I Made a Tiny Volumetric Lamp

[@NickElectronics]

If you're looking for project files, they are here (AND THEY'RE FREE): patreon.com/NickElectronics

[@metalspoon69]

I love finding little gems like this in my youtube recommendations

[@NickElectronics]

🙂

[@Betruet]

same! I'm very happy when this happens

[@NickElectronics]

@@Betruet Welcome aboard this ship, then! 😀

[@sirtoby2727]

Same for me, great video and I love your sense of humour :)

[@NickElectronics]

@@sirtoby2727 Haha, thank you very much 😁

[@BrokenCurtain]

1:37 Nooo! The green color is an essential part of the cyberpunk aesthetic!

[@NickElectronics]

We can make our own aesthetic! ahah 🙃

[@edherdman9973]

Didn't you hear? It's all about that Yellow Filter since 2011 :)

[@NickElectronics]

@@edherdman9973 And old film cameras

[@markfergerson2145]

Nah, that’s Retro Cyberpunk. Modern Cyberpunk recognizes that boards can be any color the manufacturer has the dyes for.

[@HarukiYamamoto]

6:45 Petition to turn this into a volumetric display.

[@NickElectronics]

I'll do my best. The hardest part is finding the time to make it

[@sblowes]

I like the “mislead” pun!

[@NickElectronics]

Hehehe :)

[@darthjeder]

That reminded me of a Kool & The Gang tune : "Misled" (HD remastered: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4Cbm6aun553p9Esi=fvhLXGpYQHqRztRN )

[@MrSlipstreem]

I've often found that a satisfactory solution to stop someone whining about something being the wrong colour is to paint it a different colour.

[@aveoxus1139]

Grey goo may in fact be J-B Weld... in case anyone watching wants something made of different materials to never come apart easily. The end result of the lamp was kind of mesmerizing, subscribed

[@MiTheMer]

That was my first thought too in every case, lol. There may be other gray glue brands, but that one might be the most known one. It is indeed a very strong glue and it can be cut or processed afterwards like cement in a way. A downside I found is that its hardening process is not linear and deceiving. The first few times I used it, I though it has solidified enough now that I can place the part in another orientation, but it turned out that it would still flow a significant amount just due to gravity until actually hardening.

[@NickElectronics]

Thanks a lot! It’s not exactly J-B Weld, but similar stuff. Loctite from Henkel

[@ProSureString]

@@NickElectronics did you just reveal it without even being under torture

[@coolm98]

​@@ProSureStringyou clearly underestimate what creators of diy-electronics content are going through post release.

[@MatthewMakesAU]

​@@ProSureString replying to KZbin comments counts as torture

[@TheKaos90]

Using wireless transmission is a good idea. Another idea is to have magnets on the stator part and pickup coils on the rotor. I know it works because I used it to create a "ghost scope" where a magnet was strategically placed so when the coil flies by, it energises 4 small, low power LED's.The way the "ghost scope" worked was that there were 3 LED's pointed outside placed as a triangle , while 1 LED was pointed on the inside, on the opposite side of the ring. When turned on, you could only see 4 floating light points and you had to align that 4th LED in the center of the other 3. The effect was only visible from the user's perspective with nothing visible from any other direction. Edit : I had a single magnet and a single coil, strategically placed to light the LED's for 1 "frame" during the rotation, and the LED's were in line with the "gun's" "barrel".Very low amounts of power were generated. For a volumetric screen, you'd have multiple magnets, multiple coils, and perhaps a small capacitor and rectifier on the rotor side to supply constant current

[@NickElectronics]

Wow, quite interesting! Thank you for sharing such great knowledge. I know that generators work on this principle, where a changing magnetic field induces current in a coil. I'm just not sure which option would be smaller and cheaper-adding wireless power transfer coils (essentially a transformer) or using a magnet with a coil (generator). Also, with just a magnet and a coil, it’s impossible to regulate the voltage, so additional circuitry would still be needed, as you mentioned. I was considering whether it might be possible to combine a BLDC motor with wireless power transfer. I’m not sure if it’s feasible since I haven't researched it yet, but if there are magnets on the rotor and coils on the stator, that’s essentially a BLDC motor, which generates a changing magnetic field that could potentially be used for both spinning and power transfer (possibly?). But this also raises the challenge of keeping it flat. So, I’ll need to think about this some more-not quite sure which solution would be best." Let me know if you have any more ideas. Thanks :)

[@GeorgeAlbercook]

Do you have any pictures or schematic? I'm not sure that I understand exactly how you made your ghost scope.

