The Unbright Lamp

Our lamp will gradually reveal more light depending on the brightness of its environment. When in complete darkness, the iris mechanism on the lampshade will close entirely.

The lamp is created with a simple combination of a servo and a laser-cut iris mechanism, all controlled through a photoresistor.

Find solitude in true darkness by using the Unbright Lamp.

Arduino Mechanics:

1. Arduino UNO R3
2. Photoresistor
3. Servo Motor with additional extension cables
4. 10K Ohm Resistor
5. 8 wires

Lampshade Mechanism:

1. Lasercut Birch plywood
2. Original design by NTT on Instructables
3. https://www.instructables.com/Mechanical-iris-v20/

We needed to find the best way to achieve our desired result, so we began to research different methods.

We tested a method involving the rotation of polarized panels, however we did not achieve the desired results. After some searching, we settled on the iris mechanism, as it could be easily controlled through attaching a gear to a servo.

Next, we began to retrofit the iris design that we found onto our lampshade. There needed to be a way to control the opening/closing without using the outside lever found on the original design, so we designed a gear that could be attached to a servo on the inside.

We used tinkercad to test the photoresistor and servo logic and then executed this in the real world.

To add the servo onto the lamp while still connecting it to the breadboard, we used long extension cables running down the length of the lamp.

We had issues with the gear mechanism working together due to too much friction being created by the wood. We found that this was the largest roadblock in the project. We solved this issue by making the inner layers out of acrylic and by supergluing the gear to the servo motor.