Glue Day #1: Cut All The Hinge Components And Laminated Them. Hopefully They Don't Stick To One Another.

Table Design sketches. Much of sketch credit here goes to M. Baxter.

Conclusion of the LED light project. I had concluded maybe before the last post that the auto wake up function from the iPhone would not be a feasible option without more electronics however I still wanted a charger in here to power the LEDs and provide a nice acoustic dock for dearest iPhoney-MciPhone. The build went along the lines of contact cementing the glass sheet to plywood, then epoxying the contacts to the underside of the glass. In retrospect I think I would opt to place a few globs of epoxy along the length of wire, rather than slathering all of it. I think a few globs might have looked cleaner. Next I took the plunge and opened up my iPhones cable, then soldered it back together but with the LED bug on the 5V line. Then is was just wrapping my precut Mylar sheets around my electronics and contact cementing those to the glass. I finished up with gluing in a small wooden support sanded to level the charger with my phone's 30 pin slot with a case on. Dark tests show desirable optical and bending effects similar to the paper models.

Prototyping a digital latch for the old light-cum-paper project. After I made a space heater out of NANDs I ended up using two inverters and some resistors and capacitors for debouncing a la the last schematic in "Circuits B" here: http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/TouchSwitch/TouchSwitch-1.html

Potential circuit for the on/off of the "smartphone opera house" lights. You could power the whole stand off of the 5V iPhone USB cable, taking a parallel path for the LEDs and the phone charger.

Dead center in the schematic is a relay that would control power to the LEDs. The relay could be pulled by some sort of signal from the iPhone's USB jack (the line coming from top left). I kind of hope that the iPhone sends some momentary Tx signal on the USB when it wakes up for an alarm but this is an assumption; its hard to find information on an Apple product. In any case, assuming some kind of transient signal could be pulled off of the iPhone the relay would be pulled closed and then self-latch, keeping the LEDs on. In order to manually turn the lights on and off, a double pole, double throw switch (ignore the SPDT label) could be used (which is shown as two separate switches, 1 and 2). To turn off the lights after the phone has turned them on you would turn the lights manually on, connecting 1 and disconnecting 2, then back to off, which would momentarily break the self-latch circuit.    

Iteration 2: thick "pages" step base which could house electronics, lengthened bay to fit iPhone form factor. Plastic, on/off, and charging discussed as future directions.

The conclusion of the great storage assembly. Wheels: on. Doors: on. Realized we needed a more ergonomic way to open the doors: not a problem, got some adorable little knobs. I think its a good little storage space, people are using it already. It has enough heft to feel like a not-easily-moved installation, however, because of the non locking wheels, it will not tip over even if a linebacker leans on it. Oh and there is whiteboard on the back of it as well! The piece fits into out initial design goals, as summarized here by Ben:

Having identified the need for project storage and display in the new Brown Design Workshop (BDW), we set out to design and build a large scale storage unit.  We were given the constraint of only using plywood (in straight cuts with a track-saw) and drywall screws for the primary structure.  

In the process of thinking about improving the BDW space, we felt that a small semi-enclosed lounge area for collaborative brainstorming, sketching, and snack breaks would be incredibly beneficial.  We noticed that a small awkward area around a large structural collumn was not being effectively used, and we had the idea of defining and enclosing a lounge using storage units.  With this goal in mind we came up with dimesions and layouts for the storage units that would allow them to act as partial walls defining the lounge space.  We envision the back side of the storage units being large whiteboards for ideation and sketching in the lounge.

 atlasdesignstudio benbasseches bradherz pgolyski 

Aaron with our main beam, taped but not yet glued up. streetlightchanger

Day one: LED and paper project. Phone opera house, projects sound and light. Collaborator: Brian Drake (I'll miss ya buddy)

The products of today's brainstorming on Prince Lab storage/space use. 

atlasdesignstudio benbasseches pgolyski

A slightly better representation of the folddown (though still missing many components). Beam (not shown) goes through the notches in the front of the side panels to hold it together. Without the beam in the top folds down against the back, then the sides fold in on top of the top. The beam reinserts into hooks on the outside of the sides to secure the flatpack.