jasonwebb / jar-of-fireflies

Mason jar with interactive LEDs that mimic fireflies on a warm summer night, realized with an Arduino-enabled ATTiny85, multiple power options and a sensor interface.

Hi there 👋 I'm Jason.

         

I'm a freelance creative developer building immersive experiences for mission-driven institutions and brands. In my free time I explore digital morphogenesis with code and digital fabrication. My skillset and areas of interest include:

• ✨ Experiential media like interactive installations (sculptures, LED walls, projections, etc), museum + science center exhibits, or fine art pieces.
• 🎨 Creative coding with JavaScript, ThreeJS, shaders, and more.
• 🥽 AR / VR / XR with 8th Wall and the WebXR API.
• 💻 Front-end development with HTML, CSS, and either vanilla ES6+ JavaScript or React.
• ♿ Accessibility through close collaboration with disabled users and devs, clean + semantic HTML, manual testing with JAWS + NVDA + other AT, understanding and adhering to WCAG 2.0/2.1 level AA, and the occassional dash of ARIA.
• 🤖 Digital fabrication with 3D printing, CNC milling/routing, and laser cutting. I ❤️ Grbl!
• 🕹️ Physical computing using the Arduino platform and (simple) custom PCBs.

✍ Writing

One of the best ways I know to learn something is by explaining it to others. Here are a few of the things I've written about:

• Modeling organic branching structures with the space colonization algorithm and JavaScript
• Simulating 2D diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) with JavaScript
• Exploring 2D differential growth with JavaScript

Projects

For the past two years I have been researching and implementing (👇) simulation models for natural systems that can help explain how nature creates the amazing shapes, patterns, and forms that it does. I'm nearly finished building out most of the most well-known systems in 2D, and will be making the leap into 3D sometime this year (2021)!

jar-of-fireflies's Issues

Update BOM to match newest design

Design variant for ESP8266-based board

I'd like to be able to build many of these jars and have them intelligently networked together for interesting effects. To do that they will need a more advanced microcontroller with some sort of wireless technology.

The ESP8266 fits the bill, but I'd rather not have to build and test a functioning board around just the bare module myself. Instead I think I'll use the ESP-12e board with NodeMCU.

This might be good to break out into a separate repo (Jar-of-Fireflies-ESP8266?)

Add a button to trigger "excited" state

The piezo is nice, but hard to solder and a bit finicky. Add a footprint for a small tactile switch in parallel with it to allow for alternative triggering.

Order PCBs and parts for newest board design for prototyping

Once all the recent board design updates are done, I can go ahead and order a new round of PCBs for prototyping. Just need to refresh my knowledge of board house requirements (and fetch any new CAM presets), generate some Gerber files, and fill out the request. The last time I ordered boards I used SeeedStudio and found the boards to be great quality, low cost, and reasonably fast to fab and ship.

Once the boards are ordered I can also go ahead and order a couple batches of the parts from the BOM.

Create example using audio sensor

Create example using capacitive touch sensor

Reevaluate input power interfaces based on expected applications

Right now the board includes a variety of input power interfaces, though they do crowd the board a little bit (especially the DC barrel jack). I wonder if I should drop some based on how I see this board being used. Want to keep enough options to support the most common power interfaces.

Current options on board

• 2-pin screw terminal
• 3.5mm DC barrel jack
• 2-pin JST SM socket

Power options to support

• Solar panels - seems like a lot of the larger ones come with DC barrel jacks of some kind, but the smaller ones only have solder pads. Need to research and consider how commonly they'd be used.
• Rechargeable battery packs (lion, lipo, etc) - seem to most often come with 2-pin JST plugs
• Alkaline battery packs (AA, AAA, etc) - seems like a lot of them use either a DC barrel plug or a 2-pin JST plug.

Right now it seems like the 2-pin screw terminal is the least useful. They also tend to be finicky to work with, so less experienced users may be frustrated.

The DC barrel jack is relatively bulk, but perhaps necessary. I wonder if there is a more compact vertical mounting style for these?

Create example sketch(es) for external sensors

I've added a 3-pin interface for connecting to external analog or digital sensors. Usage is pretty simple, but I'd like to provide at least a couple sketches to demonstrate how it could be used.

Sensors to explore include:

• Proximity/distance - thinking of IR rangefinders, but could also work for ultrasonic rangefinders
• Temperature
• Tilt using mechanical sensor or accelerometer for hands-on manipulation
• Sound
• Touch
• Flex or force
• Biometrics
  • Pulse / heart rate
  • Muscle activity
• Environmental
  • Soil moisture
  • pH level
  • Various gas and chemical sensors (LPG, particles, dissolved oxygen, more).

Look into adding an on-board ICSP interface

Currently the ATTiny85 must be removed and programmed using an external programmer such as a USBtiny or an Arduino running ArduinoISP. Not a big deal for the most part, but will be a bottleneck if I ever decide to manufacture kits or need to make a lot for a special project.

I now own a USBtiny programmer, so it makes sense to look into adding a minimal ICSP header to the board that can be optionally used.

Assemble and test prototype PCBs

Now that prototype PCBs have arrived, I need to assemble and test them out. Here is the plan:

• Solder parts to board
• Program ATTiny85 using USBtinyISP
• Test all features
  • Power options
    • Via ICSP
    • Via DC barrel jack
    • Via 2-pin JST jack
  • Dance triggers
    • Piezo
    • Buttons
  • Sensor interface
• Measure current draw
  • With all LEDs on full-power.
  • In normal operation mode.

Create example using pulse sensor

Design and prototype an interface for arbitrary sensors

Pin 2 (PB3/ADC3) of the ATTiny85 is currently unused, which means there is some potential for allow for some experimental interfacing with arbitrary analog sensors (temperature, sound, pressure, etc). Just need to think about how to make it easy - maybe a 3-pin male header?

Update firmware to work with newest design

In the new design I have added a couple things that need to be accounted for in the firmware.

Specifically I have added a tactile switch to trigger the "dance mode", as well as a new 3-pin sensor interface.

I'd like to support the new button directly in the core firmware, but I will probably provide additional sketches to demo how to use the 3-pin sensor interface.

Adjust silkscreen and re-import

For some reason, the latest prototypes from Seeed Studio had some issues with the silkscreen graphic. Need to figure out what caused this, and maybe rebuild and re-import the graphic using a different method so that it prints right.

Create example using distance sensor