I wonder if the microcontroller can poll the accelerometer fast enough to keep a pattern stable as the ball rolls? It'd be cool to see a Pacman or an eyeball or something that always points 'forward' as the ball rolls.
should be possible. the minimum ODR for most of those (haven't looked at the one Carl used) is 25 Hz (which would already be quite good) but they can easily go 100 Hz+ which should be enough. However I don' know if this would be physically possible, since this might also need a gyro sensor. one way or another you would probably need to calculate and subtract the centrifugal forces from the ball spin
@@TheRailroad99 He's using an ADXL345 from 4:15 . They have a typical ODR of 3kHz, which should be good enough but the lack of an IMU might bring in some issues with the features
@@CarlBugeja you should look up Stephen Hawed UA-cam channel and his lumenPNP pick and place machine!!! it would make soldering all those leds a lot easier for you!!!
Nice! I've been wanting to do a led sphere for a while but couldn't get my head round teh geometry. Re. the reed switch - you can get some very low power hall sensors that only draw a couple of microamps, which will be smaller and more sensitive. Magnet sense to switch on, auto poweroff if no movement for a while. I'm not surprised the adhesive peels, as this stuff doesn't work long-term if there is continuous tension on it. Maybe tack down with UV glue, or have the ends soldered together at the tips.
At work on lunch watching this video. Altium Designer Mentioned. Look at 2nd screen where I am currently working in Altium. GRIN Granted Altium Designer is VERY expensive, however Altium does have other PCB design tools targeted at hobbyists like CircuitStudio and CircuitMaker. (they however dont have the full capability of Altium Designer obviously)
Excellent project although I’m amazed it stood up quite so well to the battering. Perhaps embedding the leds into a cast bouncy ball might give additional resilience and inductively recharge the battery? “Games in the Dark” could be good idea for next Xmas. Good luck 😀👍
You have some serious skills! Power to you for making such a pretty project and testing it to the extreme. I'm trying to wrap my head around how you made the leds illuminate independent. Keep doing you, wizard of DC circuitry
Cool build! Some thoughts: 1. What about using inductive charging? That would eliminate the need for external wires and the charging circuit could be set up to disconnect the battery--and thereby turn off the LEDs--until the unit is removed from the charger. 2. A TPU diffuser/cover would absorb more force. You could also put the whole thing inside an actual ping pong ball for added protection. 3. Instead of having magnets directly holding the two halves together, a solenoid--or two--could release a mechanical latch--or two--when the IMU detects a particular knock pattern. 4. Could the antenna be brought to the surface as a wire or even a trace on the LED part of the PCB? Does that make sense?
i'm not even two minutes into the video as a first time watcher here and i'm already blown away at your work, excellent stuff, can't wait to finish this video and see how it turns out. i think i'll subscribe and see what else you come up with.... ok now i'm at 4:25 and this dude is coding and silkscreening his own flex boards. mind blown.
You should make a version two that has wireless charging and a custom ball holding wireless charging base. Then you could check if it is charging is if charging turn the lights off. But you could also watch for taps while charging and if tapped cycle through some options. (Solid color (more taps change color), cycling, strobe, random, etc)
Challenges for another version: Make it charge wirelessly and print the case around the ball. Pause the print half way, put the ball in, then continue print until the case is done, this will make the outer shell much stronger.
A wireless charing loop might be a good way of recharging it. Perhaps you could even charge it over multiple charging points while it's rolling around... NFC or Wifi could be used to turn it off, and you could potentially use the lower pwer/sleep modes of both the gyro and the cpu to detect movement and turn it on, and then turn off after no movement detected after a certain amount of time. Just random thoughts...
Do you need the inner ball? Why not glue or friction fit the leds in the outer ball? That would save weight and you then have room for a bayonet locking mechanism in the middle.
Having 2 halfs that screw together seems like it would be a good bet and strong enough for the ping pong test. Perhaps a qi charging coil for wireless charging would allow you to permanently seal the pingpong ball since you already have wireless programming? Very cool project!
