Wow, Jake, you read my mind. I was considering adding this in a little section to my videos, but I'll just give you my recs directly: Very similar style of videos (basically direct inspirations for my channel) but with game development: DevDuck: www.youtube.com/@DevDuck Thin Matrix: www.youtube.com/@ThinMatrix Smaller channels that are similar in spirit (I think): Felix Schelhasse: ua-cam.com/channels/UI60hHqVzmePotF83Ecxhw.html Amy Makes Stuff: ua-cam.com/users/blockowood3 Winston Moy: ua-cam.com/users/krayvis Stephen Hawes: ua-cam.com/channels/Mf49SMPnhxdLormhEpfyfg.html Sophy Wong: ua-cam.com/channels/FkrcZuO5F1GkHQdoVD8YBA.html NODE: www.youtube.com/@NODEtv/videos Ian Davis: ua-cam.com/channels/v1xxFkEiAdCVy6foEEUIvw.html Mihai Designs: ua-cam.com/channels/MvNnP9oAQl5IApL8XBQIkQ.html Big channels (chances are you already follow them): Tested: ua-cam.com/users/testedcom Laura Kampf: www.youtube.com/@laurakampf Zack Freedman: ua-cam.com/users/ZackFreedman Click Spring: ua-cam.com/channels/worsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA.html DIY Perks: ua-cam.com/users/DIYPerks
It's not as much design but Leo at Sampson Boat Co (www.youtube.com/@SampsonBoatCo) has spent the last 5 years rebuilding and documenting an old sailing yacht. He's definitely got the same attention to detail as Steven!
For the flickering you may try sweeping the whole frequency range and find a frequency that works with the frame rate of your camera. Maybe something close or little beyond a multiple of the Nyquist frequency would do the trick. If you record at 30fps, try between 120-125, 240-245, 480-485, etc.
I was going to comment for this reason exactly. Just make sure that the frequency is a multiple of the frequency of your camera and you should be good. Likely a multiple of 30 will do e.g. 990hz. But check with your camera specs. As long as you’re above 240 I wouldn’t be too worried about visible flicker IRL.
@@MrHejole yeah the flicker is only an issue for people that film and it isn’t designed to be a filming light, it may cause some issues if people are using it as a workbench light and they are using cameras or machine vision or digital microscopes but it shouldn’t be much of an issue otherwise. Another point to consider is that the flickering may affect the future ambient light mode, there will need to be something in the code to compensate for that, although it would be pretty difficult since if the sensor is measured when the pwm is low, it would see dark and if measured when the pwm is high would see full brightness. So for that changing the frequency wouldn’t matter, it would still affect it. The only way I can see that working is if the sensor takes loads of samples and averages the brightness.
I feel the urge to give this more than one thumbs up! I like the way you share your engineering thought process almost more than the project itself and it's an AWESOME project!
Quick suggestion for the PCB, I would suggest adding copper pours for power and ground because a project like this that pushes a decent amount of power through the LED's needs to have some copper area to dissipate that energy. Its something many beginners miss but you'll soon figure it out the more PCB's you make. Besides that, great job!
From one designer to another designer, I like it. I also like that you’re making it clear what has challenged you and what resources you used to learn how to make a pub etc. Excited to see how it goes!
for the on camera flicking issue, it should be sufficient to set the "right" frequency instead of cranking it up like there is no tomorrow. most cameras still shoot at 25 fps (for yt and instructional videos i guess), so a multiple of that, at least so high the human eye can not detect the flicker, should work. also, that would be easy to implement in code with a settings variable like "set your camera fps here".
Love this series! If you're looking to make some prototypes and potentially get a production run made of those aluminum clips I could help you out with that. I run a small manufacturing company and that part seems right up my alley.
Hey, love your stuff. (Idea for fix down below) We probably don't care that much if it flickers on camera, as long as it isn't visible to the naked eye in the final product I'd be happy. But besides that try syncing your PWM-frequency with your shutter speed and framerate. For example if you're shooting at 60Hz try to let your shutter speed be 1/60th or 1/120th depending on your preference for motion blur. Your lamps PWM should in turn be good (on cam at least) at a multiple of your shutter, like 240 or maybe even 480Hz. Let me know if you already tried this, just tryin to shoot ideas. :D
I also think this is the best solution for fixing the storobing light issue. SeanHodgins on youtube made a display using spinning LED's and had to change camera settings in order to pick up the illusion on video.
@@StevenBennettMakes No problem, it's a common problem in cinematogeaphy, especially for product videography in the tech space (monitors can be a nightmare at times). But you have the advantage of being the manufacturer of your own light source, so good luck! :)
For the metal bracket you mentioned at the end, I don’t think it would be out the the question to make it out of sheet metal, it is a relatively simple geometry, the attachment point at the end could just be a bent up section and the heat pipe channel could be done by bending the two sides, it also won’t be visible. Then you could provide a stencil that people print out and stick on a metal sheet, then they have a guide to drill the holes, make the cuts and then file it down to the final shape, then they just need to bend it, which if made out of aluminium shouldn’t be all that difficult, it would just involve a few tools, a drill, a hacksaw, a file and probably a vice. You can get aluminium sheets very cheap, probably a lot cheaper than getting it machined.
Use pseudorandom noise generator so you can run the pwm at a lower frequency without the periodic waves that show up on camera. You can create a random signal using a shift register in a few lines of code. Cypress semiconductor has good datasheets on how this works
@@julianbinder2371 hmmm, you might be right. Now I'm remembering the pseudorandom is mostly for reducing electromagnetic interference at any one frequency. But it'll at least spread out the banding effect. I think the main problem is driving the LEDs through a voltage converter, it would be better to use a certain number of LEDs until you get the required voltage, instead of converting voltage down to drive a single LED. That way you can connect the chain of LEDs directly to supply without putting it through a singing inductor.
Have you thought about making the top a custom PCB with capacitive traces? Also maybe add a capacitive slider for brightnesscontrol. I always think they are better than switching up or down
Absolutely love the project. I just graduated with an Electronics Engineering degree and would love to help brainstorm solutions! Don't know how to use Discord but willing to learn
Really enjoying this series. For the issue with flickering/buzzing, you could make use of the fact you're now using a custom PCB. There are a lot of ICs that will do the same thing as that drop-in LED power supply, with only a few extra components. Just had a quick search of DigiKey and it something like the MAX16832A might work. Its data sheet has the PWM dimming input frequency at 200 kHz for its standard tests-so you can put the PWM frequency much, much higher than your present 1 kHz. You may still get audible inductor noise, but at frequencies above 20 kHz you won't hear it, so that solves both issues. Alternatively, you could use that LED power supply with an analog dimmer. You'd just need a simple RC (resistor-capacitor) low-pass filter between the PWM output of your microcontroller and the analog input of the power supply. There are calculators online; you could put the -3 dB corner frequency in the ballpark of 20-50 Hz. That said, it looks like most of the analog inputs to these devices get turned back into PWM internally, so you'd want to make sure that the internal PWM generation frequency was itself sufficiently high, or you'd end up with slightly more complicated circuit with the exact same flickering issue. Some DigiKey search results for 700 mA driver ICs: www.digikey.co.nz/en/products/filter/power-management-pmic/led-drivers/745?s=N4IgjCBcoCwJwyqAxlAZgQwDYGcCmANCAPZQDaIATAOyVwCsEAukQA4AuUIAyuwE4BLAHYBzEAF9JQA I think in this case the drop-in supply is causing too many design conflicts, and an IC would serve you better, despite the extra work interpreting the data sheet. Fortunately, several of the IC data sheets are pretty comprehensive. They include formulae to calculate all of the component values, and some even have suggested PCB layouts for the IC and supporting components. (This is the case for the MAX16832A. I should point out that I haven't used it before; it just ranked highly in the search results.)
