This project was created in Spring 2020 for the class 2.00B Toy Product Design. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the class was unable to run in its usual team-based format. In the weeks following the March 2020 evacuation from campus, the class staff sent out boxes and kits of supplies to guide students through individual projects with the theme "My Island".
My personal project was in designing a staff that looked like spinning fire without the danger of flames, inspired by my own islander heritage. With a fascination for LEDs in hand, I went about designing and prototyping Lux.
initial Fusion 360 rendering of what I anticipated the piece to look like
Pictured below is the prototype phase, in which I powered an Arduino Uno off of a 9V battery the the LED strips off of portable phone charger batteries at either end of the staff. This design helped to give balanced weight to the staff for ease of momentum while spinning. In the final prototype, I removed the foamcore box housing the electronics for a sleek in-tube design using the much smaller Adafruit Trinket board with a switch.
The final PLAYsentation video: