One quick fore note: this is my first Instructable and my first large Arduino project, so if you see any stupid errors or have an idea of how things could be done better, then please let me know.
Now that that's out of the way I'll begin, I started designing this around September last year as my A2 Product Design project and thought that it might make a good Instructable once it was finished.
The design of the table aspect was inspired mainly from another table I had seen with a similar arched shape but with a flat top, and the electronics were mainly inspire from this coffee table, although I wanted something easier so I used a 16x16 single colour matrix and two LCD displays on my table, there is also an audio amplifier and Bluetooth receiver for playing music through the table.
So that's all there really is to say, most of the things that are part of the finished product were thought up along the way, but here are some of my original designs anyway.
Here is a video of the table in action, it also helps to explain the functionality of the electronics better than I do later on in the Instructable:
Now that that's out of the way I'll begin, I started designing this around September last year as my A2 Product Design project and thought that it might make a good Instructable once it was finished.
The design of the table aspect was inspired mainly from another table I had seen with a similar arched shape but with a flat top, and the electronics were mainly inspire from this coffee table, although I wanted something easier so I used a 16x16 single colour matrix and two LCD displays on my table, there is also an audio amplifier and Bluetooth receiver for playing music through the table.
So that's all there really is to say, most of the things that are part of the finished product were thought up along the way, but here are some of my original designs anyway.
Here is a video of the table in action, it also helps to explain the functionality of the electronics better than I do later on in the Instructable:
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Signing UpStep 1: Main Arch Assembly - Part 1
For making my table I had full access to the CNC machines at school so parts could be cut to the correct sizes easily, this was mainly done on a Boxford CNC router which could cut sheets of MDF up to 1200x600mm, I'll include the 2Ddesign drawings I used for the machine, but so far I haven't seen anyone else use the same software.
However there is no reason this couldn't be done using a hand router, so I'll include some imaged of all the parts and their sizes as well.
The first set of parts was the MDF panels to make up the main arch for the table, this was two arched panels with slots routed into them and smaller panels that fir into the slots between the two panels.
After the parts had finished being machined, they require a quick sand down to remove any loose MDF fibre then they are ready to be assembled and glued, I used standard PVA adhesive and clamped the two arched panels around the smaller panels while the glue set, but you could get similar results by using some wood screws in the joints to keep them secure while the glue sets.
If you do want to adapt the design of the table, the main thing to keep in mind is the space required for all of the electronics and how they will be mounted internally, always be sure to leave more space than what you think you will need.
The design I had chosen contained 5 internal sections, of which 4 of them would hold MDF panels, each of which held some of the electronics (I'll call these "blades" because it sounds cool).
Also I have included a ZIP archive of all the drawings I used with CNC machines in making the table on this step.
However there is no reason this couldn't be done using a hand router, so I'll include some imaged of all the parts and their sizes as well.
The first set of parts was the MDF panels to make up the main arch for the table, this was two arched panels with slots routed into them and smaller panels that fir into the slots between the two panels.
After the parts had finished being machined, they require a quick sand down to remove any loose MDF fibre then they are ready to be assembled and glued, I used standard PVA adhesive and clamped the two arched panels around the smaller panels while the glue set, but you could get similar results by using some wood screws in the joints to keep them secure while the glue sets.
If you do want to adapt the design of the table, the main thing to keep in mind is the space required for all of the electronics and how they will be mounted internally, always be sure to leave more space than what you think you will need.
The design I had chosen contained 5 internal sections, of which 4 of them would hold MDF panels, each of which held some of the electronics (I'll call these "blades" because it sounds cool).
Also I have included a ZIP archive of all the drawings I used with CNC machines in making the table on this step.
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Also, the visualization light on the ceiling was awesome...
The table has two "modes", news and media, in news the LED matrix is blank and an RSS feed is shown on the green LCD and weather forecast on the blue LCD, in media mode the LED matrix reacts to the music, the blue LCD shows the current song (via Last.fm) and the green LCD is blank.
I hope to explain this better in a video, but it is difficult as I cannot take the table home as it has to be marked for my A level in Product Design and the Ethernet shield does not support networks that use a proxy server.
This did really annoy me, but I couldn't see any easy way of fixing it.