Rotating RGB LED sphere

[aeroencychris]

Hi,

My friend saw this video on YouTube and decided he wanted to replicate it on his own, not knowing anything about electronics. I figured I'd help him out with the project but wanted to make it a bit more refined and useful than what the video depicts. Instead of using cell batteries and simply giving everything power, I'd like to attach everything to an Arduino and be able to control both motor speeds as well as the colors of LED's (I was thinking four total with two sets in series for 2 overall colors). I'm trying to think how to apply all of this physically in terms of how to wire everything. Obviously just having the wires for the LEDs and central motor come off towards the Arduino loosely won't work since they'll get tangled around themselves as the motor turns. I can't think of a good way of wiring everything without having that issue. The video below shows a nice application of what I'm thinking, although there's no tutorial and it's all in Russian

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

 

 

[W-L]

20 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Hi,

My friend saw this video on YouTube and decided he wanted to replicate it on his own, not knowing anything about electronics. I figured I'd help him out with the project but wanted to make it a bit more refined and useful than what the video depicts. Instead of using cell batteries and simply giving everything power, I'd like to attach everything to an Arduino and be able to control both motor speeds as well as the colors of LED's (I was thinking four total with two sets in series for 2 overall colors). I'm trying to think how to apply all of this physically in terms of how to wire everything. Obviously just having the wires for the LEDs and central motor come off towards the Arduino loosely won't work since they'll get tangled around themselves as the motor turns. I can't think of a good way of wiring everything without having that issue. The video below shows a nice application of what I'm thinking, although there's no tutorial and it's all in Russian

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Looks to be very simple and solely mechanical with no dedicated electronic systems other than a speed controller for the motors and a power supply for the LED's. For the cables not tangling they are using a a slip ring type electrical connection to pass current through to the LED's while letting them spin and rotate freely. 

[aeroencychris]

7 minutes ago, W-L said:

Looks to be very simple and solely mechanical with no dedicated electronic systems other than a speed controller for the motors and a power supply for the LED's. For the cables not tangling they are using a a slip ring type electrical connection to pass current through to the LED's while letting them spin and rotate freely. 

I know it can be done in a simple way, but I'd also like to mess around with Arduino code and customize this a bit, so speed and the power for LEDs can be dealt with solely by the Arduino.

I'm a bit confused on the slip ring, although it looks like a great solution to this. Would something like this work? Why is there a power rating of 2A 240V included? Am I missing something here?

Thanks for the help

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

I know it can be done in a simple way, but I'd also like to mess around with Arduino code and customize this a bit, so speed and the power for LEDs can be dealt with solely by the Arduino.

I'm a bit confused on the slip ring, although it looks like a great solution to this. Would something like this work? Why is there a power rating of 2A 240V included? Am I missing something here?

Thanks for the help

Yes something like that, they look to have a more homemade version of it using only two wires, just note you need two of thing slip rings, one for the interior ring of spinning LED's and the outer one the spins the entire thing around. Those ratings are for the max capability of the slip ring.

[aeroencychris]

9 minutes ago, W-L said:

Yes something like that, they look to have a more homemade version of it using only two wires, just note you need two of thing slip rings, one for the interior ring of spinning LED's and the outer one the spins the entire thing around. Those ratings are for the max capability of the slip ring.

Why would I end up needing two? The outer motor itself will be stationary, and only the inner motor and the LEDs will be moving (therefore needing the LED)

[W-L]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Why would I end up needing two? The outer motor itself will be stationary, and only the inner motor and the LEDs will be moving (therefore needing the LED)

Take a close look at the beginning the LED's itself are spinning and the exterior cage is also spinning so it would require two slip rings if you were to pass power to the LED's individually to control with an arduino and the interior motor. 

[aeroencychris]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

Take a close look at the beginning the LED's itself are spinning and the exterior cage is also spinning so it would require two slip rings if you were to pass power to the LED's individually to control with an arduino and the interior motor. 

Sorry, my mind wasn't visualizing that correctly. Yes, you're right. I currently have one motor (no idea what RPM, voltage, or anything; going to test it later and find out) but I'll have to buy another later on (suggestions?)

The motor I already have doesn't really have any sort of rod where I could attack things to it, so how would I go about attaching the second motor and LEDs to it?

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Sorry, my mind wasn't visualizing that correctly. Yes, you're right. I currently have one motor (no idea what RPM, voltage, or anything; going to test it later and find out) but I'll have to buy another later on (suggestions?)

The motor I already have doesn't really have any sort of rod where I could attack things to it, so how would I go about attaching the second motor and LEDs to it?

The best option may be to get some small PWM controllable motors with a speed controller to vary the speeds, just make sure it's not a crazy high RPM motor. 

 

As for attaching if you can get a shaft collar or coupler that may be a good option to extend a rod off of that to have it hold things and let you mount the LED's to it. 

[aeroencychris]

27 minutes ago, W-L said:

The best option may be to get some small PWM controllable motors with a speed controller to vary the speeds, just make sure it's not a crazy high RPM motor. 

 

As for attaching if you can get a shaft collar or coupler that may be a good option to extend a rod off of that to have it hold things and let you mount the LED's to it. 