This is an awesome series! I know it's a little, unspoken feature but i love how there is literally no glue in this whole project! it makes it so much easier to repair and tinker. i am so sick of modern devices being held together with little more than hopes, dreams and glue. I can't wait to build my own when you're done!
Please continue to make your videos in this style. Your mistakes and workflow are super helpful to see. As someone who hopes to soon be doing the things you're doing, thank you for sharing your work, it is inspiring.
My favorite video I watched this week! I suspect you, me and 5k other people thought the same thing when we saw the Dyson Lightcycle lamp: Elegant tech, I would like one, I don't have 5-600 USD for that (or don't value it at retail price, in spite of the beautiful execution). I have wanted to design something similar, but don't think I have the collection of skills to do so. I am learning a lot from your videos. Keeping my fingers crossed that your project will result in some sort of plans or DIY kit.
hey, really nice project series, love to watch your steps. Maybe try to add a Capacitor in Parallel to the LED to reduce the flickering. Try some Tantal Ceramics or a mid size Elko. with 100-200uF
Yep, the flicker and whine are both from the transition of digital thinking to powered components. A moderate capacitance at the LED to filter the power wave into (at least much closer to) DC, and if needed an inductor to further smooth the current and keep the output variance down.
I use very high PWM frequencies (20KHz and up) to avoid audible whine. In a few recent projects, I used the NXP PCA9634 8-channel LED driver, which uses a 97KHz PWM frequency. It’s also easy to control via I2C. Using white LEDs and small power MOSFETs, one can run the microcontroller and LEDs directly from a single 3.3V rail. There’s also the nearly identical (but now end-of-life) PCA9624 which includes power MOSFETs inside, allowing it to switch up to 40V at 800mA.
Really interesting video. I've used the AT42QT1070 for touch control on a project. Rather than using Adafruit's board I designed my own PCB and if you control via I2C then you can adjust sensitivity so it works through normal plastic. Looks like you've got a good solution though anyway!
To fix the flickering, I would try to use a frequency that's still low but is a multiple of 30 to match the common 30fps camera framerate. If you're trying to cover both 24fps & 30fps, I'd try 720hz or 1440hz.
I've built many LED lighting projects. It is slightly more advanced than using a sealed LED driver like yours, but consider designing a PCB with a LED driver IC instead. Many of these can support much higher PWM frequencies and also offer other benefits, such as multiple output channels (colour mixing of cool/warm). You can get Buck/Boost driver ICs, which require inductors but can run LEDs at a different voltage to the power supply, or linear driver ICs, which can only run LEDs below the supply voltage but don't require as many extra components. Any "extra" voltage above the forward voltage of the LED will be dissipated as heat in linear drivers so it helps to have a power supply just slightly above the LED forward voltage. I tend to use linear drivers because they're simpler and can be more efficient if the power supply and LED voltages are closely matched. Give me a shout if you want to chat!
I'd love to chat with you on discord about the electronics and fixing the whine and flicker problem. I'm an Electonics Engineer and I designed made a dimmable constant-current switch-mode driver for a 30 Watt Lumiled COB. Your problems are definitely solvable 🙂.
Regarding the touch buttons : why don’t you use the TTP223 capacitive modules ? They are so sensitive and work great even behind 2-3 mm of insulation like acrylic glass. They are also dirt cheap, like 3$ for a pack of 5.
Nice starting with the electronics 👍 Projects look way more professional with custom PCB's. For the LED PWM Problem try to use linear regulation and if the powerloss ist too big maybe add switched preregulation. Thats how i would do it on first thought. However there are a ton of led driver IC's that do it all for you with much higher switching frequencies some allow changing the freq. Keep up the good work i like this series now with electronics even more 😁👍
You can shrink and cost-down the whole "buck converter" bit by replacing it with a linear regulator. Also, try adding some capacitors to the input and output of the LED supply; that can significantly reduce flickering. (For that matter, you could do to add capacitors to a _lot_ of different places on your circuit...)
This project is amazing. I don't know what you do for a living but you need to stop doing it and concentrate on this. Get your priorities in order. In all seriousness I can't wait for the next installment, and the final finished design. Im definitely contemplating making this lamp myself as long as all the parts are available and not stupidly expensive. Out of interest do yo have any idea what the final build cost will be? Not exactly, just a ballpark figure?
Such a cool way to implement the capacitive buttons. Did you experiment with using them as a single piece? I wonder how far from the pogo pin you'd have to get before the resistance of the PLA was enough to stop the button working. P.S. The "I've known about the flickering for a while" shot confirmed that it's definitely a new monitor stand. Are you still planning to do a video about it?
Great work Steven, great work! I’ve been a “mechanic”, “fixer”, “builder” of many things including soft and hardware, most of my life. I’m not great, but not terrible. I’ve arrived at a point where, I want to design and create. This kind of content, seeing your process and how you iterate = incredible class time for me. THANK YOU!
Thanks for sharing, Jack, so glad you're finding the videos valuable. It seems we must be in the same boat: "Not great, not terrible, trying to get better" :)
@@StevenBennettMakes It’s beyond fun. I find it therapeutic in the most unexpected ways. It’s an outright hoot as you discover over time that you understand more and more. I’ve worked in IT for years, clients, servers, etc…. adding the hardware part and digging into it deeper is truly a blast.
I am sure others know exactly how to solve the light flicker on video, but here's my guess: I think you need the frequency of the LED to be an exact multiple of the camera's recording frame rate. However, I suspect that you may get different apparent brightnesses, depending on what part of the lamp flicker phase you happen to synchronize with each time you record. Or much simpler - just use the light for other purposes than lighting when recoding video ;-)
If you kept the flat buttons you could have printed the buttons (one or two layers thick, with a dimple in the center (inside of thr housing) Then, without removing them from the build plate, print the housing around the button. This fuses both materials into one. See makeanythings full color phone case for more details on this technique
UA-cam sent me here, and I'm not mad about it. Great job, thanks for sharing. I've got some machining capabilities and would be willing to prototype that part in aluminum. Let me know if you're interested and we can connect!
Also, for a better feel and better control on the position of the rails, you should really add some friction. A felt pad would probably do the job. It would feel way more sturdy
I love this series so much because I find myself in a similar situation to you. I am generally comfortable with designing hardware, but electronics has been a point of contention for me.
I love this design! Thanks so much for open-sourcing it, I'm definitely going to throw one together when I have the time. Also, incredible production quality!
