Bipolar Lamp

By Asapala89 in CircuitsArt
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Introduction: Bipolar Lamp

By Asapala89Follow
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Greetings!

My name is Andrew James Sapala and I am a second-year MFA Fine Art student
at Parsons, focusing specifically on robotic sculpture installation. This piece was
made for my Evil Robots midterm taught by Randy Sarafan.

Abstract:

The concept for my lamp was based on the natural up and down emotions of
bipolar disorder. I wanted to create a lamp that saw itself as being beautiful and
shit at differing intervals. The lamp itself has multiple micro servos in order to
create a fluid motion for as much personality as possible. At times the lamp sees
the good qualities within itself and at times the negative.

Before we begin I would like to include a list of materials required to build this
lamp.

Materials Breakdown:

Arduino

Power cables (long ones are important)

Cardboard

Reflective Mylar

Red LED and Green LED

Breadboard

122 Resistors (2)

Three micro servos

Soldering iron + lead-free solder

Power source (computer or 4 AA battery pack)

Hot Glue

White acrylic paint + Red acrylic paint

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 Step 1: Early Prototype

Early experiments:

My current practice involves using cardboard as a means to quickly prototype my

sculptures. Cardboard is a great material for it's versatility and low cost. Before I
started to create my bipolar robotic lamp, I took parts from my MIME
INDUSTRIES robotic chip board that has pre-installed code within to get an idea
of how the lamp could move back and forth. Here is a link to their terrific
website: Mime Industries

I set up two panels facing one another on the left and right side of the swinging
lamp so when the bottom micro servo reaches 0 degrees it faces the You Are
Beautiful panel and when it pans to the opposite side at 180 degrees it faces
the You Are Shit panel.

I then needed to code the Arduino to understand that at these particular angles a
Green and Red LED light would switch on at those intervals, while facing the
corresponding panel. Green for beautiful, Red for shit.

This being an early experiment I had originally wanted to set the lights up with
conductive tape and switches held on the mid section of the lamp, however,
through troubleshooting I found that this prohibits the lamps movement back and
forth.
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Step 2: Building the Next Version...
This new version of the lamp was produced with a slightly bulkier cardboard
neck, trunk and base. The micro servos have low torque so I needed to make
sure that the craning as well as the back and forth motion of the lamp could hold
itself together without too much weight on the micro servos. The whole lamp
uses three differing servos for three different actions. The base swings the lamp
back and forth from 0 to 180 degrees. The second mid section servo moves the
trunk from 30 to 75 degrees and the top neck servo moves from 90 to 75
degrees.

All servos thread into the breadboard and Arduino for power, ground, and
assigned code. I unfortunately did not have power cords that could extend from
the breadboard to the servos. So I daisy chained an assortment of smaller ones
together with solder to get the required length. The micro servos were set at 90
degrees, hot glued into position, and then using an attachment -hot glued again
to the attached cardboard section for movement. This is a very delicate process
and at times was extremely frustrating.

For the lights, resistors were used on the breadboard to channel the correct
amount of power to the LED lights. Because I used a simple Red and Green
LED, two common 22 om resistors were used. I attached the USB power cord to
my computer for power and for programming the Arduino. A 4 pack AA battery
pack works well as an alternative to a computer power source.
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Step 3: Bipolar Emotions
I am very new to building robotic sculptures and I am trying to write and learn
about all kinds of mechanized constructs in order to get somewhere new with my
art practice. The motion of the lamp needed to be subtle and powerful at the
same time, and with the reflective mylar with the statements painted on the
surface, the lamp has a chance to see itself and reflect (literally) on how it may
feel at that moment. The back and forth motion of the lamp gives the piece a very
emotional edge, in unison with the reflective panels.
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Step 4: Video of Project in Motion
Here is a video of the Bipolar lamp in motion on the ground of my studio. I am still
learning and I am still developing this project and will continue to upload more
material on it's build.

Kind regards,

Andrew James Sapala

www.AJSapala.com

Attachments
 Bipolar Lamp - Step #4

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