Mirror Mirror (with RGB LED)

Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror is a wall lamp that lights up when people pass by. The color changes according to the weekdays - Monday is blue, Tuesday is green, Wednesday is yellow….

Materials: 1 piece of bronze mirror acrylic (12” L x 12” W x ⅛”D), 2 pieces of black acrylic (24” L x 12” W x ⅛”D)

Electronic Components: Adafruit Arduino Kit, Adafruit Neopixel LEDs Strip, PIR (motion) sensor, 5V power supply

Tools: Silicone Cement, Hot Glue Gun, Soldering Station

Step 1: Sketch Out Your Ideal Mirror Shape on Paper and Cut It Out. Put LEDs Strip on the Paper to See If It Fits.

I personally wanted to build a pebble-shaped mirror.

Step 2: Scale Your Mirror So It Fits Into a 12” Square. Draw the Mirror in Adobe Illustrator and Save It As an .ai File.

We will use this file to laser cut the bronze mirror acrylic.

Step 3: Draw the Boxes That Will House the Arduino Board, Breadboard and PIR Sensor So That They Fit Into a 24” X 12” Sheet of Acrylic.

These files will be used to laser cut the black acrylic.

Step 4: Laser Cut the Bronze and Black Acrylic.

Here is one space where you could laser cut your files, if you don’t have a lasercutter handy: http://nyclasercut.com/.

Step 5: Use Silicone to Glue the Acrylic Together and Use the Hot Glue Gun to Glue the LEDs Strip Around the Outside Edge of Your Mirror.

Warning: Be careful - acrylic is easily scratched and silicone cement always gets everywhere.

Step 6: Connect the Neopixel Strip Wire on the Arduino

The Neopixel Strip “IN” wire [the white wire coming off of the Neopixel strip] needs to be connected to Pin 6 on the Arduino. The VCC wire, which supplies power to the Neopixel strip, and is colored red, needs to be connected to the 5V power supply on the Arduino and the black wire from the Neopixel strip “GND” needs to be connected to the Arduino ground.

Step 7: Connect the Motion Sensor on the Arduino

Use the tiny breadboard to wire up the motion sensor to Arduino Pin A0. Be sure to connect a resistor to the circuit as shown in the diagram below.

Step 8: Turn on Your Computer to Upload the Code Onto the Arduino Board to Make It Work.

Download three Arduino libraries - a Neopixel library, a time library and an alarm library.

Neopixel library: www.github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel

Time library: www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Time.html

Alarm library: www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Time.html

(I will provide the code later!!!)

This project is inspired by the monthly mood cube and which is where time code comes from.

Before putting all the parts into the box, upload the program onto the Arduino by connecting it to a computer. The Arduino program keeps track of the time, changes the color of the LEDs and fades them to black when people leave.

Step 9: Place Your Arduino Board Into Acrylic Box.

Once the program and libraries are loaded onto the Arduino and tested, disconnect the laptop.

Step 10: Hang Mirror Mirror on the Wall and Plug It In!!!

Demo video: http://instagram.com/p/wdJKUONwnj/?modal=true