This video just popped up on my recommended, wow, what a great project, for the limited pcb knowledge that you have, you appear to have done well, i would be more than willing to help you out over discord with the whole pcb thing even though im just a amateur myself but know more than you so i can help, there is a couple pretty easy things that can be done to remove the whine and the on camera flickering, let me know
I just recently discovered your project and I'm ABSOLUTELY enjoying these updates! I literally feel your satisfaction with every little achievement you make as I've started some personal projects before (and kinda finished them) and I'm also studying a product design engineering degree. Keep it up, great job :)
I'm 100% down to helping with the electronics portion! I'm by no means an expert, but have done quite a bit of PCB design for personal projects, and this looks like it should be relatively straightforward! I'm all set up on Discord, so just let me know how to send my discord handly to you privately.
You can solve the flicker by chosing a multiple of your your powerline frequenzy and set the compenstion of your camara acordingly... if you just want to mach 50 and 60Hz just set the PWM to 900Hz and the problem should be gone...
Thoughts, A clear raised ring and leak light through them for extra tactile goodness. The flickering could be removed or reduced by using a non-round number, or non-multiple of 60Hz. Instead of 1kHz, try 963Hz, or something similarly prime-ish. Really enjoying the build log series and definitely keen for more.
Just found your channel, absolutely brilliant work and I love the passion you have and the dedication to make things right. Can't wait for the next project.
I noticed the article you recommended for learning how to design a PCB is different from what you're using (f360). Any fusion 360 specific tutorials you would suggest watching?
That's true; the tutorial is technically for Autodesk Eagle, but since Eagle is currently being integrated into Fusion 360 Electronics most of it is still applicable and still a great introduction to the overall workflow in my opinion. You can also open Eagle files in Fusion 360 Electronics so you could follow the guide verbatim in Eagle then just open the resulting file in Fusion. One concept that was especially helpful for me was the process of creating and using components. For that I relied on these guides (among others): ua-cam.com/video/zqar0XWtFaY/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AutodeskFusion360 ua-cam.com/video/NITJZfhjppI/v-deo.html&ab_channel=WillDonaldson
Hey Steven, I found something cool for cooling the LED: Frore System AirJet. I do not know the price and availability but i know that it is silent, high pressure and tiny.
I found the 99% invisible aka Roman Mars aka excellent production and content of makers. If you are unfamiliar or don’t like the comparison it’s the highest honors in my unscientific anecdotal rankings and comparisons system. Liked and subscribed well done and look forward to the next round of problems solved.
Hey, for capsense, you could use an ESP32 uC. it has BLE and wifi built in, and a bunch of capsense pins. you can then just run a wire out to a piece of foil glued to the inside of the lamp. you coudl then use regular filament!
Inside the original design, there's just a normal round DC connector placed vertically close to the base, letting the female connector rotate freely around the upwards pointing male jack of the base. The jack head is angled, to keep it sitting firmly inside the base. The female connector is soldered directly to the power transmitting rails, which transmit the power all the way to the lamp electronics (here placed correctly) at the end. It's always interesting to see you progress in these videos, although it's getting way more over-engineered compared to the original. 😅👍
Yeah this is way better than my slip ring idea, and a few other helpful folks have pointed out the barrel jack solution, I plan to ditch the slip ring in favor of this, much more straight-forward :)
Absolutely amazing video series. The effort you put in to all of this shows! As an old professor of mine would say, "this glows in the dark" because it is so outstanding. I have always been afraid to get into hardware as software is my strong suit, but this has really lit a flame. I really appreciate the open source nature of this project as well; it really helps everyone learn!
I’m following along. This was huge progress. Xometry can CNC cut that part. Not sure if it’s cost effective to prototype with them but check them out. If it can be multiple flat parts, Send Cut Send can cut.
Once you figure out the flicker/high freq whine, will you consider either posting your PCBA brd file or even better, making it available to order from the PCB fab house you used? Thanks for all of your hard work, both on the design side and the presentation side!
This is the first video I have watched in your series and I immediately loved it! this is the sort of fun DIY projects that I have been looking for. Will definitely follow this through! all the best.
I would try this. Specifically I would try somethings that’s a multiple of 24hz, 30hz and 50hz (to cover common camera frame rates). The least common multiple of those frequencies is 600hz, so within your existing drivers capabilities. Alternatively, don’t do the PWM via the driver. Have the driver output a fixed voltage, and add a MOSFET between it and the LEDs. Then you can PWM the MOSFET instead. Although that might not work for a constant current driver.
With the dragchain, i think it could be good to rotate the stationary end 90 degrees backward, so the loop of wire is limited to a 180 degree turn and the radius will be held roughly the same assuming your dragchain has an angle limit so it cant go past straight in one direction
First time here and love the project. As someone who also is also self-taught in pcb design, I see you making a lot of the same mistakes I did, namely missing power planes, far too small trace width, messy routing and a couple others. Whilst your pcb works, there is a tonne of complex rules to follow in order to achieve correct results and these become far more important with more complex pcbs. I would highly highly recommend Phil’s Lab to learn more about pcb design, specifically his design review videos have helped me immensely. Good luck!!!
I went back and binged this awesome series. This is a really cool project. I'm familiar with electronics and can help out with power supply design as well as making the PCB much smaller.
Congratulations on dipping your toes into PCB design. It's a great skill to have, and hopefully this will give you the confidence to be more ambitious!
Fascinating! I have wanted to dabble in electronics, but it seems overwhelming. This is the first of your videos that I have seen. I just subscribed, and will fallow along. Perhaps your videos will finally be the thing that inspires me to try making my own custom electronics projects. This video is definitely making me want to try.
Thanks for sharing! Glad I could provide a bit of encouragement. I don't foresee a day when I'm not intimidated by electronics, but progress is progress :)
Came to this project log from Hackaday. Very interesting project. Gold star for perseverance. I think you may need to build your own LED driver PCB or better yet integrate it into the PCB you've already designed. SDG electronics did a series on designing a LED driver. SDG #160 for example.
I'm considering the XL4001 chip for my light (cree cxa 13xx 36v). They are cheap ,can handle high current. (1W LED Driver 350mA PWM Dimming Input 5-35V DC-DC Buck Constant Current Module) Paste in aliexpress. Change the resistors to control the current.
