Tag: led

Lazyweb: Kinetic powered LED Diabolo

I have been thinking a lot, regarding the idea about kinetic powered LED diabolos,

A while ago I bought some inline skate wheels and they work exactly how I thought. However trying to attach them to the diabolo is more tricky that I thought.

Really I need to sit in a hackspace and just go at it for a day or so.

LED diabolo plan

In my head there are two ways to go about this.

  1. The standard diabolo route with a spinning axle.
    I could extend the diabolo axle and attach the inline wheel loose to the outside. In theory, the diabolo would spin as one piece and the loose inline wheel which has a bit of weight would generally spin far less than the diabolo axle. With this, the dynamo will light the wheel. Of course this might not work.
  2. The geared diabolo route with a static axle.
    This one is much more complex but a geared or bearing diabolo gets incredible speeds because the axle has a bearing within it. The big question is to either extend the bearing out to the inline wheel or add a bearings to the inline wheel’s dynamo?
    I also been wondering if the cups could be used to hold the inline wheel?

Ultimately it seems all possible but it just needs time. I write this encouraging others to give it a try. Maybe I’ll get some time off and get myself down to Hackspace Manchester (hacman) or DoES in Liverpool?

Someone tell me the physics don’t work one way or another, heck tell me how it could actually work…

Imagine kinetic powered LED diabolo?

I head about, a football which during the day can be used like a football and then at night used as a light.

I have always liked the idea of kinetic energy and always wanted things like kinetic energy watches. However the light ball really got me thinking about the LED lights on my Diabolo.

Kinetic energy on a diabolo is not a problem, so some of it could really be used for something else, like to keep a LED kit going almost endlessly?

I thought this must be done right? But from what I can find there are no LED kits or Diabolos which actually use kinetic energy at all. I did find a yoyo which doubles as a charger for your phone. If you know of one, do let me know as I’m considering prototyping one out of a kinetic wheel or something else.

Of course not as noble as the light ball but could be interesting?

Fixing the Sundia Diabolo LED kit

Both fully working

A while ago I blogged about trying to replace the battery on the Sundia Diabolo LED kit.

Lots of friends tweeted me and helped.

I learned a lot including LiPo is always 3.7v and the configuration of the numbers which were faded out on the current battery. With that information I finally bought some batteries from ebay.

The battery I bought from ebay

They took a while to come but I did a few rough tests and it seemed to work and then not work. So I left it, however I now know the reason why it was on and off is because of the wiring.

Black tape to fix the LED kit

The wiring was small and trying to bind the wires with my large hands was always going to be a problem. In the end I finally got it hooked up and stripped the wires back further than originally planned. Once done, it was stable and I was able to make it work consistently.

Sundia LED kit working!

What it really needs is soldering because lets be honest its going to be thrown around a lot and the impact on my black tapped connections will be high. Because of this, I’m considering adding foam or bubble wrap to the inside of the case to put less pressure on the inner elements. Ultimately they should be soldered and the battery stuck in place with something stronger than black tape.

Ironically I decided to get a fire diabolo, at long last. There is something about Fire which is much more impressive but infinitely more dangerous (in a good and bad way).

Update on the Sundia Diabolo LED

Jasmine's magic touch on the Sundia LED kit

With the mess which kind of worked, I thought I need to talk to a professional about it. My good friend Jasmine was the natural choice, so with chocolate, a takeaway and some good conversation. Jasmine lent her professional eyes to the LED kit. Fixing everything so well, I was blown away with the results as you can see above!

Now thats how to fix the Sundia Diabolo LED kit!

Help in seeking the Sundia LED kit battery

Jamming with a LED diabolo - Photo credit Ian Wilson

Daylight is drawing in earlier and earlier every day and because of that, lights are extremely useful when using the Diabolo during dusk. Not only that, it looks frankly amazing. It also means the monthly Firejam in Castlefield bowl has started up again.

Dusting off my LEDs and adding them to the Diabolo again. However there is a problem. I am pretty much in love with Sundia Diabolos and the battery in my Sundia LED kit is pretty much dead. Can I get another one? Not a chance, its sold out everywhere it seems.

