ATOMPUNK ROCKET LAMP MADE OF BARE PCBS AND LED-LIT

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One day I was browsing a website with models for 3D printing and saw a picture of an AtomPunk-style rocket there. At that moment, an image of a rocket lamp made of bare PCBs and LED-lit acrylic instantly popped into my head. The first design was ready in a few weeks. In the early version of the rocket, the LEDs were mounted at the end of the boards. This caused some inconvenience when mounting, as you had to hold the LED by hand when soldering. In the next version, I reworked the layout to use the surface mount. After a couple of iterations, the first lamp was ready.

I had to solve a couple of problems during the development. At first, the board manufacturer refused to make the PCBs I wanted, citing his production requirements. I had to redesign all the PCBs again so that there would be no issues later on.

Factory-made surface mounting made life much easier. But nobody is safe from defects. I still inspect every PCB and find 1 to 3 percent defective LEDs in each batch.

The first version of the rocket was controlled with buttons. You could switch modes, change colors, and control brightness with them. But I wasn't really happy with this method. So in the second version of the lamp, I switched to IR control. I now have a much wider range of control via an IR remote.

The brain of the whole system is the good old AtMega328p. Since I haven't mastered the STMicroelectronics family of microcontrollers yet, the choice was obvious. The presence of the FastLED library also simplified the task of programming. Curious users can find the pins on the rocket, with which they can upload custom firmware over the SPI interface.

Acrylic is one of the important components of the rocket lamp. The first version of the lamp used transparent Acrylic. It had good light conductivity, but it did not light up well. So I designed another version of the lamp and managed to make the Acryl glow more evenly by using a proprietary matting technology, and now the parts look richer and brighter.

The new version was also complemented by a cool stand imitating the rocket takeoff.

What are your impressions about the model?

See next project: https://hackaday.io/project/182412-hot-air-balloon-animated-color-led-lamp

Discussions

grebeniuk wrote 12/05/2021 at 09:39

Oh, are you running a crowdfunding project now? It's your's, isn't it? https://bit.ly/flight_lamps

All three are beautiful and the shape of PCBs is really amazing. I'm backing immediately!

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notrub wrote 10/28/2021 at 04:59

This is beautiful and inspiring! Thank you for sharing!

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Yaroslav wrote 10/28/2021 at 20:36

Thanks for the kind words

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calhjh wrote 10/27/2021 at 16:53

Any thoughts on making this available as a kit. I think many might buy one

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Yaroslav wrote 10/28/2021 at 20:36

Thanks for the idea. Perhaps, after setting up small-scale production, I will do so.

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Xasin wrote 10/27/2021 at 15:54

OK, now THIS is a gorgeous use of shaped PCBs!

The way they link with the acrylic is just fantastic, and a lot of fun to look at. At first I thought the struts were just more acrylic - but the use of PCBs with the LEDs is even better.

I might have to look into using acrylic pieces for a bit of light diffusion for an upcoming project too.
Any recommendations to get started with that?

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Yaroslav wrote 10/28/2021 at 20:45

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

You should definitely try working with acrylic, it's very exciting.

I can advise you to experiment more in practice. Keep in mind that matte acrylic shines well, but the light quickly fades in it. And in transparent acrylic there is no fading, but it does not light up well as matte. In my next post, you will see the difference.

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Xasin wrote 10/29/2021 at 12:59

Yeah I am wondering how to get the best type of diffusion possible for something like this.
My materials would be 3D printed, not acrylic - so I was thinking of some form of hybrid material:

Perhaps an angled bottom surface that tries to capture the light of an LED as evenly as possible, with a thin layer of matte material to diffuse the light more, then a larger core of clear/very slightly matte material to further diffuse the light, and a finishing top layer of very matte material again for that last bit of diffusion with minimal light losses.

Perhaps you already did a few experiments on that?

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Yaroslav wrote 10/29/2021 at 14:44

The idea with different layers is good. Typically, the scattering angle of an LED is about 120 degrees. And depending on the distance to the illuminated surface, the spot of light will be of different sizes. The task of the scattering layer is to distribute the light as evenly as possible over the illuminated surface. But many layers can obstruct the light. In any case, everything needs to be checked in practice. Good luck!

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Sergey wrote 10/13/2021 at 21:59

Great project. What will be next?

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Yaroslav wrote 10/15/2021 at 20:17

Thanks. There are a couple more projects that I will post later.

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ATOMPUNK ROCKET LAMP MADE OF BARE PCBS AND LED-LIT

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ATOMPUNK ROCKET LAMP MADE OF BARE PCBS AND LED-LIT

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