Great video: some pointers: Wrt cap touch buttons- I think conductive PLA is overcomplicating things. Look into how capacitive touch actually works- in short, the touch surface does not have to be conductive at all. Rather, there has to be a large plate nearby to the touch surface- a capacitor is (in theory) just two conductive plates- the second one being your finger. If you had some largeish copper circles on your pcb, like the adafruit cap touch sensor does, you wouldn't need conductive PLA, separate printed button parts, or pogo pins (though I must say they made a nice solution to this problem you, uh, made for yourself :P ) You've already flush mounted the pcb to the top of the enclosure- you could prototype this by attaching some squares of copper tape or aluminium foil onto your existing design, where the pogo pins go. careful not to short anything though. Another Cool Thing you can do with cap touch are wheel sensors- I think this would be a great analog brightness control you could implement into the circular head of the lamp. I'm pretty sure the hardware on the SAMD21 supports this, but I've not used it so I can't say for software, especially CircuitPython. Maybe that's a little overkill though... Wrt flicker/whine- there's two ways to solve this. The easiest is what many are screaming in the comments already- fixing the camera settings (shutter speed? I'm no Captain Disillusion though). A different way would be to bump up the frequency even higher, more than 100kHz, but that's a Bad Idea for many reasons- more complicated LED driver, higher power consumption, worse EMI... just deal with the camera :) Wrt cable management at the bottom of the lamp- a good and cheap solution for this could be, instead of a slip ring, just an ordinary barrel plug and jack, like you find on many electronics and their power adapters- they rotate freely, and are literally designed to transmit power. Wrt heatpipe bracket- I dread to think about how much you spent on all those 3D printed prototypes, especially from shapeways! I'm no MechE, but I think CNC is probably the way to go for a part like that. You might consider PcbWay- their service seems to have decent prices for low volume, and they effing love sponsoring electronics youtubers so I wouldn't be surprised if you can con them into giving you some free parts :D maybe find someone who's worked with them before. Wrt the teaser at the end of the video- as someone who spent like a day obsessing over how the dyson lamps work after finding this series, I think I know the REAL reason why you bought those pogo pins ;) very excited for the next part, keep it up
Yeah I also hate to think about how much I spent on all of the Shapeways parts... Really eating into my extravagant lamp budget there... The barrel jack solution is so clever, thank you for recommending it without making me feel dumb! Good ideas all around, I'll keep these in mind, thanks for sharing :)
Does the heatpipe clamp need to be metal? I assumed that it was to clamp the heatpipe between itself and the LED? In that case, isn't the LED in direct contact with the heat pipe? If so, it might stay cool enough that you'd get away with 3D printed ABS (or some other FDM material with a high glass transition temperature).
Really like the extended story and detail in instalments - gives a great understanding as to the complexities of going from initial idea, through prototype, into final form - Real Project Engineering. Also shows how a 'big project' can be achieved by breaking the task into smaller stages - with iteration and refinement to problem solve and develop features as the project progresses. A great example of "Divide and Conquer" to reach a working solution. 🙂Thank You
If I’ve got this right you just have to make sure the PWM frequency is a multiple of your cameras frame rate. With 30fps and a PWM of say 900 you should be fine. You can even see that the mismatch isn’t high because the flickering slowly walks.
So much respect for the time you are taking with not only the project, but the videos as well! For the CNC part I would try Send Cut Send. They have decent pricing and the quality is good.
The flicking (and sound) is caused by the PWM dimming. Some people recommend hè ging your frame rate, but this is a bandaid. There are two ways of dimming LEDs. The first (and simple) way is using PWM. The cleaner way is by using a constant current controller. You might want to look into LED-drivers. Good luck!
I actually have a recently delivered ShopSabre IS408 CNC (only 3 axis, but it'd be possible to drill that side hole after with a jig) out in Ohio that's mostly idle as I prep for the launch of a business (probably won't be at capacity for a while). Not sure what your discord is but if you need CNC'd parts, I can probably do them fairly cheaply as CNC goes, with the caveat that I'm still learning. And of course, I love love love the series and your no-compromise approach every design decision, small or large. Best thing I've seen on UA-cam in a long time!
Hey, I’m a huge fan of the project and it’s inspired me a lot but I gotta say, the more I see the dragchain, the more I’m thrown off by it, it really takes away a lot of the elegance of the device. I think the problem of the cables can be solved with sliding contacts. Let me know if you wanna talk about it!
Hi, I've been following your progress for a bit now and it's impressive! While I don't like the design of the lamp, I really appreciate the engineering that goes into it! I've been playing with led drivers for a bit now (I've designed my own led lamp a while ago) and I'm happy to help! What are the characteristics of the LED and of the power supply? I'll try to find a solution to your issue!
Thanks for this series, I just watched everything up to here! I have yet to make my own PCB for anything, so thanks for the encouragement, that's helpful :). Looking forward to see your finished product!
This is one of the best DIY series I've ever seen. The way you explain things is simply incredible! What truly sets it apart is how you walk through each step, including mistakes and less effective solutions, explaining your thought process throughout. By showing why one solution is better than another, you provide an excellent teaching method that highlights both the good and the bad. It gives the viewer a full 360-degree understanding of the solution. Great work!
Cnc milling would be a superb solution for the metal cooling bracket. As is the design would work ofcourse. But a tip for lower cost is to design it with fastening/fixtureing in mind. also easy indexing/alignment if you would like to machine both sides. And one thing i almost forgot! To tight tolerance's, can with bad luck get expensive to😊 great work and great videos. I just want to hear every little detail!😍
I'd like to see the shape of the counterweight top and bottom ends taper to make it less boxy and more sleek. Not sure if you've already considered that change or not. Having a great time following along on your journey.
It might be worth considering making the 3d printed metal part from sheet metal. There are some good cost effective services where you can laser/plasma/water cut the part and fold it. It will probably be a lot cheaper then 3d metal printing.
Love the series and idea. One suggestion is You could also add HomeKit or Google assistant with home assistance into your code if you have Wi-Fi version (esp32)
the is one of my favorite ongoing series on UA-cam any suggestions to interest design vlogs that are similar?
Wow, Jake, you read my mind. I was considering adding this in a little section to my videos, but I'll just give you my recs directly:
Very similar style of videos (basically direct inspirations for my channel) but with game development:
DevDuck: www.youtube.com/@DevDuck
Thin Matrix: www.youtube.com/@ThinMatrix
Smaller channels that are similar in spirit (I think):
Felix Schelhasse: ua-cam.com/channels/UI60hHqVzmePotF83Ecxhw.html
Amy Makes Stuff: ua-cam.com/users/blockowood3
Winston Moy: ua-cam.com/users/krayvis
Stephen Hawes: ua-cam.com/channels/Mf49SMPnhxdLormhEpfyfg.html
Sophy Wong: ua-cam.com/channels/FkrcZuO5F1GkHQdoVD8YBA.html
NODE: www.youtube.com/@NODEtv/videos
Ian Davis: ua-cam.com/channels/v1xxFkEiAdCVy6foEEUIvw.html
Mihai Designs: ua-cam.com/channels/MvNnP9oAQl5IApL8XBQIkQ.html
Big channels (chances are you already follow them):
Tested: ua-cam.com/users/testedcom
Laura Kampf: www.youtube.com/@laurakampf
Zack Freedman: ua-cam.com/users/ZackFreedman
Click Spring: ua-cam.com/channels/worsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA.html
DIY Perks: ua-cam.com/users/DIYPerks
I couldn’t agree more!
youtube.com/@ContraptionCollection
this one is also incredible
It's not as much design but Leo at Sampson Boat Co (www.youtube.com/@SampsonBoatCo) has spent the last 5 years rebuilding and documenting an old sailing yacht. He's definitely got the same attention to detail as Steven!
Balisong scissors
ua-cam.com/play/PLAfxqCh9yWH5yejLNLTJLcogpVeFKXi4N.html
no lie, i immediately clicked. this is one of the most excited I've been for a series of youtube videos rn!
😍Aw thanks, glad to hear it!
Yeah i really love this series, well done on the progress thus far.
Agreed, Loving the series!
same here, so jelly.
For the flickering you may try sweeping the whole frequency range and find a frequency that works with the frame rate of your camera. Maybe something close or little beyond a multiple of the Nyquist frequency would do the trick. If you record at 30fps, try between 120-125, 240-245, 480-485, etc.
this!
