Leeds hacksapce at light night 2022 13-14 October

[J C]

Hi all, 

I asked Leeds City Council Light Night Team about potential funding for a proposal I have had on my mind. They asked for a rough plan, which they are interested in, and have asked how much it would cost us to make.

So at this point I would like to open it up to you all to take part in this group project that will then be shown at light night 2022. No prior experience necessary to get involved, and there will be an opportunity to learn new skills,  but the outline does highlight some potential key skills. Ill help in pulling everything together and filling whatever gaps are necessary (though Im really hoping someone with electronics experience is keen. )

The outline;  https://docs.google.com/document/d/109iaZzQIQ3bNFHDPj4_oSTT2rNA7P7F9YttS6yMHH_E/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know if you are interested and Ill set up a meeting (can be virtual- ideally next Thursday) and I have set up a room in our slack workspace for discussion and keeping track of everything. #light-night-2022.

Additionally LCC has asked if we can bring the cube back. Again if anyone is interested in checking it works, helping with setup/ disassembly and interacting with the public on the night then let me know or again join the slack channel. Its always been a great experience showing off the cube to the public.  

Joe

[Andy51055]

I am very interested in this one, especially the design side.

I was thinking that we could use geometric patterns that have been used for meditation in various religions. Multicoloured multiculturalism, if you will. I'm sure that will go down well

During lockdown I drew about 150 Islamic geometric patterns, some of which we could use.
Also 5 carpet pages from the Lindisfarne Gospels, some of which we could use.
And I've been toying with drawing variations on Buddhist mandalas, some of which we could use.

Any others that anyone can think of?

As for the lights, I suggest we use addressable LEDs so that we can play with colours and timings. It will also allow for workshops on programming the things, which several members have expressed interest in already.

No idea about the sounds except ambient, of course. But some sounds to mute the outside world would be very good.

[Chris Young]

Hi Joe,

I can help with the sound side - both designing something and potentially providing a PA system (4 speakers and a sub) for playback. Linking it to the same control system as the lights somehow could be an interesting way to get out my comfort zone with it. 

Some kind of breathing / wind instrument / airy theme that pulses with the lights is where my mind's going. 

I've got half a roll of diffusion paper and some offcuts of coloured gels if more creative solutions don't work out. 

I can potentially help with filming too, but that would be pretty dependant on how my availability shapes up.

[james riley]

> Any others that anyone can think of?

Old Norse Runes get some use in meditation in modern paganism. Heck knows what the ancients would think of it, their enemies were generally the ones writing stuff down. No doubt the Celtic recons are using Ogham.

There was a project on MAKE where someone embroidered constellations with LEDs for the stars. I've started a project for making rune-shaped constellations along that line. It might have been hackaday instead of MAKE, I don't remember.

--James

[Andy51055]

For sounds, I was wondering about including some of the sounds from here: https://mynoise.net/

The woman who runs it is wonderful; having set up the site to help people's mental health I'm sure it wouldn't cost us much to license using stuff from there.

[J C]

I'm glad people are interested in it :) Maybe once we have a design we like we could do an animated version of it. Then try various sound ideas against it to see what might work best. Can also cycle through different sound sequences. I've added all of you I could find to the slack chat room too. 

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[Andy51055]

I hope we can have several different designs so that people can choose which one to focus on

For instance there could be 8 designs, one every 45 degrees on the walls around the room  with circular seating in the centre facing outwards. A speaker in each corner so that each position hears a slightly different mix from their neighbour. Thus providing a spectrum of sights and sounds to suit all tastes... (was that too much? ;) )

[J C]

That may be slightly ambitious Andy :)

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[Andy51055]

It needn't be that ambitious - 8 designs, each with the same animation (maybe all run simultaneously from a single Arduino, even). making the designs shouldn't be too hard and I'm told that the programming of the lights shouldn't be complicated. The only real work, as far as I can see, will be in the wiring and the soldering. Tedious but not too complicated. Hex did much the same for the Cyclops boards and they were far more complicated (and had more lights).

We can do it.

[samson B]

howdy all 

id be up for helping build this ( not sure what skills i could bring yet ) i have some small cameras that can do time lapses as well if thats helfull and helping run it on the night prob the cube as iv done it before :) , im on lates next week so cant make the meeting :( 

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[J C]

Glad to have you involved Samson :)

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[Matt Dyson-Bird (CuppaMatt)]

As an aside I don't have time to help on the larger new project at the moment (new baby & all that) but would be very happy to 3d design something we can print out relatively quickly on the space printers to replace the plastic cups as diffusers for the old light cube.

MDB

[DrBwts]

Interesting project, my 2 cents. Rather than a 2D panel you could have a dome that mostly surrounds the vistors head. The same mandalas or other designs could be used with a bit of tweeking & would give a more emersive effect. Happy to discuss ideas further & can show a couple of examples of the kind of thing I mean.

Nic

[J C]

Ho Big a dome are you thinking Nic?

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[DrBwts]

Nothing massive, something around 30cm diameter. Here’s an example the kind of thing I’ve made in the past 50cm diameter. There are some limitations on the patterns that can be used but not many. Happy to turn some else’s designs into domes. Opaque acrylic sheets would work as diffusers which could be cut to fit panels. 

Nic

[Callum Snowden]

I'm happy to help out with electronics, mechanical, filming & editing! 

[J C]

Hi Nic, while i like the idea I think it would struggle with the lightnight throughput of the people wanting to see it. 

Thanks Callum, glad to have your help

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[Jo Woffinden]

Hi Joe,

Just saw your Leeds Light Night proposal and that you'd like someone with resin casting experience.  I have cast translucent resin and clear resin with tints of colour too - it was quite a few years ago but I would be happy to help or advise.

