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RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:51 pm
by Headroom
I am in process of upgrading/redesigning a halogen lighting system I built 18 years ago.
Instead of the halogen light bulbs I am going to use RGB LEDs and microprocessor (Arduino) controlled LED drivers to give the whole thing a more dynamic effect.

This is a concept rendering.

The file has 6 light layers. 1 default and 5 for each LED. I have made some feeble attempts to do a light layer animation in the Blender video sequence editor. Works surprisingly well. However as 5 LED x 3 for each color channel plus a default layer account for 16 channels to simultaneously juggle I may abandon that idea and focus getting the thing built ;-)

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:23 am
by Polinalkrimizei
This is some very cool lamp, Headroom!. Congratz if you do this for a living, (and also if this is just a fun project). I'd love to see an animation if you have the time...

Microprocessor-controlled RGB LEDs are soo cool, some months ago we put almost 15 meters of RGB LED strips along the edges of the ceiling of my brother-in-laws living room, and it RULEZ :twisted:

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2011 11:51 pm
by Headroom
Thanks! No I don't do that for a living, even though that would be neat. I hope to make a few more if people are interested and it would be nice if it turns into somewhat of a self sustaining hobby so it can pay for a SolidWorks license. I am currently doing the mechanical design in Alibre Design and while it is certainly capable of doing it, I have more than 10 years of experience with SolidWorks and it feels so much more fluid and quick in SW.

However, right now it is just project for fun and I am interested to see how the physical example will compare to the Indigo rendering and perhaps an animation. A general question that has always interested me aside from being able to generate nice images, how does it compare to physical reality.

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:56 am
by zeitmeister
Great!
I love this lamp!

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 3:46 am
by dakiru
Headroom wrote:I am in process of upgrading/redesigning a halogen lighting system I built 18 years ago.
Instead of the halogen light bulbs I am going to use RGB LEDs and microprocessor (Arduino) controlled LED drivers to give the whole thing a more dynamic effect.

This is a concept rendering.

The file has 6 light layers. 1 default and 5 for each LED. I have made some feeble attempts to do a light layer animation in the Blender video sequence editor. Works surprisingly well. However as 5 LED x 3 for each color channel plus a default layer account for 16 channels to simultaneously juggle I may abandon that idea and focus getting the thing built ;-)
Great lamp detected. :)

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:38 am
by Pibuz
..the brick texture is good too, maybe a littel repetitive though...
Wonderful lamp btw: great modeling and light-mat setting!

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:41 am
by Headroom
Thanks for the positive comments!

First electronic components have already arrived and I think I'll be ready to play next week.
I am still redesigning the mechanical side of the project in order to keep cost at bay. Only the electronics (Arduino Uno, LED driver shields, LEDs and power supplies) cost about $350!

I've looked for quite a while until I found an affordable brick texture that included a displacement map.. Cost $5 on TurboSquid. I am sure there are more "out there" but often these are bundled into bigger libraries and aimed at pros (or perhaps affluent hobbyists). This one is obviously not particularly big, thus it repeats itself.
For this project where you have a light source sitting directly against the wall displacement was needed though.

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:26 am
by Headroom
So here's a little update. The image above still reflects the dual rail design made from aluminum tubing that served for a long time as the means to power low voltage halogen bulbs.

I had to re-design that of course because obviously RGB Leds have very different electrical requirements, need heat sinks etc. Once I was done with that I decided to play around with placing a glass aperture between the LED and the backdrop to see if I could get some patterns to emerge, which worked much better than I had expected.

The second image is another concept that takes these things perhaps a step further.

As discussed in this thread:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... =7&t=11053
the colors may, or may not be too saturated.

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:48 am
by cotty
Headroom wrote:Once I was done with that I decided to play around with placing a glass aperture between the LED and the backdrop to see if I could get some patterns to emerge, which worked much better than I had expected.
I would like to see a detail of this nice feature! Stylish lamps! :wink:
Cotty

RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:17 am
by Headroom
What feature are you referring to.
Do you mean the glass plate that I called aperture ?

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:35 pm
by cotty
Headroom wrote:What feature are you referring to.
Do you mean the glass plate that I called aperture ?
Yes!

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:53 am
by Headroom
The glass template for the rings pattern in the first image is really exceedingly simple. It's a round glass plate with a round hole in the middle. The three LEDs are arranged in a triangular pattern on the MCPCB (Metal Core Printed Circuit Board) thus you'll end up with three rings on the wall.

With that explained if you look closely you can imagine how the pattern of the second one looks. I have a screenshot of it attached.

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:58 pm
by cotty
Very interesting topic. Thank you for sharing the details!
Cotty

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:10 am
by Headroom
I finally have a first functioning prototype assembled. I think we can put to rest any concerns that the LED colors in the renderings may be to saturated!

I have an photo attached. Not only is it truly amazing to see this in person as it cycles through the really simple color scheme (Interleaved sawtooth) but it is also truly amazing that the renders are so close to reality and could be even closer if I had provided Indigo with more accurate input (tabulated data/spectra).

I have all materials and cannot wait putting the whole thing together. It is going to be a monster spanning 14' across (this applies to the "Lord of The Rings").

Re: RGB Mood Lamp

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:39 am
by dakiru
Great work, Headroom! The lamp looks to be very cool. A video of it working could be nice :)

P.S.
Is Cartman unhappy with something about the lamp? :wink: