In-Case Lightshow

This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Makecourse at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse.com)

This Project is a light show that uses 3D printed parts, a servo, a stepper motor, an arduino, and LED's in order to make a light show, as shown in the video, that moves around the LED's and provides back light to the lighting box.

In these next steps I shall show you how to make this device starting with the Circutry.

Step 1: Circuitry

In order to build this Circuit you will need

1 Arduino Uno

1 Button

2 RGB LED's

4 colored LED's

1 Servo

1 Stepper motor with shield

The wires we are going to be using are male to male and female to female wires as shown above. This is due to the fast that you can peel back the lip of the female wire shown above to reveal the bare wire for crimping. I would recommend crimping all your wires to the various devices so as to prevent them from falling off.

We are going to be using 220 Ohm resistances for all the resistors above. To start with wire the button as shown in the picture above. This is simply wiring both one end to 5 volts and one end to ground and placing the wire from the 2 port of the Arduino somwhere in series. Next wire the RGB led's. I used common Cathode LED's so they have a wire going to 5 volts instead of ground. These wire to the 6, 3, and 5, for the Red, Green, and Blue pins respectively. Next two wire the color LED's just place the 5 volt long pin to 7 and 4 pins of the Arduino as shown and the other pins to ground through a 220 ohm resistor. Lastly wire the servo to pin 12 and the Stepper motor to pins 8-11 using the shield provided with the stepper motor making sure to wire 5 volts and ground to the shield.

Step 2: Hardware

All of the hardware for this project was made in application Inventor using the 3D printers available in the visual studio on the USF campus. All the parts have been provided below and can be printed using 3D printing outsource sites.

The parts for this project are:

The two domes. these are where the LED's shall go and have 4 holes to hold them.

The case. This is the large case where the lightshow will take place.

The holders. these are a pair of holders that will hold up the dome and hide the RGB LED's for backlighting

The box. This will hold the wires and devices to run the system.

Step 3: Code

The fully commented code is provided below for the Arduino Uno. The code is separated into two for loops that each control half of the LED's turning the Servo and Stepper motor clockwise and counterclockwise respectively. The RGB LED's are common cathode as stated previously so they need there own function in order to flip the pulse width modulated outputs so you can still have 255 as maximum when picking colors but have it appear as the zero required for a common Cathode maximum.

In order to turn the device on and off a function was made for the button. Pressing the button once will turn it on but in order to turn it off you need to press and hold the button until you see the motors have stopped. You then have around 1.5 seconds in order to let go of the button at which point the lights will turn off. This is due to the fact that if you can turn of the device by simply pressing the button you will also accidentally turn the device back on before you can let go.

Step 4: Implementation

By this point the wiring should be mostly finished with just the various parts to be attached through the 3D printed parts. first in order to place the color LED's place them through the premade holes in the two domes and crimp the female to female phantom wires two them so they do not move. Place the button in the hole on the right hand side of the lid and crimp wires two it as well.

In order to set up the case glue the 6 inch tall case to the lid making sure to line up the holes correctly then glue the dome holders to their spots above the holes in the case for the wires to run through. In order to cause the domes to turn drill a tall screw with a small width into the top of the domes for use in combining them with the motors. As shown in the pictures above glue foam, any type that is sturdy will do, to the top of the stepper motor and server so that the will turn with it.

Finally place the RGB led's behind the holders so that they will back light the system.

When you are placing the lid onto the box after everything is wired as shown make sure to line up the screw with the foam so that when the motors turn the domes will also.

You now have your own In-Case Light show. enjoy!