Great idea, I'll try this
I was going to comment for this reason exactly. Just make sure that the frequency is a multiple of the frequency of your camera and you should be good. Likely a multiple of 30 will do e.g. 990hz. But check with your camera specs. As long as you’re above 240 I wouldn’t be too worried about visible flicker IRL.
yeah i was thinkin the same.
@@MrHejole yeah the flicker is only an issue for people that film and it isn’t designed to be a filming light, it may cause some issues if people are using it as a workbench light and they are using cameras or machine vision or digital microscopes but it shouldn’t be much of an issue otherwise.
Another point to consider is that the flickering may affect the future ambient light mode, there will need to be something in the code to compensate for that, although it would be pretty difficult since if the sensor is measured when the pwm is low, it would see dark and if measured when the pwm is high would see full brightness. So for that changing the frequency wouldn’t matter, it would still affect it. The only way I can see that working is if the sensor takes loads of samples and averages the brightness.
I feel the urge to give this more than one thumbs up!
I like the way you share your engineering thought process almost more than the project itself and it's an AWESOME project!
Thanks, Chris!
Quick suggestion for the PCB, I would suggest adding copper pours for power and ground because a project like this that pushes a decent amount of power through the LED's needs to have some copper area to dissipate that energy. Its something many beginners miss but you'll soon figure it out the more PCB's you make. Besides that, great job!
From one designer to another designer, I like it. I also like that you’re making it clear what has challenged you and what resources you used to learn how to make a pub etc. Excited to see how it goes!
for the on camera flicking issue, it should be sufficient to set the "right" frequency instead of cranking it up like there is no tomorrow.
most cameras still shoot at 25 fps (for yt and instructional videos i guess), so a multiple of that, at least so high the human eye can not detect the flicker, should work. also, that would be easy to implement in code with a settings variable like "set your camera fps here".
If it was set to 600 I think it should work for most of the common frame rates (24, 25, 30 and 60 fps)
Love this series! If you're looking to make some prototypes and potentially get a production run made of those aluminum clips I could help you out with that. I run a small manufacturing company and that part seems right up my alley.
Hey, love your stuff. (Idea for fix down below)
We probably don't care that much if it flickers on camera, as long as it isn't visible to the naked eye in the final product I'd be happy.
But besides that try syncing your PWM-frequency with your shutter speed and framerate. For example if you're shooting at 60Hz try to let your shutter speed be 1/60th or 1/120th depending on your preference for motion blur. Your lamps PWM should in turn be good (on cam at least) at a multiple of your shutter, like 240 or maybe even 480Hz.
Let me know if you already tried this, just tryin to shoot ideas. :D
Oh, and higher PWM-speeds might decrease the perceived brightness on cam depending on how well light and cam are synced up.
I'll give this a shot, thanks!
I also think this is the best solution for fixing the storobing light issue. SeanHodgins on youtube made a display using spinning LED's and had to change camera settings in order to pick up the illusion on video.
@@StevenBennettMakes No problem, it's a common problem in cinematogeaphy, especially for product videography in the tech space (monitors can be a nightmare at times). But you have the advantage of being the manufacturer of your own light source, so good luck! :)
@@StevenBennettMakes Theoretically 1200hz should be the sweet spot where every popular framerate (24, 30, 48, 50, 60) works flawlessly! Good luck!
For the metal bracket you mentioned at the end, I don’t think it would be out the the question to make it out of sheet metal, it is a relatively simple geometry, the attachment point at the end could just be a bent up section and the heat pipe channel could be done by bending the two sides, it also won’t be visible. Then you could provide a stencil that people print out and stick on a metal sheet, then they have a guide to drill the holes, make the cuts and then file it down to the final shape, then they just need to bend it, which if made out of aluminium shouldn’t be all that difficult, it would just involve a few tools, a drill, a hacksaw, a file and probably a vice. You can get aluminium sheets very cheap, probably a lot cheaper than getting it machined.
Ooh that last take... I suppose the track idea to replace the wiring has gone through with some developing.
😬
Use pseudorandom noise generator so you can run the pwm at a lower frequency without the periodic waves that show up on camera. You can create a random signal using a shift register in a few lines of code. Cypress semiconductor has good datasheets on how this works
it wouldn't generate these visible lines but I'm 99% sure it would still flicker, just differently
I'll give it a shot, thanks David :)
@@julianbinder2371 hmmm, you might be right. Now I'm remembering the pseudorandom is mostly for reducing electromagnetic interference at any one frequency. But it'll at least spread out the banding effect.
I think the main problem is driving the LEDs through a voltage converter, it would be better to use a certain number of LEDs until you get the required voltage, instead of converting voltage down to drive a single LED. That way you can connect the chain of LEDs directly to supply without putting it through a singing inductor.
@@StevenBennettMakes what's your discord? You said that was the best way to chat about this project, but I don't see a link.
@@davidlevi8030 STEVE3PO#9143
Have you thought about making the top a custom PCB with capacitive traces?
Also maybe add a capacitive slider for brightnesscontrol. I always think they are better than switching up or down
Absolutely love the project. I just graduated with an Electronics Engineering degree and would love to help brainstorm solutions! Don't know how to use Discord but willing to learn
You actually like buttons! Blasphemy! Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave!
Really enjoying this series. For the issue with flickering/buzzing, you could make use of the fact you're now using a custom PCB. There are a lot of ICs that will do the same thing as that drop-in LED power supply, with only a few extra components.
Just had a quick search of DigiKey and it something like the MAX16832A might work. Its data sheet has the PWM dimming input frequency at 200 kHz for its standard tests-so you can put the PWM frequency much, much higher than your present 1 kHz. You may still get audible inductor noise, but at frequencies above 20 kHz you won't hear it, so that solves both issues.
Alternatively, you could use that LED power supply with an analog dimmer. You'd just need a simple RC (resistor-capacitor) low-pass filter between the PWM output of your microcontroller and the analog input of the power supply. There are calculators online; you could put the -3 dB corner frequency in the ballpark of 20-50 Hz. That said, it looks like most of the analog inputs to these devices get turned back into PWM internally, so you'd want to make sure that the internal PWM generation frequency was itself sufficiently high, or you'd end up with slightly more complicated circuit with the exact same flickering issue.
Some DigiKey search results for 700 mA driver ICs:
www.digikey.co.nz/en/products/filter/power-management-pmic/led-drivers/745?s=N4IgjCBcoCwJwyqAxlAZgQwDYGcCmANCAPZQDaIATAOyVwCsEAukQA4AuUIAyuwE4BLAHYBzEAF9JQA
I think in this case the drop-in supply is causing too many design conflicts, and an IC would serve you better, despite the extra work interpreting the data sheet. Fortunately, several of the IC data sheets are pretty comprehensive. They include formulae to calculate all of the component values, and some even have suggested PCB layouts for the IC and supporting components. (This is the case for the MAX16832A. I should point out that I haven't used it before; it just ranked highly in the search results.)
This is an awesome series!
I know it's a little, unspoken feature but i love how there is literally no glue in this whole project! it makes it so much easier to repair and tinker. i am so sick of modern devices being held together with little more than hopes, dreams and glue.
