Nía - Wireless Winter Ornament

youmagine

Designed for the Maker's Make - "Design and 3D Print an Ornament" Contest (http://bit.ly/1YgqubI) Nia is a beautiful winter-themed ornament perfect for every household. It pairs charmingly with furniture that hides wireless Qi charging, like IKEA's wireless furniture range (http://bit.ly/1mkuvjO). No charger? Print the complementary base unit to integrate one of the many available kits. Nia is sure to become a talking piece over the holiday season and is perfect for setting the winter mood. Nia combines an Arduino-compatible Digispark with digital LEDs and wireless power, making it the ornament you want to keep with you around the home. What's that snowflake pattern you see? That pattern happens to be a subtle reminder that this ornament was built, not mass produced, and features Maker's own Makey throughout. Printing Instructions Base - 0.2mm Layer Height Shaft - 0.3mm Layer Height Shade - 0.1/0.2mm Layer Height, Supports required on overhang halfway up. Charger - 0.2mm Layer Height, Support touching bed. Assembly Instructions: 1. LED Shaft Instructions Wrap the LED strip around the shaft (Aluminum or Printed). Leave 6mm on each end for fitting to base and shaft. Use tape or a glue gun to secure in place. 2. Base Instructions Fit the induction coil in place along with the module and secure with tape if necessary. Insert the shaft into the base. Connect the 5V and Ground wires together using solder or a solderless breadboard segment (can be cut to size). Connect the data wire to Pin 4 of the Digispark and connect power to the board using jumpers. Secure the Digispark into the base using the slot provided. Any small form factor Arduino can be used, in this case, the DigiSpark works great because of its small size. TIP: Wrap any excess wiring around the shaft before connecting to the terminals of the Digispark to keep things tidy. OPTIONAL: Connecting both a Lithium battery and charging module into the circuit allows Nia to be used away from the base for periods of time. 3. Charger Instructions Fit the induction coil in place along with the module and secure with tape if necessary. Cut the end off of a 5V power supply and thread the wires through the hole in the side. Strip back the wires and solder them to the corresponding positive and negative wires on the wireless charging board. If you're not sure which wires are which, use a multimeter to check the voltage. 4. Coding Instructions Let me start by saying coding is not my talent. My code is messy and in many cases excessive. That being said, it's functional, and with some trial and error, I was able to get the lighting effect I was going for. The LEDs are set to a winter blue and flicker between varying intensities of brightness creating a modern candle-like effect. For those trying to understand or change my code, I made use of the FastLED library. There are 5 LEDs that are copied to the next in the strip. These 5 LEDs change their brightness at the same rate but out of sync with each other. This out-of-sync brightness change creates the effect.