Light Staff

And so, the first V2 staff is complete. I am super stoked. (EDIT: added some real camera pictures, will do more tomorrow))

Now the coding and debuging begins. There is one pixel that won't turn on green. but I like to ignore it.

Next step. a few patterns, and checking the button press works. (also the charge port). the switch is tested and reliable :D.

Then I'll probably build a second one. Redesign incoming after that (though incrementing here, not a whole new version. we'll call it 2.1, a-la spacex rocket versioning :D)

Hello Hackers!

I've been a bit buried in startup slog, cadding and prototyping and thermalsing like a monster and generally disappearing from the world at large, though I am very friendly with the chineese now. Between that and burning man the staff progress has been slow, but I'm finally getting close to V2 coming online for the first time.

Pictured above: pre burn I figured I could assemble them all over night disaster

Right before the burn I ordered materials for 5 V2 staffs, using a much cheaper bill of materials (~$200 worth of materials per) I've been building and tweaking the design over the past few months, though I haven't fully assembled one yet (lots of mechanical tweaks and tricks to figure out :P).

I printed all the parts for each staff (I'd like to go back and get them machined by a service like firstcut or find a tormach I could mill them on myself out of an aluminium or maybe a stainless (ooo fancy) to go with a carbon core version of the staff.

Somewhere in here I modeled a FIO, it's FIOGRABCADCAPSISFORWINNERS on grabcad now also figured out how to remotely program over xbees, pretty nifty.

After attempting assembly a couple times, I realized a nice printed spacer that holds boards or batteries at either end would be perfect, and as it turns out, the correct length spacer for the battery I'm using is ever so slightly smaller than a M*kerbot build area diagonal. My m*kerbot heated build platform connector basically caught on fire when I tried to start it up after I got back from the burn, so I printed a few on a friend's printer.

Above: single end insert spacer, with additional support scaffold I manually modeled in (I'm doing an FDM printer sans dissolvable support, so it's easier if I model in the scaffold). If this isn't phallic enough for you well then, get into rocket science.

Above: Staff with spacers, LEDs not shown for obvious reasons ( I am lazy and have not changed them since I added the spacers)

Had to squeak it in, makerware didn't like it. I rammed it in. I really need to get off makerbot pritners. get me a bukobot.

Fresh off the printer

The fit, she was perfect.

(well ok, there was a tad of sanding)

so spacers were in, it was time to solder up the harness. I "finalized" the wiring layout, threw in some connectors so I could disassemble it without having to "tear" it apart (or desolder anything) and got to soldering. After a couple solid nights of getting everything sorted I powered it up and voila, we have a working micro. I'm right at the point where I do the first few light tests now.

HOTT STUFFF

I'm going to finish up the wiring, button everything up and check to make sure the wireless programming via fio is still performing admirably. assuming that all works I'll create a bit of a stress test program to see just how bright I can go with this set of hardware ( 12v battery with a 5v 6a step down from pololu, somewhere around 400 LEDs on this guy I think, I haven't counted in a while)

(battery sticks out, gonna fix that)

oh and google made me a gif for free, thanks Larry and Sergey, really top notch work there.

Let me know if you have any questions about the build or want more info on any of the components I'm workin with. I'm going to give a little demo/talk about this project at dorkbot socal on sunday 19th of October, come check it out! I'll keep posting logs here as the project moves forward.

It's been a bit busy but I've managed to scrounge together some new cad models and come up with a relatively cheap version of the staff (Many Thanks to mpinner for all the help along the way!). At less than 10 parts and only 6 3d printed parts basically anyone should be able to build one for ~ $200. It's even got a zigbee radio for communication with other staves and wireless programming.

Should be fun (models are somewhat hazy, need a few more strips and such, I'm going to complete a build and post more instructions on exactitudes and some drawings so it's a bit cleaner. )

Link to the current BOM, Links to cad models will be up soon:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_YdM6yOahXOJaEirSihbVDKjMfgAtlUAQB7ae6xhViU/edit#gid=0

The project is coming along, Took the first staff to Makerfaire in the Bay Area last week and had a blast walking around in the dark room before the arc attack shows! 

(Metal and mpinner walking around with the staff)

(Anouk sets the stage at the arc attack tesla coil show (very cool!))

Even beat the high extreme high five machine with it! 

Next up:

I'm working on CAD of a much lower cost staff. So I can build a bunch of them and then have them wirelessly sync up and do the distributed show type thing at the burn this year

I finished modeling a couple of the electrical components and have started on the mechanical ones. 

Model for Arduino Pro Micro (sparkfun flavor)

https://grabcad.com/library/arduino-pro-micro-sparkfun-1

Parametric Model for 2812 Strips

https://grabcad.com/library/ws2812-rgb-led-strip-60-meter-1

Current Look at the assembly of the cheapo staff (longgg way to go)

Got tired of never having a CAD model for the WS2812 RGB LEDs

So I made one. Thanks Calipers

https://grabcad.com/library/ws2812b-rgb-led-adafruit-neopixel-1

Looks like the folks at crashspace (http://blog.crashspace.org/) found the staff (hint: I left it there :P)

I've been pondering a second version of the staff for a while now and what with burning man 2014 right around the corner I think it's time to get serious.

I'll document the whole process start to finish here. Hopefully with any luck and a bunch of help I'll end up with something a lot more solid and reproduce able.

First off, I'm getting electrical sorted at the beginning this time around. Custom spun PCBs is the name of the game. Here's the plan I've got so far

I got my hands on a copy of altium designer through work (hooray hardware startups! ) and I think this should be a sufficient project for learning the tool. 

Next up is mechanical concepts! I'm probably going with a carbon fiber core again this time around, I'll be contacting Pu-Feng over in china to see if I can get ahold of some nice tubes for the first couple staffs. http://www.pu-feng.com/company.htm

Overall

I was bsing with Matt the other day about some tensegrity structures perhaps, or maybe some segmenting for the individual LEDs. I'll throw together a few CAD concepts and post them here. 

Primary structure

I think there will be 3 primary structures- A centered Handle, most likely machined aluminium or stainless, with quick disconnects at either end (both electrical and mechanical connections), Two Staff Segements with quick disconnects on either end, and perhaps a staff head this time around.

Staff Head

I've got a cool concept floating in my head for a mechanical Governor style persistence of vision display that spins up and gives a cylinder to map "video" onto. Could be a neat quasi 3D display. A couple other concepts were parametric speakers, Lasers, or micro projector in the head of the staff. A contact speaker would be cool too.