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A project log for A better kitty light

Improving a cat shaped nightlight

matthew-reevesMatthew Reeves 06/12/2018 at 00:080 Comments

Inside the lamp there's a piezo sensor and a circuit board.

That piezo sensor can definitely be salvaged. A better hacker than me could probably do something clever with the existing circuit board, but I'd rather just go ahead and do something easy.

According to my documentation each WS2812B can draw 60mA of current. 4 rings of 5 can consume a max of 20*60mA = 1200 mA. That's a bit more than my Arduino Pro Micro can output, so I'll need some supplemental power.

My initial idea is to build a tower of LED rings and then use those to light up the interior.

The bottom ring is affixed via screws and each ring is stacked up with a series of pegs.

This works. However, there are a few problems.

On the bright side, the rings work pretty well. There's a retaining lip that holds the light strip in place and makes for easy assembly. I think I'll save those for some future project.

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