In this tutorial, I will show you how to build a yarn globe lamp with some LEDs, copper tape, touch sensor, and ATtiny45. The lamp will be turned on and have the fading effect when you hold the sensor.

Materials needed:

3 LEDs, any color you would like it to be

ATtiny45

button battery and battery holder

copper tape

yarn (a lot)

a small wooden basket or board

soldering kit

school glue

1 balloon

Step 1: Make the Yarn Globe

To start, blow air into the balloon to make it the size that you think is good for a lamp.

Mix about half a bottle of the school glue with water, and then soak the yarn into the glue.

Pull the yarn thread and wrap it around the balloon so that it gradually form the pattern as you can see in the picture. You can either draw on the ballon or simply leave an opening on one side of the balloon.

Once this step is done, leave the yarn globe aside and wait for about two days.

More details can be found in YouTube: How to make a lampshade, lanterns, and yarn globes

Step 2: Test the Circuit

Use one LED, some wires and the ATtiny to build a testing circuit.

I used the Tiny Programmer and the Arduino IDE to upload the code to the ATtiny.

We will use pin 0 to connect to the LED. Connect the power pin and the ground pin to a 3v battery. Use an extra wire as the touch sensor and connect it to pin 4.

Once the circuit is connected, hold the wire from pin 4 to see if the LED will light up and then fade as we programmed.

Here is the Code Example for fading.

With the touch sensor: Code Example

Step 3: Construct the Circuit

Reconstruct the circuit using copper tape.

Since the pins of the ATtiny is really thin, be careful of the short circuit when you solder it to the copper tape.

I arrange the battery holder on one side of the wooden basket and the ATtiny on the other side. This will leave enough room for you to put the LEDs.

Use the multimeter to examine the circuit carefully.

Step 4: Make the Pom-pom Touch Sensor

Use the extra yarn and wrap it around your fingers about 30 times.

Cut a separate yarn thread to make the string to hang the pom-pom to your circuit.

Use the conductive thread and sew it through the pom-pom thread. The goal here is to create a big enough conductive area so that your finger can touch as a touch sensor.

Connect the whole piece to the ATtiny. Solder and glue it on pin 4 of the ATtiny.