Also I can cast fine bone china and porcelain which can be translucent and diffuse light.  I also cast concrete and have some light emitting rods that can be cast into the concrete to make light transmitting concrete.

Let me know if I can be of any help, I'm a new member

Jo

On Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 4:17:21 PM UTC Japoteg wrote:

[J C]

Hi Jo, we have been discussing different ways of lighting up the design. We are likely to move away form resin but would love to add your ideas to the mix. Have you joined us on slack yet?

Joe

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[Ian Oliver]

On 21/02/2022 12:17, Jo Woffinden wrote:
> light transmitting concrete.

Do you have any pictures of the end result of this? It sounds excellent!

Ian

[Jo Woffinden]

These are the only photos I took of light transmitting concrete - they don't do it justice as you can't see the light and my camera wasn't great.

Can see lots of better images on google images > light transmitting concrete to get a better idea of the range of stuff that can be done.

I've not made any of this kind of concrete yet myself, but bought some plastic light gathering rods a while back to cut up and set in a mould to have a go at making it sometime.  I got the rods from the 4D Modelshop.

Jo

[Ian Oliver]

I was going to ask how they are held true in the concrete. I've got some thick fibre optic stuff, but being straight isn't what it really wants to do. I could 3D print a framework but over that size it would need a lot of it.

Ian

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[rachel rea]

Hey Jo, just seen your light night call out and can help with design and light build.....it says you want to use resin.....how big do you imagine this to be? 

All the best
Rachel

[rachel rea]

also when are you in hackspace?

[J C]

Hi Rachel,

We may not be going the resin route, we are still discussing. Size, maybe 2 meters square though that wouldnt all be resin.

Ill be in tonight from 7:30 and will likely be in on Saturday for a few hours too, but not sure what time yet

 

Joe

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[rachel rea]

Amazing, okie i was thinking along the lines of acrylic sheeting or plastic  that could be segmented into light pods  that in each has its own set of led rows encased inside that can be programmed to respond to the sound of humming using raspberry pico......based on the initial design you have in you brief, those shapes are individual light pods that connect to a central raspberry pi that communicates to the picos in each pod.  lol this could sprawl out over a wall if its inside. Hope this makes some kinda sense haha 

[J C]

Hi Rachel I think we are thinking along the same lines, though im hoping someone else doe the programming side of things. 

Are you looking to get involved, are you on the slack channel these days? An plans to come down to the space?

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[rachel rea]

Hey yea i am on slack, shall i message you there?
Yea i can help with the design/build and hardware also with material, so whatever you may need really tehe, yea i think some of the others be more equipped for the programing and code stuff lol Also this saturday would be great.....what time you going down?

[J C]

Hi all, just a heads up that we are having a session at the hackspace this Saturday at 11am to do some prototyping if anyone else would like to come along. Will be a mix of laser cutting, lighting up LEDS and working out the best approach to lighting.

Joe

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[Al Fa]

Hi Joe,

I am very glad you found Litracon and If you wish I can contact the Hungarian inventor to make any agreement with them for Hackspace.

Anyway, here is their website with plenty of information:

http://www.litracon.hu/en

Al

On 18/03/2022 09:34, leeds-ha...@googlegroups.com wrote:

Leeds hacksapce at light night 2022 13-14 October

[Andy51055]

I've been working on designing this and have got to a point where I'm mostly happy with it. There is a solid model of it on the craft bench and for those who haven't or can't see it there, I've done a slightly messy version of it in Fusion360, which can be seen here: https://a360.co/3683HzK

Some notes on the design:

The spreading plant is a nod to the traditional mandala designs that this came from (it seemed only polite for any Hindus who see the finished version);

the tree is a more modern decoration to please the 'alternative' viewers who already use mandalas for meditation;

I'm not sure if the solid panels behind the trees should be diffusing perspex with light behind (addressable or otherwise) or not;

the holes that go all the way through are for the addressable LEDs. They should probably have a layer of diffusing perspex in the layer just below the top of each one (so the top layer locks it in place). As the light go towards the centre for the breathing pattern, they will also circle inwards in a clockwise direction;

still not sure how the central lights will work - will they be the premade circular LED arrays or should we place them in the gaps at the bottom

One thing to note is that the stepping aspect of the design changes with scale. At the size of the sample on the craft bench, 3mm steps work well. But when the whole thing is 2m across, each step will be much more substantial (15 - 20mm). It may be a good idea to add an intermediate layers between current layers 1 (bottom) and 2 and between current layers 2 and 3 to make the steps more gentle and improve the illusion of depth.

I am also considering cutting out a 1/4 size version which will be large enough to make a simplified version of the lights. Instead of strings in each hole we could wire up single addressables in each, thus letting us get on with the programming and testing of the sequences, which can then be used on the final version.
But the design should be finalised and agreed before we do that as it will use about 20 sheets of ply.

What do you think?

[guy1...@gmail.com]

I love the design! To me, it resembles owls, which is perfect for Leeds. Not sure if that was intentional?

One suggestion is to avoid overhangs on the top layer, for mechanical stability/avoiding breakage? The tip of the 'beak' of each 'owl' has nothing in the layer below (but full in the 3rd+ layer). If that is not crucial element of the design maybe add the same tip of layer 2?

Guy  

[Andy51055]

Thanks, Guy. I wondered if anyone would spot the Leeds owls - well done!

And yes, that worried me too. I was intending to fix it for the next iteration, but it looks like I forgot again. It will be fixed for the next one.

It looks like there will be a meeting on Saturday at 12 noon at the space to discuss where we're going and what we need to do next.

[J C]

Next prototyping session is this Saturday from 11:30 for anyone wanting to join us.