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A few weeks ago we posted about Philips ‘Wake Up The Town‘ Experiment. Philips, with acclaimed director Doug Pray began an experiment at the end of October where they took the Philips Wake-up Light to the northern most town on the planet to see what effects it would have on the residents of Longyearbyen. Here, the sun doesn’t rise for 4 months so if the light can work for those living in perpetual darkness it can work anywhere!
Up until now, the campaign website has been keeping us all up to date on each of the residents’ progress, but yesterday the documentary was released. You can view the documentary on the link below.
Philips ‘Wake Up The Town’ Documentary - [Link]
Jeri demonstrates how to make OLED’s and shows the band gap of materials.
Making an OLED – Light from Carbon Compounds - [Link]
Jim Schneider has build a temperature and light datalogger to tell if a refrigerator door was open or closed. The datalogger has the ability to change the log interval on the fly (1 – 1023 seconds), to log 2 sensors at once, to choose which sensor to log, to retain data when power is lost etc. Check construction details on the link below. [via]
Temperature and Light Datalogger - [Link]
At the end of October Philips began an experiment, taking the Philips Wake-up Light to the northern most town on the planet to see what effects it will have on the residents there. In Longyearbyen, the sun doesn’t rise for 4 months, so if it can work for those living in perpetual darkness, it can work anywhere! Check out the lamp at the link below.
Wake-up Light: Philips Wake Up The Town – [Link]
This is a very basic power failure lighting circuit based around a relay.
This simple circuit has many uses, from lighting up rooms and walkways in the case of a power failure, to monitoring and security uses.
There are many different power failure circuits out there based on 555 timers or transistors but they all have different problems including limited input voltage, price and complexity, and poor backup power. This unit has been designed to work with mains power all the way down to 5 volts, and power 3 LEDs to provide light for a hallway or a child’s room in the event of power failure. The PCB includes many simple add-ons and modifications too.
A Very Simple Power Failure Light - [Link]
Here is a white-LED-based emergency light that offers the following advantages:
1. It is highly bright due to the use of white LEDs.
2. The light turns on automatically when mains supply fails, and turns off when mains power resumes.
3. It has its own battery charger. When the battery is fully charged, charging stops automatically.
Low cost / Automatic Emergency Light – [Link]
The pulse generator at a particular frequency generates the clock pulses. The clock pulses are counted by a counter and gives output after every 10 pulses. The counter drives the transistors, which form the triac firing circuit. The transistors fire the triacs and they provide sufficient current to the load. Decorative bulbs are connected as load for each triac. The bulbs are sequentially turned ON and OFF in forward and reverse way.
6 Channel Auto Reverse Sequential Disco Running Lights - [Link]
This project shows how to build an automatic home light that will switch ON every time you are coming or leaving home. This circuit is a module to Dual Channel IR Remote Control and is separated to two PCBs. It has a dual power supply, 8.4V for IR LEDs and 5V for everything else. Ambient light level measurement is done with CdS cell on A/D converter of PIC12F675 so that the lights don’t turn on during the daytime. It also has a Sharp IS471F obstacle detection sensor with two transmitting IR LEDs, plus an additional IR focus lens for longer range. There is also a third IR LED for RC5 code transmission for “remote controller” emulation by the PIC. Check code and schematics of this project on the link below.
Automatic coming/leaving home light – [Link]
Jeri Ellsworth shows you how she made her own electroluminescent (EL) wire using enameled magnet wire, bare copper wire, and EL phosphors. [via]
How-To: Make your own EL wire - [Link]
This project is a LED bike light build inside an Altoids tin box. It uses a 12xx series PIC to control the LEDs. Hardware schematics, PCB layout & software is all available.
Mint Tin Bike Light - [Link]
