Back in the childhood, I was very fascinated and curious about the stars blinking in the sky. Later on, I learned that it is a result of light passing through the turbulence air in the Earth's atmosphere while being refracted differently from moment to moment. Based on that, I designed this nightlight, following the idea of how we observe stars when we fly towards space from the Earth.
Mode 1 Twinkle
Observing stars from the Earth, we see stars blinking.
Two RGB LEDs are programmed to randomly emit the complimentary colors at a 1000ms delay, generating blinking effect.
Mode 2 Crossfade
Looking at stars when passing through the upper atmosphere, we see stars crossfading.
The LEDs spontaneously change their color (from red to green, green to blue, blue to red) in a smooth transition.
Mode 3 Steady
Observing stars in space, we see the static light from stars.
The LEDs emit steady white light. The brightness is controlled through the photoresistor.
Design Components
The most challenging and time-consuming task was to bend the optical fiber and insert each of them into the foam core, which took me 3 hours.
Design Arduino Code
It was my first time to learn C/C++ and make something functional in Arduino. I especially enjoyed the debugging process. See the Arduino code >
Reflection What I've learned
1. Code debugging (Serial monitor in Arduino) is crucial during the design process.
2. Learning through making.
3. A good story behind the design makes it alive.
4. Using optical fiber will be a good option when there is a need to incorporate light transfer within a limited space.