[@good_dog2470]

4:40 I'm surprised the sponsor isn't Grey Goop

[@NickElectronics]

@@good_dog2470 😅

[@richardlynneweisgerber2552]

my gut would not stop quaking when the molten solder spun-off. ;-) This is awesome, thanks.

[@NickElectronics]

Ahaha. You are welcome 🙂

[@Droid_Does_not_compute]

This stuff is fun to watch, simple short video, no bluff just straight to the Task, I loved it, keep up the good stuff

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you for the feedback! It’s important to me, as it helps me create more videos like this :)

[@TheHive95]

Really like the build! Though it's gutting that there's not individually addressable [RGB] LEDs to do some funky volumetric stuff. You could add a tiny rp2040 or something on the spinning element (which might help the weight distribution too) then whenever it gains power it continues to cycle through a set of frames for the display. The serial line just adds one extra connection to LED display board. Perhaps deserving of a follow up video!

[@NickElectronics]

I’m thinking about making a follow-up with a controller, like you mentioned. The RP2040 is probably overkill for such a simple task, so I might just use an 8-bit AVR instead. Just wondering if wireless power transfer will affect communication with addressable LEDs somehow, ahhaha :))) Dont know, dont know. Have to test it out.

[@GadgetoidUK]

@@NickElectronics I’d love to see this - it should also be possible to transfer data over the wireless link, allowing for some controls on the base. Works for RFID tags 🤣

[@NickElectronics]

@@GadgetoidUK I'll think about it during breakfast :D Thats why engineering so hard. So many ways of doing the same thing, ahaha

[@macrumpton]

I made a large version of this for my thesis project in art school in 1979. I used copper foil to make shapes that the LEDs would reproduce in lights as they spun on the 20” arm with 50 leds soldered onto it.

[@NickElectronics]

Wow, that sounds cool! What kind of shapes did you make? Maybe you have some photos or references? I haven't thought about giving the spinning part any other shapes... Hmmmm, that might be an interesting direction to explore in future projects

[@macrumpton]

@@NickElectronics The arrangement was like this. The spinning arm had 50 LEDs mounted in a line connected to 50 small nickel brushes that skated over the glass disc mounted on top of the motor, with the shaft coming through it. The motor shaft was connected directly to the arm and provided the positive connection. The negative connection for the LEDs was provided through the copper foil shapes that the nickel brushes skated over. The copper shapes were pretty basic, geometric things like triangles and circles. The piece was focused on transforming physical shapes into light, so the actual shapes were not that important. It had a couple of interesting aspects to it, one of which was, it was kind of scary, seeing this whirling arm that spun up very rapidly When you pressed the pedal in front of the piece. It was also a bit noisy with the fan motor, making this loud hum and the sort of scratchy noise as the brushes rhythmically scratched the Copper shapes. I haven’t thought about it in a couple of decades, and I’m pretty sure the teachers didn’t know quite what to make of it. If I were going to do it again, I would use magnetic reed switches instead of the brushes, and use magnets On the disk to create the shapes.

[@Keunt]

theres some little balancers you can get for cheap that are used for balancing RC propellers, might be useful for you.

