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Topic 4: kinetic Sculpture



THE IDEA:

I am really interested in art and in my free time I like drawing in black and white. When I was looking for ideas to create a kinetic sculpture I decided to look into my sketchbook and bring one of my creations to life...

disegno

This drawing seemed the more realizable to me, so I decided to start from this sketch to create something kinetic. I decided to create a lamp with crystals moving up and down that refract the light emetted by the LEDs in order to create very beautiful optic effects.


MATERIALS:

To realize this project I needed lots of materials but I managed to find all of them easily and at a good price. Here is a complete list of all the materials I have used:



FABRICATING:

I have bought four photo holders and used their glass plates to build the structure of my lamp:

glass

I started by gluing the four glass plates together with hot glue.

IMG_4932 (2)

Then I created the upper part of the structure with a cardboard box in which I glued a system of sticks. I used this system to make a single motor warp many threads. Firstly I glued inside the box a support (made of bottle caps) to stick the motor against gravity (I made two holes into one cap for the wires of the motor), then I made a support for the drinking straw and put a straw on the opposite side so that the drinking straw would remain bounded in the correct position. I used tape to bound the straw to the motor.

IMG_4938 IMG_4939 IMG_4938 IMG_4942 IMG_4944 IMG_4945 IMG_4947 IMG_4948 IMG_4964 IMG_4967

At first I tried to use tape to stick the support of the motor, however it was not really stable so I glued also the support. I have warped threads around the drinking straw in two different directions (to make it visible in the photos I used two different colors) so that some of them will warp while some other will unwarp while the motor is running in one direction.

IMG_4969

When the upper part was ready I created a circuit to light up the LEDs of different colors and I have written a program to make three of them light when the motor was running in one direction, the other two when the motor was running in the opposite direction and all of them when the motor was off

IMG_4980 
  
const int A1A = 2;  // define pin 3 for A-1A
const int A1B = 3;  // define pin 4 for A-1B
const int LED_GRP_A = 9;  // define pin 9 fer LED GROUP YEL-RED-WHT
const int LED_GRP_B = 12; // define pin 12 fer LED GROUP BLU-GRN

void setup() {

  pinMode(A1A, OUTPUT); // specify these pins as outputs to control motor
  pinMode(A1B, OUTPUT); 
  pinMode(LED_GRP_B, OUTPUT); // specify these pins as outputs to control the two LED groups
  pinMode(LED_GRP_A, OUTPUT);
  
}

void loop() {

  digitalWrite(A1A, LOW); // specify a direction by setting one pin high and the other low
  digitalWrite(A1B, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_A, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite (LED_GRP_B,LOW);
  
  delay(3000); // allow the motor to run for 3 seconds
  
  digitalWrite(A1A, LOW); // stops the motor
  digitalWrite(A1B, LOW);   
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_A, HIGH);   
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_B, HIGH);

  delay(1000);        // motor off and LEDs on for 1 second

  digitalWrite(A1A, HIGH);  // reverse the direction of the motor and restart
  digitalWrite(A1B, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_A, LOW);    
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_B,HIGH); 
  
  delay(3000);        // allow the motor to run for 3 seconds

  digitalWrite(A1A, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(A1B, LOW);   
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_A, HIGH);   
  digitalWrite(LED_GRP_B, HIGH);

  delay(1000);        // motor off and LEDs on for 1 second

I used another straw to make electric wires go from the motor in the upper part to the Metro board and breadboard in the lowest part without being visible

straw1

WORKING PROTOTYPE:

Here is a video of the first prototype:




PUTTING THINGS TOGETHER:

At the end I have assembled all the parts I had made together and I have personalised my lamp to make it look beautiful (as any piece of art should be!)

straw1