Couldn't I adjust the speed with the Arduino instead just by changing the voltage? Is there more involved than that?

 

What kind of rod would I use for this? Keep in mind I also have access to a 3D printer if need be (although PLA isn't the strongest for this type of thing)

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Couldn't I adjust the speed with the Arduino instead just by changing the voltage? Is there more involved than that?

What kind of rod would I use for this? Keep in mind I also have access to a 3D printer if need be (although PLA isn't the strongest for this type of thing)

Yes to a degree as long as it can provide enough amperage to power the motor and not overload the arduino. For the rod I would look at getting some cold roller steel or stainless rods, for small diameters they aren't very hard to cut with a hacksaw and won't take long. 

[aeroencychris]

9 minutes ago, W-L said:

Yes to a degree as long as it can provide enough amperage to power the motor and not overload the arduino. For the rod I would look at getting some cold roller steel or stainless rods, for small diameters they aren't very hard to cut with a hacksaw and won't take long. 

Okay, sounds good. What model Arduino would I get? Does it really matter?

[W-L]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Okay, sounds good. What model Arduino would I get? Does it really matter?

The standard arduino uno would able to do that and have all the connections and more than needed, if you do notice that it's not able to power motors through voltage control you may want to look into PWM based motors and controlling them with the arduino.

[aeroencychris]

15 minutes ago, W-L said:

The standard arduino uno would able to do that and have all the connections and more than needed, if you do notice that it's not able to power motors through voltage control you may want to look into PWM based motors and controlling them with the arduino.

Okay, cool. Would something like this be how I would set up a breadboard to test them? Not sure if I have a transitistor on hand to use...

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-arduino-lesson-13-dc-motors/breadboard-layout

[W-L]

7 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Okay, cool. Would something like this be how I would set up a breadboard to test them? Not sure if I have a transitistor on hand to use...

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-arduino-lesson-13-dc-motors/breadboard-layout

That I'm not 100% sure but looks to be correct using the arduino's output values.

[aeroencychris]

11 hours ago, W-L said:

That I'm not 100% sure but looks to be correct using the arduino's output values.

I'm starting to worry that the Arduino itself won't be able to give enough voltage to the motors (even if plugged in to an outlet), so should I get a motor shield as well? The Arduino site says the shield can output up to 12V, but could the Arduino pins themselves do this, or is the shield necessary?

http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-Motor-Shield-R3/dp/B006UTE70E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1462284238&sr=8-5&keywords=arduino+motor+shield

 

Also this is the offbrand Uno I'm looking at using if that matters (has good reviews)

http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-ATmega328P-Development-Compatible-Arduino/dp/B00E5WJSHK/ref=zg_bs_3015432011_2

 

And the power supply

http://www.amazon.com/iMBAPrice%C2%AE-12V-Wall-Power-Adapter/dp/B00GURPGRY/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1462285109&sr=1-3&keywords=12v+1a+dc+power+supply

 

And the potential motor to use

http://www.amazon.com/6000RPM-Torque-Magnetic-Electric-Motor/dp/B008595SC8/ref=sr_1_3?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1462285421&sr=8-3&keywords=dc+motor&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011

[W-L]

6 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

-SNIP-

That I am not too familiar with the shield but from my guess it power the motor through that using an extra power in connection. 

[aeroencychris]

6 hours ago, W-L said:

That I am not too familiar with the shield but from my guess it power the motor through that using an extra power in connection. 

Okay, do all the other parts look good? I'll talk about this more with my friend but just curious what your take is on all of this.

[W-L]

6 hours ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Okay, do all the other parts look good? I'll talk about this more with my friend but just curious what your take is on all of this.

Yes most of that looks good to me, I'm just not totally sure about how that shield (board) exactly works.

[aeroencychris]

On 5/4/2016 at 5:31 AM, W-L said:

Yes most of that looks good to me, I'm just not totally sure about how that shield (board) exactly works.

Progress update, ordered most of the parts and I got both of the motors working with the arduino and shield. One of them is able to run off just the USB 5v source (at a slightly lower speed) but both run at full speed with the external 12v source. Speed control is also really easy, I'm using Adafruit's DC motor library and it's as simple as motor.setSpeed(x); which is convenient.

The thing I'm concerned about at this point is mounting. My only idea at this point is getting a shaft collar or something like you said and hot gluing a 3D printed rod to hold the wires and motor. Not the best solution but I can't think of much else.

[W-L]

38 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Progress update, ordered most of the parts and I got both of the motors working with the arduino and shield. One of them is able to run off just the USB 5v source (at a slightly lower speed) but both run at full speed with the external 12v source. Speed control is also really easy, I'm using Adafruit's DC motor library and it's as simple as motor.setSpeed(x); which is convenient.

The thing I'm concerned about at this point is mounting. My only idea at this point is getting a shaft collar or something like you said and hot gluing a 3D printed rod to hold the wires and motor. Not the best solution but I can't think of much else.

OK that's good at least it's a fairly easy to use solution, as for mounting if you can get a exterior structure as even and straight as possible with properly centering along the shaft that would work the best at keeping the two points centered since it will probably be the hardest part or it will have major vibrations.