Adhesive doesn't stick to filament printed parts unfortunately. If you sand the surface smooth, you will have better luck 👍 The other alternative is to print the ball in resin?
I was thinking the same, the surface area is reduced due to the layer lines. Resin is probably a no-go unless he uses some crazy strong engineering resin. Even the flexible resins available to us hobbyists would crack after a while due to UV exposure.
@@BEdmonson85 The UV problem could be overcome with a UV resistant spray making the surface even better. I honestly don't think it would crack, depending on the thickness. But you are right, resin prints can be brittle if not cured correctly.
Carl, do you plan on doing a live stream with followers to think along with you some of your projects? I am really impressed about your creativity and how your process of creating these models work.
Slight sw improvement: 1. Create a 3d map of the LED's 2. Calculate the impact vector upon hit 3. Sweep a plane through 3D space along this vector 4. Update LED's according to when passed through their coordinate by plane = success.
most of the weight on your small projects come from the battery. Have you ever considered using button cells? They are really amazingly light, can fit on a PCB and the lithium ones can still provide 3v for all microcontroller tasks
One idea that could be neat is if you had an inertia measurement unit inside so that you can maintain an LED pattern's orientation regardless of the ball's angle.
Adhesive didn't stick because you should've made internal hemispheres more smooth and in latitude-rib style. Probably some kind of solvant(acetone) should work as smoothener for the plastic.
I think it would be more cooler if you have build a billiard ball or maybe more than one and made its outer shell more stiff like with resin and everytime a billiard ball detects a acceleration it should change its colour
Would it be possible to get custom manufactured flex OLED display? I believe it would lower power consumption drastically and also weight. Also a different MCU and a slightly smaller battery could lower power consumption and weight. Finally if there would've been a regenerative power mechanism that picks up some power from each hit, the battery could last a tiny bit more. This little cool ball of yours could def be optimised.
A major problem is the deformation of the outer shell which traditional filaments will do poorly at. I would try making some spring action for the LED sphere and making the outer shell a flexible filament so that it doesn't break when being hit repeatedly over a long period of time.
AAout the battery. I recently played with Lithium Ion capacitor (yes, Not a typo). I got one from element14, Vinatech vel08203r8306g, 3.8volt 30F. not so sure how it compare to the Li-ion batter but they're really lightweight.
Pretty much like everyone mostly said very impressive. You've gotten really good for some reason i haven't kept up but this here i want 1 and will pay if you make some batches lol👍🏾
Hello, first of all perfect design and realization of your project *-* But I have a question, what type of filament (ABS, PLA, ...) and what configuration of your 3D printer you use to validate the design of your flex pcb? :) Thanks in advance
Have always wondered whether you could harvest energy from an accelerometer wired in reverse too. Seems like you should be able to since fundamentally any sensor is also a generator, but typical use cases and forces would make it unpractical for pretty much anything but this, which might explain why you never see it
I wonder if the microcontroller can poll the accelerometer fast enough to keep a pattern stable as the ball rolls? It'd be cool to see a Pacman or an eyeball or something that always points 'forward' as the ball rolls.
should be possible.
the minimum ODR for most of those (haven't looked at the one Carl used) is 25 Hz (which would already be quite good) but they can easily go 100 Hz+ which should be enough.
However I don' know if this would be physically possible, since this might also need a gyro sensor. one way or another you would probably need to calculate and subtract the centrifugal forces from the ball spin
@@TheRailroad99 Ah, good point, I assumed he was using an IMU that combined them, but I didn't catch which chip he's using.
@@TheRailroad99 He's using an ADXL345 from 4:15 . They have a typical ODR of 3kHz, which should be good enough but the lack of an IMU might bring in some issues with the features
Beautiful mind
i was literally thinking the same thing
I'm inpressed alright.
It's crazy how good you are at making these almost first try, really shows the experience you've acquired.
