|
I finished version 1 of my first LED lighting project yesterday. It's now posted on Etsy and Kaanjo.com. I didn't count the hours, but at a guess I would say I spent at least 10 hours on it. The parts cost is quite high, as I used a commercial component for the controller.
I am fairly satisfied with the results. The leds don't diffuse enough without a paper shade, but apart from that everything turned out as I had planned. Even the requirement for a shade can be considered a "feature", as it allows for simple changes in appearance by using different types of paper for different effects. There's a thought... make several available as part of the standard package. The incremental cost would be minimal.
Here's an animated gif of the colour-changing capability:
The controller I used has 11 modes. Some of them are interesting and useful, some are just lame. I have found a circuit that I've modified to allow individual control of the 3 colours, and it's simpler and cheaper than the controller in this lamp. However, I've since been exploring PIC microcontrollers, and with lots of additional research and experimentation, I can design a circuit with programming that will allow a more useful variety of lighting options.
The next version of this lamp will have a simple slider control for brightness, and will be white only. I'll use a simplified version of the colour-control circuit. This time I'll track my time, so I can have a more accurate guess at costs and pricing.
|
