project two

For this project I wanted to create a way to make gardening more accessible to those living in urban areas.. I didn't want it to be too site specific but I wanted it to make it easier to garden in winter and not too space demanding so it could fit on apartment balconies and small gardens .

For this I thought of an affordable, environmentally friendly greenhouse that is flat packed and easy to set up. I wanted  to design it so it was able to be taken down gin and moved to a different location making it easier for those who rent.

I sketched  few designs.

I settled on a lean too design as it would be the best use of space and two could lean back to back for economic use of space.


here is my design pitch poster

late blogging project 1 b

So after my light sourcing I pretty much started on designing and making my light. I decided I would use wire to act asthe main structure for my light and I would laser cut a piece of acrylic to hold them together and to act as a base. It took me a while bending all the pieces of wire to shape and fitting them with eggs but after that I didnt have a huge amount of work to do. I laser cut my pieceto act as a base and then spent the last two evenings before the hand in constructing it and finishing it. It was the easiest to construct due to the shape and the materiel's but I am pleased with how it came out.

My bogging has been very late. Far too late. like all of the design students Ive been pretty busy during the last week and kept procrastinating far too long.

late blogging. project 1 b

Ok time for some late blogging. Some vary late blogging. Half way through the study break I realised thsat I didnt have anywhere enough for my EL wire creation and was going to have to think a bit smaller if I was going to be able to make anything. I did some more precident gathering and research and  and looked at cheap bright colourful lighting solutions.

I looked mostly at LEDs and what I could do with them

Basically I wanted something bright colourful and mesmerizing. I didn't have the money to do anything controlled by an arduino or anything so I looked at what I could do with cheap mass produced parts.

 I sketched a bit to see what kind of shape I wanted and came up with a flower inspired design where as the lights would be on the end of stamen like objects drawing the eye and the person in like a flower does with an insect.

I  looked online at what I could get a lot of and saw led thees led colour changing eggs, they weren't very interesting with one but with several the colour changing looked very impressive and eye catching so I decided I would use them as my light sources so I ordered 40 of them planning to use 30 and having spares in case there were a few that didn't work.

Design

My finalish design is an EL wire creation. The central axis rotates making the EL wire leave behind light traces. There are to 25 to 30 strands of EL that are of the colours red yellow green blue and purple and they will be sequenced in that order rather than the colours being grouped together. Each colour has its own specific shape made of smooth arcs and angles so each colour will create a shape as it rotates. the light is controlled by a Micro controller and a shield that controls the EL wire, most likely an Arduino model. I will use a microphone and subsequent programming of the controller that turns on different colours and creates patterns with the EL wire according to the music that is around. The motor will run at the same speed but the speed and pattern will change with tempo and pitch, depending on how well I am able to write the code and wire it together. I think the overall effect will be quite mesmerising as the lights shape and colour. will be continually changing depending on what is playing.

Sketch Ideas

I started designing some potential ideas for my design. They are similar in technologies and materiel's but the design, composition and form are quite different.

 This design is the most dissimilar to my first project. It doesn’t use a motor and instead relies on human interaction and kinetic energy to get it to move. The "bouncing" from the elasticated cord make the EL wire jiggle around leaving behind light traces.












 

For this design It uses a motor and a proximity sensor for interaction. when People aren't around it turns slowly with the EL wire strands relaxed but when it senses a person near it the ball speeds up and so does the EL wire sequencing.

This design Idea is quite similar to my project one in the sense that it is El wire that spins leaving behind Light traces. I have been experimenting with form and interaction with this design and instead of it changing when people interact with it, it changes with music. I would have it so that depending on the tempo and pitch of the music it would activate different colours and patterns. In one design I thought of having a certain colour group attached to another motor that changes the shape of the light.

I have also thought about using different shapes for different colours to make it look quite erratic and then combining sequencing and patterns to bring the form to life.

interaction and control

Although the form and design of my project is still undecided, I have started looking into the interaction aspect of my project and control of the lighting intensity and specific colour.
I have been researching the Arduino micro controllers.  My knowledge of controllers is very limited but they seem cheap and relativley easy to use for a novice.