Sundia Diabolo LED kit uncovered

After unscrewing the LED kit, I noticed a small rechargeable battery like the Pacemaker one. Currently it all works when plugged into MiniUSB (bottom left), which clearly suggests the battery isn’t holding any power anymore. So I  decided to look into getting a replacement battery because its worked so well for my Pacemaker device and I’m about to do similar for my pebble smart watches.

However I can not find the battery type or anything about it. I assume its a 3.7V tiny lipo Li Polymer rechargeable battery with a connector but I can’t confirm this at all. Both sides of the battery have no details except a slightly faded Sundia wording. I also don’t see anything on the circuit board but I’m sure someone reading knows or can help me.

The circuit board details

I think this might do the job but anyone who can point me would be massively useful.

My first LED diabolo in darkness test

Since the Firejam 2 weeks ago, I’ve been getting more into the diabolo with lights or even fire thing. Today I hit the garden to try out the LED kit on my old diabolo. The results are not bad, but it’s not quite what I was after. I’d like to see more blur with the diabolo moves really but I guess I can do this in post if I like.

Added some music and uploaded to youtube. Of course Youtube doesn’t like the music and theres a flickr version too incase youtube removes it from different regions.

I shot the whole thing on my Nikon D3200 using the standard kit lens, manual settings and gorillapod. Next time I’ll mess with the settings and try it during dusk, because then at least you can see what I’m up to and I can see what the heck I’m actually doing!

Fun times ahead!

Especially as I’m starting to crack the Vertex!

Beware Philips Hue lights from the states

I bought into the Philips Hue system a while ago by buying the part I needed and then the lights afterwards. There are a tons of people selling the wired zeegbee bridge for as low as 25 pounds (I paid 26 for mine) then you can get a bulbs afterwards for much cheaper than the starter kit at 170 pounds.

So this is what I did…

Philips Hue Bridge

However I hit a problem, the first Philips Hue Lux light came and I could see it on the app via the bridge but couldn’t control it. I tried a lot of things including upgrading the system and rebooting the bridge. But it just didn’t response to anything I did. I thought well maybe its a dodgy bulb from ebay. However the next bulb came and I couldn’t even see it via the bridge.

I also ordered some via Amazon and they worked straight away, as expected!  I looked into the differences and found some bad news…

Philips will void warranty if 110V bulbs are used with 220V power and vice versa. Closer look at the packaging shows there maybe a problem.

Philips Hue Lux lights American packaging
The American Hue Lux – E26 bulb

Philips Hue Lux lights Europe packaging
The Europe Hue Lux – E27 bulb

So it looks like I have 2 American bulbs which I’ll have to put back on ebay at a lost (if it works at all?)

The good news is I have replaced my Philips Light/Wakeup clock with a Hue light which slowly turns on when Sleep as Android thinks its time to wake up. Apartment therapy you are wrong, using your phone as an alarm makes perfect sense, when used in the right way.

Which smart light technology works for me

I have been watching the Home automation market for a long while now and with all the security problems, have decided its time to get involved. Lights seem to be alright when it comes to security risk.

Checking out Amazon reviews, theres quite a bit of criticism about the Belkin Wemo compared to the Philips Hue.  Sam suggests LiFX as another option but I never heard of them.

So what am I after?

  • A range of LED bulbs and lights (bayonet and edison screw)
  • Support for Android at the minimum, IFTTT, Web and Linux would be great.
  • The ability to join my network either via Zigbee or something else.
  • Colour

After my brief twitter chat with Sam and Tony, I now know Philips Hue Lux is out, Wemo also maybe out due to the colour.  LiFX looks interesting but the lack of a wireless bridge worries me with bigger install plans. Plus I think there is a benefit to a bridge to connect other zigbee devices which are coming on to the market. Originally I was thinking about getting a almond plus router but then picked up the TPlink Archer D7 over the holidays at a good price.

It looks like the Philips Hue Lux is the best option to get started. With those I can hook it up to my Sleep as Android app, recreating my very old Philips wake up light.

I can then add a light to my living room for use while chilling out and watching films on xbmc/kodi.