I can't wait to build my own when you're done!
I have to admit, when I saw the minuscule screws from this episode all I could think was glue. And, for the lamp shroud, magnets could also work.
Touch buttons in cars are a safety hazzard and should be forbidden by law.
Agreed! Though I also think automobiles in general are a safety hazard so I might be biased.
Please continue to make your videos in this style. Your mistakes and workflow are super helpful to see. As someone who hopes to soon be doing the things you're doing, thank you for sharing your work, it is inspiring.
My favorite video I watched this week! I suspect you, me and 5k other people thought the same thing when we saw the Dyson Lightcycle lamp: Elegant tech, I would like one, I don't have 5-600 USD for that (or don't value it at retail price, in spite of the beautiful execution). I have wanted to design something similar, but don't think I have the collection of skills to do so. I am learning a lot from your videos. Keeping my fingers crossed that your project will result in some sort of plans or DIY kit.
hey, really nice project series, love to watch your steps. Maybe try to add a Capacitor in Parallel to the LED to reduce the flickering. Try some Tantal Ceramics or a mid size Elko. with 100-200uF
Yep, the flicker and whine are both from the transition of digital thinking to powered components.
A moderate capacitance at the LED to filter the power wave into (at least much closer to) DC, and if needed an inductor to further smooth the current and keep the output variance down.
I use very high PWM frequencies (20KHz and up) to avoid audible whine. In a few recent projects, I used the NXP PCA9634 8-channel LED driver, which uses a 97KHz PWM frequency. It’s also easy to control via I2C. Using white LEDs and small power MOSFETs, one can run the microcontroller and LEDs directly from a single 3.3V rail.
There’s also the nearly identical (but now end-of-life) PCA9624 which includes power MOSFETs inside, allowing it to switch up to 40V at 800mA.
Really interesting video. I've used the AT42QT1070 for touch control on a project. Rather than using Adafruit's board I designed my own PCB and if you control via I2C then you can adjust sensitivity so it works through normal plastic. Looks like you've got a good solution though anyway!
To fix the flickering, I would try to use a frequency that's still low but is a multiple of 30 to match the common 30fps camera framerate. If you're trying to cover both 24fps & 30fps, I'd try 720hz or 1440hz.
I've built many LED lighting projects. It is slightly more advanced than using a sealed LED driver like yours, but consider designing a PCB with a LED driver IC instead.
Many of these can support much higher PWM frequencies and also offer other benefits, such as multiple output channels (colour mixing of cool/warm). You can get Buck/Boost driver ICs, which require inductors but can run LEDs at a different voltage to the power supply, or linear driver ICs, which can only run LEDs below the supply voltage but don't require as many extra components. Any "extra" voltage above the forward voltage of the LED will be dissipated as heat in linear drivers so it helps to have a power supply just slightly above the LED forward voltage.
I tend to use linear drivers because they're simpler and can be more efficient if the power supply and LED voltages are closely matched. Give me a shout if you want to chat!
I'd love to chat with you on discord about the electronics and fixing the whine and flicker problem. I'm an Electonics Engineer and I designed made a dimmable constant-current switch-mode driver for a 30 Watt Lumiled COB. Your problems are definitely solvable 🙂.
Regarding the touch buttons : why don’t you use the TTP223 capacitive modules ? They are so sensitive and work great even behind 2-3 mm of insulation like acrylic glass. They are also dirt cheap, like 3$ for a pack of 5.
Quick dirty hack; RC lowpass filtering the PWM into a constant voltage.
Nice starting with the electronics 👍 Projects look way more professional with custom PCB's.
For the LED PWM Problem try to use linear regulation and if the powerloss ist too big maybe add switched preregulation. Thats how i would do it on first thought. However there are a ton of led driver IC's that do it all for you with much higher switching frequencies some allow changing the freq.
Keep up the good work i like this series now with electronics even more 😁👍
Your storytelling is outstanding 👌
Hey Steven, new to the channel. This was inspiring and really fun to watch. Thank you :) Subscribed
You can shrink and cost-down the whole "buck converter" bit by replacing it with a linear regulator. Also, try adding some capacitors to the input and output of the LED supply; that can significantly reduce flickering. (For that matter, you could do to add capacitors to a _lot_ of different places on your circuit...)
This project is amazing. I don't know what you do for a living but you need to stop doing it and concentrate on this. Get your priorities in order.
In all seriousness I can't wait for the next installment, and the final finished design. Im definitely contemplating making this lamp myself as long as all the parts are available and not stupidly expensive. Out of interest do yo have any idea what the final build cost will be? Not exactly, just a ballpark figure?
A simple capacitor on the output as probably stated in the datasheet of the driver will fix flickering.
Such a cool way to implement the capacitive buttons. Did you experiment with using them as a single piece? I wonder how far from the pogo pin you'd have to get before the resistance of the PLA was enough to stop the button working.
P.S. The "I've known about the flickering for a while" shot confirmed that it's definitely a new monitor stand. Are you still planning to do a video about it?
Great work Steven, great work! I’ve been a “mechanic”, “fixer”, “builder” of many things including soft and hardware, most of my life. I’m not great, but not terrible. I’ve arrived at a point where, I want to design and create. This kind of content, seeing your process and how you iterate = incredible class time for me. THANK YOU!
Thanks for sharing, Jack, so glad you're finding the videos valuable. It seems we must be in the same boat: "Not great, not terrible, trying to get better" :)
@@StevenBennettMakes It’s beyond fun. I find it therapeutic in the most unexpected ways. It’s an outright hoot as you discover over time that you understand more and more. I’ve worked in IT for years, clients, servers, etc…. adding the hardware part and digging into it deeper is truly a blast.
I am sure others know exactly how to solve the light flicker on video, but here's my guess: I think you need the frequency of the LED to be an exact multiple of the camera's recording frame rate. However, I suspect that you may get different apparent brightnesses, depending on what part of the lamp flicker phase you happen to synchronize with each time you record. Or much simpler - just use the light for other purposes than lighting when recoding video ;-)
How about adding a capacitor to remove the flickering? It would behave as a filter for the voltage and supposedly should make it all smooth.
you can add an overclocking hidden button you can press when recording your videos... great series! you are an inspiration man!!
If you kept the flat buttons you could have printed the buttons (one or two layers thick, with a dimple in the center (inside of thr housing)
Then, without removing them from the build plate, print the housing around the button.
This fuses both materials into one.
See makeanythings full color phone case for more details on this technique
Electrical engineer here who would love to help you make a new PCB. Let's talk!
I hope the next video comes sooner 😂
Are you alluding to using PCB rails and pogo pins? Would that make more sense than a drag chain?
UA-cam sent me here, and I'm not mad about it. Great job, thanks for sharing. I've got some machining capabilities and would be willing to prototype that part in aluminum. Let me know if you're interested and we can connect!
Also, for a better feel and better control on the position of the rails, you should really add some friction. A felt pad would probably do the job.
It would feel way more sturdy
I love this series so much because I find myself in a similar situation to you. I am generally comfortable with designing hardware, but electronics has been a point of contention for me.