Inspiring
Thank you so much 😊
Couldn't agree more. I'm always amazed by his skills and creativity. Wish you all the best Carl!
@@CarlBugeja you should look up Stephen Hawed UA-cam channel and his lumenPNP pick and place machine!!! it would make soldering all those leds a lot easier for you!!!
This is insane! Carl, you just make the best of these PCBs👍🎉
Nice! I've been wanting to do a led sphere for a while but couldn't get my head round teh geometry. Re. the reed switch - you can get some very low power hall sensors that only draw a couple of microamps, which will be smaller and more sensitive. Magnet sense to switch on, auto poweroff if no movement for a while.
I'm not surprised the adhesive peels, as this stuff doesn't work long-term if there is continuous tension on it. Maybe tack down with UV glue, or have the ends soldered together at the tips.
At work on lunch watching this video. Altium Designer Mentioned. Look at 2nd screen where I am currently working in Altium.
GRIN
Granted Altium Designer is VERY expensive, however Altium does have other PCB design tools targeted at hobbyists like CircuitStudio and CircuitMaker. (they however dont have the full capability of Altium Designer obviously)
Excellent project although I’m amazed it stood up quite so well to the battering. Perhaps embedding the leds into a cast bouncy ball might give additional resilience and inductively recharge the battery? “Games in the Dark” could be good idea for next Xmas. Good luck 😀👍
I was also thinking about casting in solid resin. Especially at this size.
That will make a beautiful Christmas decoration on a Christmas tree. Trust me.
Once Carl showing the beauty in miniature electronics! Truly pretty and awesome!
Super cool. I am really impressed how you manage to put that much creativity in an normally so boring thing like a PCB every time
This guy looks like the guy who builds the creative bomb devices in TV shows and Movies.
Dear PCBWay: Thanks for letting flexible PCB be accessible to the masses.
Dear Carl: Thanks for making PCBWay make some crazy stuff. ;D
you just read our mind 😇😜
Once again your ingenuity has me astounded. Very cool project. Your ability to push PCB manufacturers to their limits is beautiful.
Bro this was cool af. Im glad we got someone out here using these flexible pcb's with some creativity.
now that,s the future of ping-pong my dudes 😊😊🤖🤖🦾🦾🦿🦿🧠🧠🥽🥽🥼🥼☢☢☣☣😀😀
Thanks! Looks fun to use.
You have some serious skills! Power to you for making such a pretty project and testing it to the extreme.
I'm trying to wrap my head around how you made the leds illuminate independent.
Keep doing you, wizard of DC circuitry
It's your best project so far. Impressive work, man.
Cool build! Some thoughts:
1. What about using inductive charging? That would eliminate the need for external wires and the charging circuit could be set up to disconnect the battery--and thereby turn off the LEDs--until the unit is removed from the charger.
2. A TPU diffuser/cover would absorb more force. You could also put the whole thing inside an actual ping pong ball for added protection.
3. Instead of having magnets directly holding the two halves together, a solenoid--or two--could release a mechanical latch--or two--when the IMU detects a particular knock pattern.
4. Could the antenna be brought to the surface as a wire or even a trace on the LED part of the PCB?
Does that make sense?
OMG Carl!!! It's beautiful... Awesome work!
i'm not even two minutes into the video as a first time watcher here and i'm already blown away at your work, excellent stuff, can't wait to finish this video and see how it turns out. i think i'll subscribe and see what else you come up with.... ok now i'm at 4:25 and this dude is coding and silkscreening his own flex boards. mind blown.
I love ..LOVE.. this kind of projects.. Awesome job!
01:40... Of course, adhesive tape. A teacher used to tell me "if your project isn't working it means that you didn't use enough adhesive tape" 😂👌🏼
check a tennis ball, it is made of two ideal interlocking tongues. you can print them and they will keep each other in place while you play
You could totally make your own little pre-lit Deathstars :D
You should make a version two that has wireless charging and a custom ball holding wireless charging base. Then you could check if it is charging is if charging turn the lights off. But you could also watch for taps while charging and if tapped cycle through some options. (Solid color (more taps change color), cycling, strobe, random, etc)
With the heavy weight precluding bouncing, perhaps an LED bowling ball.
