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Lumen Electronic Jewelery — Parallax Forums

Lumen Electronic Jewelery

LawsonLawson Posts: 870
edited 2012-10-21 19:17 in General Discussion
Lumen is a collaboration between my sister and I to make solar powered Jewelery out of electronic circuits. (It's alive!)
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Our web-site is http://www.lumenelectronicjewelry.com/ and we're using Kickstarter to help get the first batch out the door.

Right now, we're using comparators and 74 logic to drive the designs, but I'll start using a Propeller for future designs with more complex sequences. (This is an early proof of concept for Prop core Jewelery)

Lawson
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Comments

  • idbruceidbruce Posts: 6,197
    edited 2012-10-20 12:49
    WOW! Very impressive Lawson. It looks as though that design took some serious time. I hope you do well.

    Bruce
  • doggiedocdoggiedoc Posts: 2,245
    edited 2012-10-20 14:35
    Cool! Looking forward to seeing your propeller designs. Very creative so far!!
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2012-10-20 16:34
    Very Cool! How about some clear casting resin to protect them. I't also tint able. Iv'e been using this product for about 5 years. Durable, machinable.
  • Tracy AllenTracy Allen Posts: 6,664
    edited 2012-10-20 16:49
    Very cool movies about your testing procedures, dropping them in water, too bad though about the one that got driven over by a car!

    It looks like there are four little solar cells on there, or one big one for the tulip design. That would make them running on less than 2V?

    Once upon a time I was fascinated with neon bulbs in relaxation oscillators and made a few art objects with 10 or 12 bulbs that ran for a year or two on a radio B battery. (Try to find one of those these days!) I still have a night light I made back around 1968 that has 10 blinking NE2 bulbs, still going; it plugs into an outlet though.
  • piguy101piguy101 Posts: 248
    edited 2012-10-20 17:53
    Wow, that is pretty cool.
  • LawsonLawson Posts: 870
    edited 2012-10-20 18:23
    Publison wrote: »
    Very Cool! How about some clear casting resin to protect them. I't also tint able. Iv'e been using this product for about 5 years. Durable, machinable.

    I'll keep that in mind. So far we're happy with a thick epoxy coating. Bubbles and wicking have been the biggest problems so far. If the epoxy touches the USB connector at all, it wicks up inside and plugs it up!
  • LawsonLawson Posts: 870
    edited 2012-10-20 18:31
    Tracy Allen wrote: »
    Very cool movies about your testing procedures, dropping them in water, too bad though about the one that got driven over by a car!

    It looks like there are four little solar cells on there, or one big one for the tulip design. That would make them running on less than 2V?

    Once upon a time I was fascinated with neon bulbs in relaxation oscillators and made a few art objects with 10 or 12 bulbs that ran for a year or two on a radio B battery. (Try to find one of those these days!) I still have a night light I made back around 1968 that has 10 blinking NE2 bulbs, still going; it plugs into an outlet though.

    Yes, the Square/Skull circuit designs run from 0.8 to 1.5 volts using four crystalline silicon solar cells. (more details here) I've found that 74 series CMOS logic IC will "run" and drive a 1uA load if supplied with at least 0.75 volts. The Dragonfly/Butterfly circuit runs at up to 2.5 volts, while the Tulip runs at up to 5 volts. The Tulip's "single" solar cell is actually six amorphous silicon cells in series.

    Lawson
  • Tracy AllenTracy Allen Posts: 6,664
    edited 2012-10-20 21:46
    I've always marveled how solar calculators could start working minutes after exposure to indoor light at not much more than 100 or 200 lux. I believe those are special thin film solar cells, quite different for the ones common in outdoor solar panels. Am I wrong about that?
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-10-21 10:53
    Very nice project! Maybe some of these could run longer with a tiny Jewel Thief circuit.
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2012-10-21 16:11
    Tracy Allen wrote: »
    I've always marveled how solar calculators could start working minutes after exposure to indoor light at not much more than 100 or 200 lux. I believe those are special thin film solar cells, quite different for the ones common in outdoor solar panels. Am I wrong about that?

    Those panels are amorphous silicon film I believe - less efficient (but cheaper) than either polycrystalline or monocrystalline silicon cells. Calculators only take a few mW if that.
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,706
    edited 2012-10-21 16:22
    Lawson,

    Those designs are great. I'll put myself down for an owl or twit-twoo.

    cheers
    tubular
  • Mark_TMark_T Posts: 1,981
    edited 2012-10-21 16:25
    Lawson wrote: »
    Lumen is a collaboration between my sister and I to make solar powered Jewelery out of electronic circuits.

    Excellent designs - how are you storing energy (elect caps? ultracaps?) Good luck and how about a constellation of orion?
  • LawsonLawson Posts: 870
    edited 2012-10-21 19:17
    Tracy Allen wrote: »
    I've always marveled how solar calculators could start working minutes after exposure to indoor light at not much more than 100 or 200 lux. I believe those are special thin film solar cells, quite different for the ones common in outdoor solar panels. Am I wrong about that?

    Solar calculators use amorphous silicon solar cells. (the next generation Lumen designs will as well) They have a higher terminal voltage than crystalline silicon cells, and only use visible light. This means that the still work normally with high efficiency lights that don't put out much IR light. Solar calculators also use amazingly little power. I suspect most have operating currents of under 5 micro-amps. (so ~12uW going full out.)

    @Mark_T: The designs use super capacitors. They store enough energy, and can safely be discharged and stored at zero volts. (which kills most batteries)

    Lawson

    P.S. Thanks for all the well wishes so far!
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