Very cool. 5-fold symmetry on the PCB to use up the board allowance is particularly neat.
A trick that poor hobbyists learn early on is to make pads a little larger than necessary for SMT parts so you've got somewhere to wick solder onto. Neopixels (5050 LEDs) are reasonable to hand-solder since the pads extend up the sides of the package, but you can also do QFNs with a bit of practice by placing a big via to get to the central pad from underneath.
asdfasdfe 15 minutes ago [-]
I would love to know how the paper used as diffusor was fixed to the 3d model
jan_Sate 47 minutes ago [-]
This kind of audio visualization reminds me of the old Windows Media Player. I enjoyed watching it back when I was a kid.
Too bad. Software audio visualization's no longer common. But hey your hardware visualization's better than software! :D
rishabhaiover 51 minutes ago [-]
Very cool!! Love that it takes uploaded Wasm sketches, so people can contribute to it by writing their own patterns for it!
lukeify 9 hours ago [-]
Cool! Remarkably similar to Voria Labs who produce a product called Lumanoi https://voria.com/
Perhaps an example of convergent evolution? :)
asdfasdfe 2 hours ago [-]
I see only a very slight superficial resemblence and non of the inner works are related at all.
Where do you see similarities?
pbronez 3 hours ago [-]
The common element appears to be the use of a Voronoi tessellation to map a field of scattered points (LED locations) to cells.
Love how the 5 PCBs slot into each other to form the final shape.
With respect to the assembly: do yourself a massive favor and let the PCB fab also assemble the LEDs. With a simple bill of materials like this it will add very little cost, it saves you a _lot_ of time, and it might also reduce the chance of component damage from adding too much heat or from accidental ESD strikes. (I don’t know how much these Neopixels can handle, though.)
asdfasdfe 2 hours ago [-]
I don't agree with this. The board and components are trivial to hand solder.
scoot 5 hours ago [-]
> do yourself a massive favor and let the PCB fab also assemble the LEDs
From the article:
What's next?...using PCB assembly...
yeehawjared 1 hours ago [-]
WLED on that would be awesome. Pop an esp32 and make a 2d map
mordv 4 hours ago [-]
Cool. CadQuery is perfect fit for such organic modeling. I wonder if there is anything similar for pcb design.
michaelbuckbee 3 hours ago [-]
Neat trick to use mulberry paper under a clear printed part. I wonder if you could simulate stained glass like that.
shellfishgene 3 hours ago [-]
I find it's pretty easy to come up with lighting projects like this, but to make it actually look high quality with a good finish is quite hard.
miles_io 8 hours ago [-]
Always wanted to build something like this. The way the sound drives the phyllotaxis patterns is truly mesmerizing.
Love it! I'm currently learning electronics (again, did some in high school) and this kind of project is really inspiring.
Thank you for sharing the build process.
r0b05 7 hours ago [-]
Nice work. Love to see some vintage HN content
joking 5 hours ago [-]
very inspiring. it's nice to see how an idea evolves from a though to a product / installation.
aanet 8 hours ago [-]
This is brilliant
hugoj0s3 8 hours ago [-]
very cool!
shevy-java 6 hours ago [-]
I don't like the word phyllotaxis.
I understand it was inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllotaxis, but arrangement on leaves serves the purpose of growth in a specific niche. The pattern arises because naturally leaves serve to capture light - see the images on wikipedia there. Phyllo means green. The LEDs used here do not really tap into any of that, and the name is also a misnomer. That's not good.
cwmoore 3 hours ago [-]
I disagree with sibling comments. You are correct to express the confounding implications of a word choice. And they have only detracted from the point you make.
Of course the design is cool and beautiful, but it is not the thing it is called here.
rglullis 6 hours ago [-]
There is no worse form of bikeshedding than naming pedantry.
HappMacDonald 5 hours ago [-]
Agreed. All variable names should be single-letters as the Greek Gods intended :D
hajjamixcv2012 6 hours ago [-]
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turbine401 8 hours ago [-]
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hizlikovboy27 8 hours ago [-]
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onelpawarai-X 5 hours ago [-]
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onelpawarai-X 5 hours ago [-]
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Rendered at 13:43:13 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
A trick that poor hobbyists learn early on is to make pads a little larger than necessary for SMT parts so you've got somewhere to wick solder onto. Neopixels (5050 LEDs) are reasonable to hand-solder since the pads extend up the sides of the package, but you can also do QFNs with a bit of practice by placing a big via to get to the central pad from underneath.
Too bad. Software audio visualization's no longer common. But hey your hardware visualization's better than software! :D
Perhaps an example of convergent evolution? :)
Where do you see similarities?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram
With respect to the assembly: do yourself a massive favor and let the PCB fab also assemble the LEDs. With a simple bill of materials like this it will add very little cost, it saves you a _lot_ of time, and it might also reduce the chance of component damage from adding too much heat or from accidental ESD strikes. (I don’t know how much these Neopixels can handle, though.)
From the article:
What's next? ...using PCB assembly...
https://music.apple.com/us/album/neon-pattern-drum/134973653...
Thank you for sharing the build process.
I understand it was inspired by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllotaxis, but arrangement on leaves serves the purpose of growth in a specific niche. The pattern arises because naturally leaves serve to capture light - see the images on wikipedia there. Phyllo means green. The LEDs used here do not really tap into any of that, and the name is also a misnomer. That's not good.
Of course the design is cool and beautiful, but it is not the thing it is called here.