#portuarialamp — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #portuarialamp, aggregated by home.social.
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But not everything is pure pleasure in the world of USB PD. The USB PD charger I'm using is not a big deal, and has a standby power consumption of 0.125W when it's working at 5V (unpresentable for 2024 🙈), but when it's put to work at 20V the standby consumption goes to 1W! 😱. A 5W lamp that consumes 1W when turned off?!?! 💩
After a couple of days pondering this depressing result, I thought of trying something: Make the charger go back to 5V when the lamp is off!
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The solution? Use the new USB PD chargers, which can deliver different voltages if we ask them nicely 😁. I'm using a board with the HUSB238 to ask the charger to give me 20V, which is enough to turn on the 17V LED and makes everything work more efficient and cooler because the current in the cable is only 0.25A, converting from 220V to 20V is more efficient, and the step-down to regulate the LED current is more efficient than the step-up of the previous version.
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I also managed to stabilize the driver circuit to reduce the oscillations of the light intensity to less than 0.2% (2 mV, 0.84 lumens), from 72% that the original circuit had 😱. The trick was to add four 22 uF ceramic capacitors in parallel to the LED, and another 10 uF at the potentiometer input.
The goal remains to simulate natural lighting as best as possible, and after all, the sun does not flicker 🤔.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #LED #driver #dimmer #flicker #electronics
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The design of the dimmable version of the Portuaria is progressing, slowly but it is progressing 🥳.
Organizing the wiring of the components inside the base was quite a challenge because there are things with fixed positions (potentiometer, LED cable, vertical rod and power plug) and the circuits have to fit into the gaps between those things 🤯. I think it could be simplified more, but for now everything fits into its place.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #LED #driver #dimmer #electronics
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New LED holder design, now with connector so you can change the LED without having to use a soldering iron 😎.
I did it to be able to mount the Bridgelux V8s I'm using, with 3mm polycarbonate scraps I had around here.
The future plan is to migrate to the Bridgelux V6s, which have more standard measurements and can be used with TE's Z35 holders.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #LED #holder #lighting #DIY
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This task is kind of delayed because the clay is sabotaging the perfect circularity of my pieces 😂.
Because of the unorthodox shape for a ceramic piece, the circle dries unevenly and ends up becoming an ellipse 🤨.
Slow drying over several days didn't work either. So I turned to the wisdom of r/Ceramics on Reddit to see how I could fix it and they threw out a few ideas that I need to try.
To be continued...
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #ceramics #lampdesign #productdesign
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The things this new screen design aims to improve are:
- Ease of assembly. Placing the LED in place while tightening the screws was no fun at all 🤯.
- Mounting the LED with connectors instead of soldering it, to make it easier to repair 🛠.
- Avoiding the cable and screws being visible through the gap between the heatsink and the screen.
- Improving the airflow through the heatsink by creating a chimney effect.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #productdesign #ceramics #lampdesign
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First working prototype of the Portuaria Lamp! 💪
Although it is a desk lamp, I will be using it as a bedside lamp to test the mechanical stability against being hit in the dark.
There are still several things to improve:
- The cotton-covered cable gets very linty and stains very easily.
- The ceramic screen also needs modifications. I can see the screws 😱.
- Making the vertical axis of the lamp perfectly square is hard 🤯.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #woodenlamp #woodworking #LED #productdesign
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The time has come to assemble the base. The idea is to have a printed circuit board with the voltage booster, resistors, and connectors for the LED and the switch, and at the same time to act as a cover for all the wiring.
Sending the printed circuit board to be manufactured in China as usual implies a delay of at least a month in the mail, so I decided to improvise something with a blank board. It didn't turn out so bad 😁.
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The holes are for the switch, the cable, and the vertical rod. The one for the rod ended a bit loose; drilling it with a 10 mm bit to fit a 10 mm rod was too optimistic. Next time, I'm going to use a 3/8" drill bit and sand the end of the rod until it fits just right.
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Carving the lamp base with a router to mount the USB voltage booster, resistors and switch.
The router is not quite tamed yet, doing this I learned that turning it off and on again in the middle of a slot is not a good idea 😬. I finished it with a chisel, slow but more predictable 🤷♂️.
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After a lot of experimenting with various models of the height-adjusting disc that holds the cable near the base, I decided that it would be better to make the height fixed instead of adjustable 🤷♂️
The main problem is that it is very difficult to make the adjustment fluid enough to adjust the height without the lamp jumping, which does not look good as a user experience.
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Assembling the head of the lamp. Despite the chamfered slot, it turned out pretty well. The yellow thing at the tip of the cotton sheath is a heat-shrink with glue, which is then inserted under pressure into the slot. It's the first thing that occurred to me to fix the sheath to the rod so that it can withstand the tension. Perhaps in the next iteration I will replace that with a screw, although the limited space is a challenge.
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First attempt to mount the lamp head on the rod 🤔. What seemed easy in the drawing turned out not to be so easy when transferring it to materials.
The difficult thing was making the 3 mm slot in the 10 mm rod, and getting it to align with tolerances of less than 1 mm.
Next time I'm going to try with a router and templates, we'll see how it goes with that.
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The screws pass between the heatsink fins and will attach both the lampshade and heatsink to the wooden rod.
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Recycling ceramics to build a lampshade. I found that these mini bowls I made to test ceramic glazes roughly fit what I need for the lampshade of the prototype, so I drilled one to accommodate the LED and two screws.
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Then I cut a circle with the hand router using the guide as a compass, and sanded it with the orbital sander and sanding sponge.
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I wanted the base of the lamp to be a 16 x 2 cm disc, but I only had 7 x 2 cm boards around here, so I ended up glueing a few cuts.
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💡 New project! An USB powered LED desk lamp made of wood, ceramic, and aluminum. It will be called "Portuaria", which in Spanish means "related to the port", because its shape reminds me of the cranes and sailboats at the port.
🧵 #PortuariaLamp #lamp #prototype #LED #USB #lampdesign #woodenlamp #woodworking #electronics