I could easily make schematic design a led driver that is higher than 20khz. It wont be audible to create flicker!
I love this design! Thanks so much for open-sourcing it, I'm definitely going to throw one together when I have the time. Also, incredible production quality!
I love this. Simple as that! And what a teaser for the next video! Can't wait for it...
This video just popped up on my recommended, wow, what a great project, for the limited pcb knowledge that you have, you appear to have done well, i would be more than willing to help you out over discord with the whole pcb thing even though im just a amateur myself but know more than you so i can help, there is a couple pretty easy things that can be done to remove the whine and the on camera flickering, let me know
I just recently discovered your project and I'm ABSOLUTELY enjoying these updates! I literally feel your satisfaction with every little achievement you make as I've started some personal projects before (and kinda finished them) and I'm also studying a product design engineering degree. Keep it up, great job :)
I'm 100% down to helping with the electronics portion! I'm by no means an expert, but have done quite a bit of PCB design for personal projects, and this looks like it should be relatively straightforward!
I'm all set up on Discord, so just let me know how to send my discord handly to you privately.
Same😄
I am an EE Undergrad but could give some input if needed.
i just speed ran the entire build series after watching this one. can't wait for more 😋
Amazing project, please turn it into a crowdfunding for a DIY kit of all the parts once you are satisfied with the R&D, I would love to build one !
You can solve the flicker by chosing a multiple of your your powerline frequenzy and set the compenstion of your camara acordingly... if you just want to mach 50 and 60Hz just set the PWM to 900Hz and the problem should be gone...
If you you need more information or help feel free to contact me
Wow the attention to detail is amazing! I really like this
Thoughts,
A clear raised ring and leak light through them for extra tactile goodness.
The flickering could be removed or reduced by using a non-round number, or non-multiple of 60Hz. Instead of 1kHz, try 963Hz, or something similarly prime-ish.
Really enjoying the build log series and definitely keen for more.
Ha, your clear ring idea made me laugh out loud. Really fun idea.
Holy cow, this is some really awesome design engineering commentary. Really appreciate the insane attention to detail!!
Just found your channel, absolutely brilliant work and I love the passion you have and the dedication to make things right. Can't wait for the next project.
I noticed the article you recommended for learning how to design a PCB is different from what you're using (f360). Any fusion 360 specific tutorials you would suggest watching?
That's true; the tutorial is technically for Autodesk Eagle, but since Eagle is currently being integrated into Fusion 360 Electronics most of it is still applicable and still a great introduction to the overall workflow in my opinion. You can also open Eagle files in Fusion 360 Electronics so you could follow the guide verbatim in Eagle then just open the resulting file in Fusion.
One concept that was especially helpful for me was the process of creating and using components. For that I relied on these guides (among others):
ua-cam.com/video/zqar0XWtFaY/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AutodeskFusion360
ua-cam.com/video/NITJZfhjppI/v-deo.html&ab_channel=WillDonaldson
Hey Steven, I found something cool for cooling the LED: Frore System AirJet. I do not know the price and availability but i know that it is silent, high pressure and tiny.
Wow very cool, fun idea :)
This is amazing love this build so much
I found the 99% invisible aka Roman Mars aka excellent production and content of makers. If you are unfamiliar or don’t like the comparison it’s the highest honors in my unscientific anecdotal rankings and comparisons system. Liked and subscribed well done and look forward to the next round of problems solved.
Wow so kind, thank you so much for that :)
Hey, for capsense, you could use an ESP32 uC. it has BLE and wifi built in, and a bunch of capsense pins. you can then just run a wire out to a piece of foil glued to the inside of the lamp. you coudl then use regular filament!
And it supports very high speed PWM!
Inside the original design, there's just a normal round DC connector placed vertically close to the base, letting the female connector rotate freely around the upwards pointing male jack of the base. The jack head is angled, to keep it sitting firmly inside the base. The female connector is soldered directly to the power transmitting rails, which transmit the power all the way to the lamp electronics (here placed correctly) at the end. It's always interesting to see you progress in these videos, although it's getting way more over-engineered compared to the original. 😅👍
Yeah this is way better than my slip ring idea, and a few other helpful folks have pointed out the barrel jack solution, I plan to ditch the slip ring in favor of this, much more straight-forward :)
The pogopin falling from the tweezer with the ??? made me laugh :D
1st time putting notifications on, ever.
Only took me 5 minutes to find it :)
I might be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure the flickering can be fixed in camera. Tom Scott has a video about European lights that have the same problem
Also, I love this series! Can’t wait see the final result
Arggggg!!!! Is a new episode! 🤩🤩🤩
Absolutely amazing video series. The effort you put in to all of this shows! As an old professor of mine would say, "this glows in the dark" because it is so outstanding. I have always been afraid to get into hardware as software is my strong suit, but this has really lit a flame. I really appreciate the open source nature of this project as well; it really helps everyone learn!
I’m following along. This was huge progress. Xometry can CNC cut that part. Not sure if it’s cost effective to prototype with them but check them out. If it can be multiple flat parts, Send Cut Send can cut.
Once you figure out the flicker/high freq whine, will you consider either posting your PCBA brd file or even better, making it available to order from the PCB fab house you used?
Thanks for all of your hard work, both on the design side and the presentation side!
Looks good, nice to have an update after watching all the previous episodes
This is the first video I have watched in your series and I immediately loved it! this is the sort of fun DIY projects that I have been looking for. Will definitely follow this through! all the best.
With the flickering, could you try a frequency that is a multiple of the camera frame-rate?
I would try this. Specifically I would try somethings that’s a multiple of 24hz, 30hz and 50hz (to cover common camera frame rates).
The least common multiple of those frequencies is 600hz, so within your existing drivers capabilities.
Alternatively, don’t do the PWM via the driver. Have the driver output a fixed voltage, and add a MOSFET between it and the LEDs. Then you can PWM the MOSFET instead. Although that might not work for a constant current driver.
You are doing a great job. Very inspiring. I wish to be able to du half of what you are doing!
With the dragchain, i think it could be good to rotate the stationary end 90 degrees backward, so the loop of wire is limited to a 180 degree turn and the radius will be held roughly the same assuming your dragchain has an angle limit so it cant go past straight in one direction
First time here and love the project. As someone who also is also self-taught in pcb design, I see you making a lot of the same mistakes I did, namely missing power planes, far too small trace width, messy routing and a couple others. Whilst your pcb works, there is a tonne of complex rules to follow in order to achieve correct results and these become far more important with more complex pcbs. I would highly highly recommend Phil’s Lab to learn more about pcb design, specifically his design review videos have helped me immensely. Good luck!!!
Thanks for the recommendation! I will definitely check that out. Hopefully V2 will be a big improvement
I went back and binged this awesome series. This is a really cool project. I'm familiar with electronics and can help out with power supply design as well as making the PCB much smaller.
Congratulations on dipping your toes into PCB design. It's a great skill to have, and hopefully this will give you the confidence to be more ambitious!
Fascinating! I have wanted to dabble in electronics, but it seems overwhelming. This is the first of your videos that I have seen. I just subscribed, and will fallow along. Perhaps your videos will finally be the thing that inspires me to try making my own custom electronics projects. This video is definitely making me want to try.