Omg, and with the same size LEDs that would be amazing
Challenges for another version: Make it charge wirelessly and print the case around the ball.
Pause the print half way, put the ball in, then continue print until the case is done, this will make the outer shell much stronger.
it would be nice to see some more advanced animations like Matt Parker did on his Christmas tree
Should have been a 'Manscaped' sponsored video :)
A wireless charing loop might be a good way of recharging it. Perhaps you could even charge it over multiple charging points while it's rolling around... NFC or Wifi could be used to turn it off, and you could potentially use the lower pwer/sleep modes of both the gyro and the cpu to detect movement and turn it on, and then turn off after no movement detected after a certain amount of time. Just random thoughts...
That would make an incredible cat-toy for people who want their cats to keep them awake all night.
Do you need the inner ball? Why not glue or friction fit the leds in the outer ball? That would save weight and you then have room for a bayonet locking mechanism in the middle.
Having 2 halfs that screw together seems like it would be a good bet and strong enough for the ping pong test. Perhaps a qi charging coil for wireless charging would allow you to permanently seal the pingpong ball since you already have wireless programming? Very cool project!
This needs more views. Very cool sir
This is cool project
The video quality is sooo good!!!
I guess, wireless charging would have been better. Your every project is out of the box... excellent work bro.
Adhesive doesn't stick to filament printed parts unfortunately. If you sand the surface smooth, you will have better luck 👍
The other alternative is to print the ball in resin?
I was thinking the same, the surface area is reduced due to the layer lines. Resin is probably a no-go unless he uses some crazy strong engineering resin. Even the flexible resins available to us hobbyists would crack after a while due to UV exposure.
@@BEdmonson85 The UV problem could be overcome with a UV resistant spray making the surface even better. I honestly don't think it would crack, depending on the thickness. But you are right, resin prints can be brittle if not cured correctly.
@@tonywharton5220 Yeah I didn't think about the UV protective sprays. One other consideration is weight. Resin tends to be heavier than plastic.
It's impressive how you fail on first try and still find the motivation to make a second one :)
You could shine a white light through a prism and scatter the resulting light using mirrors within the ball
Please make a short or something of it rolling with the accelerometer being used tk keep the led pattern upright.
OMG That's gorgeous Carl!!! 😱 Excelent work as usual!
Please try to make a micro joule ringer on pcb.
Like the vid nice job
Carl, do you plan on doing a live stream with followers to think along with you some of your projects? I am really impressed about your creativity and how your process of creating these models work.
I think you might have inadvertently created a new Olympic sport: dark room ping pong. Opponents won't be able to see anything but the ball.
Print an translucent TPU cover and use it as a regular catching ball so that it changes colour when caught
Slight sw improvement:
1. Create a 3d map of the LED's
2. Calculate the impact vector upon hit
3. Sweep a plane through 3D space along this vector
4. Update LED's according to when passed through their coordinate by plane
= success.
agree! i originally planned to release this last christmas but i had to delay it because of the led mistake
Amazing project! Good job!
This is really cool.
Really cool protect
The coolest ping-pong ball ever.
most of the weight on your small projects come from the battery. Have you ever considered using button cells? They are really amazingly light, can fit on a PCB and the lithium ones can still provide 3v for all microcontroller tasks
The problem is with the maximum current output - this ball would need around ~0.3A to run
@@CarlBugeja oh I see , i didn't know that the current output on these was that limited , thanks for the reply
You are a damn legend Carl
Carl I really love your videos you make the best creations ever and so inspiring your doing Amazing with this Carl 👍👍👍👍
Your work is amazing! I would have said that this couldn't be done.
