NeoPixel Goggles

Light up costume goggles.

Kai M

Beekman School – Rising Senior

Final Milestone

My final project is the NeoPixel Goggles. They are light up costume goggles that turn on when exposed to darkness. The project involved a arduino nano, two NeoPixel rings, a boost converter, a photoresistor, a normal resistor, a Lipo battery, and a pair of costume goggles. What some of those parts and what they do: Arduino Nano – it is a version of the arduino which is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs – light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message – and turn it into an output – activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. NeoPixel Ring – they are ultra bright smart LED NeoPixels are arranged in a circle. A Photoresistor – it is a light-controlled variable resistor. Lipo Battery – a small compact rechargeable battery. I had some challenges with the project. My biggest being code related. I spent a lot of time merging my rainbow light code with my photoresistor code. My other main challenge was soldering and re-soldering because multiple pieces kept breaking off. This happened multiple times right before I filmed my final video which was especially frustrating. I really enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment when my project finally worked. However during my filming of my video it was not working. Overall I am happy with how I completed my project.

First Milestone

For my first milestone of my final project (NEOpixel goggles), I finished the main soldering and programming of my project. The soldering was very self explanatory. The programming however, took a bit more work to get the code to do the rainbow effect. My next step is to add a photoresistor, which would make it turn on when exposed to darkness and find a new battery source.

MintyBoost

The MintyBoost is a self-assembly portable charger. I used mostly soldering to built it. The casing was the only part that non-soldering assembly was required. For that I needed to cut the tin to make room for the usb charger port and line the inside with masking tape. The chip that created involved parts that included a boost converter circuit, power supply capacitors, bypass capacitors and resistors. What is each of those parts and what it does: Boost Converter Circuit – it is a DC-to-DC (Direct current) power converter that steps up voltage while stepping down current from its input supply to its output load. Electrolytic Capacitors – these capacitors are used to smooth/filter the pulsating DC (Direct current) output after rectification so that a nearly constant DC voltage is supplied to the load. Bypass Ceramic Capacitors – is a capacitor that is placed between a DC signal and ground to remove any alternating current component of the signal by creating an alternating current short circuit to ground. Resistors – they are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses. Some challenges I faced while making this project were mostly small little mistakes when I mis-soldered some components and I had to re-solder them. I also forgot to add and solder a component. These were all easy mistakes to find and fix with soldering. I really enjoyed being able to solder for this project, although having to re-solder some parts were a bit difficult. The only concern I had with this project was that the MintyBoost became very warm after a period of time in use, which is normal.