Arduino 3: TKMoodLight
CAUTION: Flickering lights: if you are prone to seizures or are affected adversely by strobes or flicker please don’t watch this video or build this project. I can’t be responsible for any adverse… or psychedelic…. effects from staring into the flashing red pingpong ball for long periods of time. (But if you meet any entities in there, please let me know right away.) Here’s a little “mood light” I made using the “pro mini” version of the Arduino clone system. My semi-local Fry’s stocks the OSEPP brand of Arduino clones so some months ago I picked up a few varieties to play around with. This version is designed for a dedicated installation: it does not include the programming hardware or the USB jack or the large numbers of IO pins of the Uno or larger ‘duinos. You hook up the pins you need for your functionality, you program it with a separate module that contains the USB interface, and you install it in your art project or Sous Viande slow cooker or autonomous spy robot or whatever, and leave it alone to do its thing. Here I used a tricolor RGB LED and a program that controls each color independently, to make a “mood light” that runs a number of different patterns, switched by a button. There is plenty of room for more patterns in the unit’s RAM too. The pingpong ball makes a great diffuser, and I made a little stand for the whole system. It has been running for months, I use it as a nightlight making the slowly shifting color pattern. It can run on the LiPo battery …