Thank you! 😊
One idea that could be neat is if you had an inertia measurement unit inside so that you can maintain an LED pattern's orientation regardless of the ball's angle.
Bro is underrated
That is well done!
So Awesome
This was so cool
LOL, PCB ping pong balls, yep, that sounds like something Carl would build. Neat project!
That's so fliping cool, you should try making a wired rgb mouse Bluetooth. I want to do it but I have no idea on any way to do it.
Thanks, very very amazing project. It's an incredible lesson
That's super cool
very good project,
You could have added a diode to the charging pads, so that current can only flow to the battery and not backwards
Wow... It's really amazing.
I love it.
You have a positive energy Man.
🌹🌹🌹💙💙💙💙💙💙💜💜
You are doing great
I wonder if it is possible to make an ico sphere of LEDs considering it can be flattened pretty well... That would look sick
Quick now turn into a wireless midi controller 🎧
But nice work 👍
my mans needs a pick and place machine
Where do you even come up this this stuff… lol so super freaking awesome!! Keep up the awesome and amazing hard work and content!!
Have you considered trying this on the moon? I'm sure PCBway would sponsor your guidance computer at least
love your design, I'm now a subscriber. keep up the great videos
Cool cat toy
There may be a way to do wireless charging and have the circuit turn off when it is in the charging state
I feel that your solution is really simple just use rubber bands it will work so you put it in a right tension and you know right surface
Really like this one. Now if you can incorporate piezoelectric charging and reduce the battery size :)
I'll bet you could make a killing in the cat toy market. :)
amazing video
Adhesive didn't stick because you should've made internal hemispheres more smooth and in latitude-rib style. Probably some kind of solvant(acetone) should work as smoothener for the plastic.
And i think outer shell is more than enough. Instead of internal sphere some kind of skeletal structure should work best.
really awesome project, i love that !
I think it would be more cooler if you have build a billiard ball or maybe more than one and made its outer shell more stiff like with resin and everytime a billiard ball detects a acceleration it should change its colour
Pretty sure you are a wizard. Awesome project as always.
Cool project, thanks for the video
That is so beautiful and well made 😀👍👍👍
Would it be possible to get custom manufactured flex OLED display?
I believe it would lower power consumption drastically and also weight.
Also a different MCU and a slightly smaller battery could lower power consumption and weight.
Finally if there would've been a regenerative power mechanism that picks up some power from each hit, the battery could last a tiny bit more.
This little cool ball of yours could def be optimised.
A major problem is the deformation of the outer shell which traditional filaments will do poorly at. I would try making some spring action for the LED sphere and making the outer shell a flexible filament so that it doesn't break when being hit repeatedly over a long period of time.
Just see if the company is up for the challenge of doing lithography on inside surface of a ping pong ball. 😂
Super cool bro 👍👍👍👍
Amazing, amazing, amazing, how many months does it take you ?
AAout the battery. I recently played with Lithium Ion capacitor (yes, Not a typo). I got one from element14, Vinatech vel08203r8306g, 3.8volt 30F. not so sure how it compare to the Li-ion batter but they're really lightweight.
Pretty much like everyone mostly said very impressive. You've gotten really good for some reason i haven't kept up but this here i want 1 and will pay if you make some batches lol👍🏾
Hello, first of all perfect design and realization of your project *-* But I have a question, what type of filament (ABS, PLA, ...) and what configuration of your 3D printer you use to validate the design of your flex pcb? :)
Thanks in advance
I've done that exact thing with the wrong footprint for those LEDs.
Love love love!!!
Could replace the battery with a capacitor that's self-charged by piezos getting struck every time you hit it
Have always wondered whether you could harvest energy from an accelerometer wired in reverse too. Seems like you should be able to since fundamentally any sensor is also a generator, but typical use cases and forces would make it unpractical for pretty much anything but this, which might explain why you never see it
Something like the SW-18015p vibration sensor would probably work better than a MEMS scale one
Awesome
great project man