[@NickElectronics]

I might get one for the next video. It should help me a lot because I’m too lazy to create a 3D model in CAD with all the components' weights to find the center of mass. Experiments are much more fun :D

[@ForwardBias]

Tried doing exactly this for my senior capstone project at university! Only... It didn't work this well (boards were warped after reflow oven was used, we couldn't display 3D images very well due to timing), was significantly larger, and could probably kill somebody due to the bulk 😅😅 Glad somebody finished what we started :) We couldn't get our sliprings working so we wound up just taping a usb battery pack in the center of the unit and calling it a day 😅

[@NickElectronics]

@@ForwardBias Ahah, thanks for sharing. But at least you got the experience from your project 😅

[@awdhootkanawade]

Another good Chanel boosted by KZbin ❤️

[@NickElectronics]

Welcome aboard! There are a lot of great videos coming up, so sit back, relax, and enjoy :)

[@AKcess_Dnied]

You mean welcome 2boards?

[@NickElectronics]

@@AKcess_Dnied exactly :D

[@GeorgeSweet]

They really should push more different colored boards to the market. Like a yellow SpongeBob collab.

[@NickElectronics]

@@GeorgeSweet There is such an option actually 😅Now you can add any colorful image as a silkscreen to your PCB 🫣

[@vipinkumar5955]

i always admire this type of little creativity

[@NickElectronics]

Appreciate it :)

[@G7Dropes]

Very good 🤩 Balancing does not require large investments, in mine (without neglecting yours) I used static balancing, checking the balance with the motor stopped, and in dynamic balancing, I placed a piezo disc on one of the bases, and placed weights around in order to detect the smallest possible amplitude on the oscilloscope. Yes, this is real 3D

[@NickElectronics]

@@G7Dropes Hm. Thanks for sharing your balancing method. Probably I will need it in the future 😊

[@G7Dropes]

@@NickElectronics I had great difficulty finding a way to balance it, the closest I came to it was using speakers with weights on the cone, too complicated for small inventions, then I remembered piezos, it's really straightforward 🤗

[@hasanali-us7jz]

the algorithm is cooking with these recomendations 🔥🔥🔥

[@NickElectronics]

♥

[@chloekaftan]

you can solve this problem by doing the same method as what ship and tank turrets use, the base of the turret is running on a tracked racer ring where power, communications, and controls are being transmitted through, and is usually in the form of a disk at the bottom of the turret housing, though it can also be a ring band around the side walls of the turret housing. this allows for the turret to be swapped out very quickly and easily since there are no binding connections to the turret housing itself, and it allows the turret to spin freely. the way it works is very similar to how a brush DC motor works, the brushes make contact with the anode and cathode, producing a current. these things can be somewhat expensive but if you can buy a cheap ceramic coin and then carefully carve out inlays on them (or alternatively 3d print a ceramic coin with inlays already on them) you can inlay annealed copper into them to form the disk.

[@NickElectronics]

but turrets don’t spin with a speed of 6000 RPM 😅 That’s the problem. I also want to get rid of brushed motor in the design

[@deltacx1059]

0:13 slip ring (which he says in 1s)

[@TechTipsUSA]

Although I may be mistaken, I believe you could utilize a toroidally wound coil and a small magnet for power transfer. This arrangement would draw power from the coil’s rotational motion.

[@NickElectronics]

@@TechTipsUSA Yes, you are right. It would generate electricity in the rotating part. But generated current frequency would be lower and thus, bigger filter is needed, or more fancy dc/dc converter at output. I will show it in one of the future videos 😁

[@fxm5715]

When I saw the thumbnail and title for this video, I thought you were that guy who made the previous battery powered volumetric light. Excellent job, sir.

[@NickElectronics]

Thanks :)

[@realalizulfiqar]

so glad, your channel got the recognition it deserves with this video.

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you! I indeed needed that for some motivation :D

[@billdoolinofficial]

Love the project, looooove the comedic commentary

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you :)

[@soflo_fpv2]

Love this format. No bullshit intro, just straight to the stuff we wanna see. Great video

[@NickElectronics]

@@soflo_fpv2 Thank you for the feedback :) Will try to do same in the future!

[@pengo98]

1:37 HERETIC! Seriously though, black PCBs look so clean

[@NickElectronics]

@@pengo98 Don’t burn the heretic please 😅 Yep, I like black or white ones more

[@thefourthdymensionmusic]

I love volumetric display stuff. it's such a cool concept that can actually be done. I've always wanted to see a reasonably large one that has a decent resolution.

