Cool. CadQuery is perfect fit for such organic modeling. I wonder if there is anything similar for pcb design.
Very cool. 5-fold symmetry on the PCB to use up the board allowance is particularly neat.
A trick that poor hobbyists learn early on is to make pads a little larger than necessary for SMT parts so you've got somewhere to wick solder onto. Neopixels (5050 LEDs) are reasonable to hand-solder since the pads extend up the sides of the package, but you can also do QFNs with a bit of practice by placing a big via to get to the central pad from underneath.
Nice. I make a similar LED fixture with 256 leds https://lazaruslightworks.com/shop
Cool! Remarkably similar to Voria Labs who produce a product called Lumanoi https://voria.com/
Perhaps an example of convergent evolution? :)
Love how the 5 PCBs slot into each other to form the final shape.
With respect to the assembly: do yourself a massive favor and let the PCB fab also assemble the LEDs. With a simple bill of materials like this it will add very little cost, it saves you a _lot_ of time, and it might also reduce the chance of component damage from adding too much heat or from accidental ESD strikes. (I don’t know how much these Neopixels can handle, though.)
> do yourself a massive favor and let the PCB fab also assemble the LEDs
From the article:
What's next? ...using PCB assembly...
very inspiring. it's nice to see how an idea evolves from a though to a product / installation.
Excellent choice in music for the demonstration.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/neon-pattern-drum/134973653...
Love it! I'm currently learning electronics (again, did some in high school) and this kind of project is really inspiring.
Thank you for sharing the build process.
Always wanted to build something like this. The way the sound drives the phyllotaxis patterns is truly mesmerizing.
Nice work. Love to see some vintage HN content
I don't like the word phyllotaxis.
I understand it was inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllotaxis, but arrangement on leaves serves the purpose of growth in a specific niche. The pattern arises because naturally leaves serve to capture light - see the images on wikipedia there. Phyllo means green. The LEDs used here do not really tap into any of that, and the name is also a misnomer. That's not good.
There is no worse form of bikeshedding than naming pedantry.
Agreed. All variable names should be single-letters as the Greek Gods intended :D
This is brilliant
very cool!
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