Thanks for sharing! Glad I could provide a bit of encouragement. I don't foresee a day when I'm not intimidated by electronics, but progress is progress :)
Came to this project log from Hackaday. Very interesting project. Gold star for perseverance.
I think you may need to build your own LED driver PCB or better yet integrate it into the PCB you've already designed. SDG electronics did a series on designing a LED driver. SDG #160 for example.
I'm considering the XL4001 chip for my light (cree cxa 13xx 36v). They are cheap ,can handle high current.
(1W LED Driver 350mA PWM Dimming Input 5-35V DC-DC Buck Constant Current Module)
Paste in aliexpress. Change the resistors to control the current.
Great video: some pointers:
Wrt cap touch buttons- I think conductive PLA is overcomplicating things. Look into how capacitive touch actually works- in short, the touch surface does not have to be conductive at all. Rather, there has to be a large plate nearby to the touch surface- a capacitor is (in theory) just two conductive plates- the second one being your finger. If you had some largeish copper circles on your pcb, like the adafruit cap touch sensor does, you wouldn't need conductive PLA, separate printed button parts, or pogo pins (though I must say they made a nice solution to this problem you, uh, made for yourself :P ) You've already flush mounted the pcb to the top of the enclosure- you could prototype this by attaching some squares of copper tape or aluminium foil onto your existing design, where the pogo pins go. careful not to short anything though.
Another Cool Thing you can do with cap touch are wheel sensors- I think this would be a great analog brightness control you could implement into the circular head of the lamp. I'm pretty sure the hardware on the SAMD21 supports this, but I've not used it so I can't say for software, especially CircuitPython. Maybe that's a little overkill though...
Wrt flicker/whine- there's two ways to solve this. The easiest is what many are screaming in the comments already- fixing the camera settings (shutter speed? I'm no Captain Disillusion though). A different way would be to bump up the frequency even higher, more than 100kHz, but that's a Bad Idea for many reasons- more complicated LED driver, higher power consumption, worse EMI... just deal with the camera :)
Wrt cable management at the bottom of the lamp- a good and cheap solution for this could be, instead of a slip ring, just an ordinary barrel plug and jack, like you find on many electronics and their power adapters- they rotate freely, and are literally designed to transmit power.
Wrt heatpipe bracket- I dread to think about how much you spent on all those 3D printed prototypes, especially from shapeways! I'm no MechE, but I think CNC is probably the way to go for a part like that. You might consider PcbWay- their service seems to have decent prices for low volume, and they effing love sponsoring electronics youtubers so I wouldn't be surprised if you can con them into giving you some free parts :D maybe find someone who's worked with them before.
Wrt the teaser at the end of the video- as someone who spent like a day obsessing over how the dyson lamps work after finding this series, I think I know the REAL reason why you bought those pogo pins ;) very excited for the next part, keep it up
Yeah I also hate to think about how much I spent on all of the Shapeways parts... Really eating into my extravagant lamp budget there... The barrel jack solution is so clever, thank you for recommending it without making me feel dumb! Good ideas all around, I'll keep these in mind, thanks for sharing :)
Does the heatpipe clamp need to be metal? I assumed that it was to clamp the heatpipe between itself and the LED? In that case, isn't the LED in direct contact with the heat pipe? If so, it might stay cool enough that you'd get away with 3D printed ABS (or some other FDM material with a high glass transition temperature).
Really like the extended story and detail in instalments - gives a great understanding as to the complexities of going from initial idea, through prototype, into final form - Real Project Engineering. Also shows how a 'big project' can be achieved by breaking the task into smaller stages - with iteration and refinement to problem solve and develop features as the project progresses. A great example of "Divide and Conquer" to reach a working solution. 🙂Thank You
If I’ve got this right you just have to make sure the PWM frequency is a multiple of your cameras frame rate. With 30fps and a PWM of say 900 you should be fine. You can even see that the mismatch isn’t high because the flickering slowly walks.
So much respect for the time you are taking with not only the project, but the videos as well! For the CNC part I would try Send Cut Send. They have decent pricing and the quality is good.
The flicking (and sound) is caused by the PWM dimming. Some people recommend hè ging your frame rate, but this is a bandaid.
There are two ways of dimming LEDs. The first (and simple) way is using PWM. The cleaner way is by using a constant current controller. You might want to look into LED-drivers.
Good luck!
Shouldn't the capacitive button work THROUGH the filament, too? Make a pocket with only 2-3 layers/perimeters if necessary.
I actually have a recently delivered ShopSabre IS408 CNC (only 3 axis, but it'd be possible to drill that side hole after with a jig) out in Ohio that's mostly idle as I prep for the launch of a business (probably won't be at capacity for a while). Not sure what your discord is but if you need CNC'd parts, I can probably do them fairly cheaply as CNC goes, with the caveat that I'm still learning. And of course, I love love love the series and your no-compromise approach every design decision, small or large. Best thing I've seen on UA-cam in a long time!
Hey, I’m a huge fan of the project and it’s inspired me a lot but I gotta say, the more I see the dragchain, the more I’m thrown off by it, it really takes away a lot of the elegance of the device. I think the problem of the cables can be solved with sliding contacts. Let me know if you wanna talk about it!
PCB and pogo pins ?
@@Nairod785 I was thinking of a spring steel sheet but pogo pin also sounds great
I'd personally use some RGB+CCT LED chips, those should not even need a driver and can change color temperature
Hi, I've been following your progress for a bit now and it's impressive! While I don't like the design of the lamp, I really appreciate the engineering that goes into it!
I've been playing with led drivers for a bit now (I've designed my own led lamp a while ago) and I'm happy to help!
What are the characteristics of the LED and of the power supply? I'll try to find a solution to your issue!
CNC machining is actually pretty affordable with companies like Xometry
Thanks for this series, I just watched everything up to here! I have yet to make my own PCB for anything, so thanks for the encouragement, that's helpful :). Looking forward to see your finished product!
This is one of the best DIY series I've ever seen. The way you explain things is simply incredible! What truly sets it apart is how you walk through each step, including mistakes and less effective solutions, explaining your thought process throughout. By showing why one solution is better than another, you provide an excellent teaching method that highlights both the good and the bad. It gives the viewer a full 360-degree understanding of the solution. Great work!
Cnc milling would be a superb solution for the metal cooling bracket. As is the design would work ofcourse. But a tip for lower cost is to design it with fastening/fixtureing in mind. also easy indexing/alignment if you would like to machine both sides. And one thing i almost forgot!
To tight tolerance's, can with bad luck get expensive to😊 great work and great videos. I just want to hear every little detail!😍
I'd like to see the shape of the counterweight top and bottom ends taper to make it less boxy and more sleek. Not sure if you've already considered that change or not. Having a great time following along on your journey.
That first PCB looks so quaint, and reminds me of my own first revision basic boards. But it does the job perfectly!
It might be worth considering making the 3d printed metal part from sheet metal. There are some good cost effective services where you can laser/plasma/water cut the part and fold it. It will probably be a lot cheaper then 3d metal printing.
Hey Steven, really enjoying this project series!
Love the series and idea. One suggestion is You could also add HomeKit or Google assistant with home assistance into your code if you have Wi-Fi version (esp32)