Introduction: LED Smartphone Dock
I'll be making a dock for my smarthphone. It consists of a box made of plexiglass so I can use a led light to light it up from the inside. I made this at the Fablab at Hogeschool Rotterdam.
Step 1: What You'll Need:
Arduino
A bright LED light
A sheet of plexiglass + tools to cut it
A hinge for the backdoor (you can also make one yourself)
Step 2: Sketches
I started of with a few basic sketches that show how the box wil look, to get a clear picture for myself.
Step 3: Cutting the Plexiglass
I used makercase.com to design my smartphone dock, and uploaded the caseplans to a lasercutter. I only used leftover materials because I wouldn't need much anyway. Note: I added the caseplans as an a.i file here. You can open this with Adobe Illustrator.
Attachments
Step 4: The Hinge & Backplate
I tried making a hinge using a 3D printer, but I eventually chose a metal hinge because it's a stronger material than plastic.
I took another piece of plexiglass and added a cutout at the bottom to ensure there would be room for the charger cable of the phone. I also added two holes in the back for the LED.
Note: The blue piece of plexiglass is going to be the part that supports the phone from the backside.
EDIT: I 3D printed a lightning bolt and glued it to the back plate.
Attachments
Step 5: Looking Good
We're almost finished. I used superglue to put the box together. The last thing that I want to add is the LED.
Step 6: Arduino
I connected the LED to the Arduino without the use of a breadboard. The code I used to tell the LED to light is is pictured here. You can also set it to fade in and out, or add another LED.
This is the code I used:
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever void
loop() {
digitalWrite(13, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(13, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
Step 7: Finished!
That's it!
