimal Footprint
	Limited working space
4.	Effortless On/Off Control
	Lamp will be toggled on and off frequently, so it needs to be easy to find and activate & shouldn’t be placed on the base as the base can become covered with paper
5.	Dimming (Hi/Lo)
	Controllable light intensity for detail, general, and ambient purposes

Engineering Criteria:

1.	Buildable
	Task lamps needs to be buildable with available materials, tools, and methods
2.	Light Output
	Lux (SI unit of Illuminance) needs to be suitable for a task lamp
3.	Heat Dissipation
	High-output LED engines require additional heat dissipation *Important from tests
4.	Light Spread
	Light engines emit light from a small area and may need a diffuser
5.	Lens Protection
	Prohibit direct contact with the lenses of the light engines

Materials & Manufacturing

An initial list of major materials and tools we will be using.
Materials:

1.  Acrylic sheet (aka acrylic glass/pmma)
2. PET plastic sheets (?)
3. Diffusers/Polarizers/Lenses
4. Heatsink
5. Primer/Spraypaint/Varnish
6. Electrical Materials (circuits) to be populated by Mr. Ray

Tools:

1. Band Saw
2. Heat Gun
3. Orbital Sander
4. Power Drill
5. Coping Saw (?)
6. Electrical Tools to be Populated by Mr. Ray

Research/Development

1. The Problem: Design & Engineer an affordable High-Output LED Task Lamp, that can be made with available resources
2. The Criteria: See Posting
   
3. Initial Designs: Currently working on sketches and diagrams
4. Initial Bill of Materials: Under Construction

Project Outline

 Our project will be divided into four major stages: Research/Development, Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.We are currently in the first stage, Research/Development, which consists of:

•  The Problem
• Criteria
  • Includes electrical and mechanical issues
• Initial Designs
  • sketches & sketch models
  • circuit diagrams, switch/interface maps
  • w/ materials & manufacturing considered
• Initial Bill of Materials

A more detailed report will be added once completed. A brief explanation of the other three stages:Pre-Production is concerned with prototyping and working models and resolving issues that arises from such tests.Production as the name implies, is concerned with the building of the final working & aesthetic model.Post-Production (haven’t been discussed whether we will continue to this stage) deals with the marketing of the lamp, i.e., packaging, posters, pamphlets, etc. This stage would normally be started at an earlier stage so it doesn’t appear to be an afterthought, but it’s not our intent to sell our lamp design – post-production is merely a chance for us to celebrate our accomplishment and put the icing on the cake, so to speak.

DigiKey Delivers

Got home from work and there’s a nice package waiting for me on the table. DigiKey has some of the best packaging material ever! My friend and I used to line our cubes with that stuff back at Foster-Miller. It’s like camo netting, sorta.

Here’s a few pictures:

What the box contained

The light engine is TINY!

Global eBaying for parts

Ordered some ZIF and DIP sockets from eBay yesterday, all the way from Hong Kong. The ZIF connector will be used for the microcontroller development board. The DIP socket will be used to mount the microcontroller onto the lamp veroboard.

ZIF connector

DIP Socket

• ZIF connector
• DIP socket

With a ZIF (zero insertion force) connector, I don’t have to worry about bending, or worse, breaking pins when working with microcontrollers. When removing ICs from a socket, a relatively large amount of force is needed to insert and remove the part. With a ZIF, simply unlock, place the chip on top and lock into place.

DIP sockets come in handy during the soldering. Too much heat can destroy microcontrollers and other ICs. With that being said, simply solder the socket onto the veroboard then insert the device onto the socket.