I found a possible Arduino shield that is specifically designed for sequencing and controlling el wire

EL Escudo
COM-09259    

 From looking at the controllers If I used a sheild for the EL wire it would be ideal for the sequencing I want to use.

Already price is looking to be a huge factor so hopefully I can get these items relatively cheap.

Im unsure of if I shall use human interaction to physically move it or if It will rely on motors. If I use a motor Im not sure If I will control it through the arduino. at least not at this stage.

Precidents

Here are a collection ogf images and design Ideas Ive looked into

Obviously I find lluminescence very inspiring and Is what my project is going to incorporate. At this stage Im still hunting inspiration for form and interaction but I am starting yto find Ideas that seem like they could work.

One thing that worries me with this project is cost. EL wire in the amount that I want to use is not exactly cheap and if I want to use an arduino curcuit board to control the project then that is going to make it quite pricey.

Project 1 part B

Ok for the second part of this project I still want to use EL wire. I dont know if  Ill end up using a motor or having it spin but I want it to be interactive and still use the light effects of the wire like the colour mixing and the light traces it leaves.

Project 1. conclusion

I am very dissapointed with how this project went. I recieved my EL wire finally on friday the 10th of august, 2 weeks after I had ordered it from the Hutt. The sellers reason for it arriving so late was he was hospitalised with a broken leg. Annoying but I will just get that product done and out of the way. I may have to make some changes to the design but I just want it done so I can focus on the next project.

Composition

A typical environment for my light design. I have chosen to go with a hanging light as it will look the best and not hurt anyone whilst spinning. In my redesign I will produce just one but the idea of many of  them hanging down from the ceiling would look awe inspiring.

Another plan

Another plan for my redesgn, with this design the EL wire is soldered together in a series and zigzags between the bottem and the top rather than each peice being seperatly wired. I think that this is the way I will most likely produce it as it is the most feasable

Deconstruction

The deconstruction was almost irrelevant for my product as it comes deconstructed and requires a little bit of assembly. It gave me a chance to look at the flaws within the current design and gave me direction for improving it

The plastic connectors are quite fragile and one of the connectors broke off when I had been playing with it. They don't have any value either, they were purely designed just to connect the pieces but they could be designed much more durable and creatively and would make them much more aesthetically pleasing. For my redesign I will most likey laser cut the connectors out of acrylic and pay much more attention to the way they look as they are a throw-away piece without much value.

Research

I decided to do some research on glow sticks themselves rather than the glow balls which I was unable to find much on.

Glow sticks are a translucent plastic tube that contains isolated chemicals, one housed in a glass tube within the plastic tube. The light from a glow stick is produced when the two chemicals mix creating a  chemiluminescent reaction. The inner glass tube usually contains Phenyl oxalate and a fluorescent dye. the other chemical in the glow stick is Hydrogen peroxide. a by-product of the reaction is phenol.

 The first patents on chemiluminescent reactions arrived in the 60s and 70s with the first patent attributed to  Bernard Dubrow and Eugene Daniel Guth in 1965. The current glow stick design where a glass tube designed to be broken encased in  a plastic tube was patented in 1976 by Vincent J. Esposito, Steven M. Little, and John H. Lyons.

 EL WIRE

In my redesign I want to change the glow sticks to a longer lasting light source, I have chosen electroluminescent wire or EL wire to do this as it provides a similar amount of light, is long lasting and has a low electricity consumption. El wire is a copper wire coated in phosphor then around that is wrapped two very thin copper wires isolated from the inner wire by the phosphor, surrounding that is a clear PVC sleeve, then after that is another PVC sleeve that is either clear, coloured  or fluorescent.  When the current is applied to the thin wires and the copper core the phosphor is the part that creates the glow, normally the glow is aqua green and the outer PVC sheath is often coloured to create the desired colour.

El wire requires a driver to function as it requires an AC current rather than a DC at a frequency of 60hz to 4000hz and a voltage between 50-120V AC RMS.