So not “everything” is working… there are still a lot of small bugs, but they are very straight forward to deal with. I finished the mechanics of the first flower, and combined with the electronics.
Here’s a view of the (messy) electronics:
A couple problems that popped up included:
- Mounting to the servo – the servo motion caused the flower piston to bend, so another pivot needs to be added. Simple fix
- The PIR sensors I am using are not very sensitive – more testing may be needed. An alternative is using ultrasonic sensors instead, which is just as doable
- The LEDs do not string together well, there are issues with the second and third LEDs in series turning on. Some testing with LEDs separate from the built flower will help
- The circuitry is not mounted down 🙃 (not a big issue, will need to mount eventually for sanity’s sake and to avoid short circuits)
- Petal covers need to be added
- Batteries are on the way
- The box for storage is a Christmas gift box and needs to be painted over
- 5 more flowers need to be built 💀
My goals for this week:
On Tuesday: Fix the servo, test LEDs, add covers, test in darkness
On Wednesday: Add battery to flower 1
By Saturday: have all 5 flowers mechanics be built.
Ideally I’ll have everything working by Sunday for tuning and touch-ups! 🤞
Your mechanism for opening a closing is amazing, and I wish you luck with making 4 more of them. Also, for housing all the equipment you could try to get a few flowerpots from the store to make them look more natural.
I think that the frame that you have look so beautiful already. I am excited to see what you decide to use as your defusing material. I think that because your LEDs are just white, you have a chance to play around with using color theory when picking the color of the petal material. I wish you much luck with your technical challenges and I can’t wait to see your final project.