[@NickElectronics]

Its quite hard to make one. I will try my best in the next videos, but idk if I can make it work good

[@thefourthdymensionmusic]

@@NickElectronics i could imagine the difficulty. especially for larger designs with decent resolution. gotta move that shit that fast for that long that many times.

[@NickElectronics]

@ Yep. Not as easy to make at home

[@RaineyPeng]

Love mixtela videos and excited to see this addition. Subscribed for future madness 🫡

[@anubhavmuku96]

It was the grey goo that made me subscribe. Counting on seeing more projects with grey goo in it.

[@NickElectronics]

@@anubhavmuku96 Ahaha, thanks for the comment. So I guess grey goo has one more application :D Makes viewers subs

[@rael5469]

I like how he had the standard KZbin practice of.....discarding the packaging off to the side with disgust.

[@NickElectronics]

Ahaha, right where it belongs! The most interesting parts are usually inside! :D

[@rael5469]

@@NickElectronics Right !

[@-yeetus]

Dude this is so cool, you deserve WAY more than 10k subs!!

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you so much 😀 One day, one day I’ll have more

[@electrocrane]

this video is criminally underrated WOW , this is Gem i thought you had 4.85M subs at first , i was shocked , this is a masterpiece man keep it up !

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you very much for the feedback. it means a lot to me! :)

[@TimoBirnschein]

wow that soldering iron tip... you're a brave man!

[@NickElectronics]

😭The only one I have. I promise I will buy smaller one :D

[@joeanon1415]

If you very gently lay a small sheet of glass (borosilicate) on top of the leds while your reflow them, it will push down uniformly on the leds aligning their faces almost perfectly while allowing you to view the reflow progress.

[@NickElectronics]

@@joeanon1415 Hm, thanks for the tip! Have to try one day

[@AnimusBehemoth]

I can't believe no one else has commented on the fact that if you have an accident with a saw, the Gray Goop™ will finger it out. Great video!

[@NickElectronics]

@@AnimusBehemoth Ahahah, thanks for noticing 😁 and for the feedback, really appreciate it

[@triandot]

the silence at 5:55 hurts

[@NickElectronics]

But it's such a relief when it ends😅 Yep, nothing is perfect. I decided to leave that silence to create an ambient effect.

[@michaelallen1432]

Heres a thought, use a fixed magnet and a spinning coil so you have a permanent magner generator. On the rotating part you need a rectifier and regulator, and a microcontroller to run it. If you want to be able to communicate with the microcontroller use IR. If you could spin it fast enough you could only switch the LEDs on the peaks of power supply ripples. That leads to the idea of using the current draw of the LEDs as the mechanism that regulates the voltage. There would be a full wave active rectifier and a small capacitor. But there would still be far too much ripple. The LEDs would be switched all on or off by a PWM signal. The small capacitor would be able to provide sufficient filtered power for the microcontroller. The LEDs would be driven at a much higher frequency, PWM to control the voltage. As the voltage ripple rises, the LEDs are switched and draw current regulating the voltage. So as the motor spins up, there is enough filtered power for the microcontroller, it boots up then starts regulating its own power and operating the display. Assuming you can synchronize everything, it all works. Assuming that's possible. It's not necessarily better than the wireless power. In fact, that's probably more practical. But it's a cool idea if you can get it to work. In fact that leads to another crazy idea. What if it's NOT a permanent motor. What if there are stator coils and rotor coils. It starts up with the rotor coils shorted and the stator is driven to start it as an induction motor. Maybe it is just powered of a 60hz transformer or maybe a very simple oscillator. Like a neon bulb relaxation oscillator. But as it spins, for a certain part of the cycle, it draws power off the rotor coils, which slows the rate of spinning down and generates power. Other than that it's similar to the previously discussed system. It sounds "complex" but the idea is, everything does double or triple duty. It's not so much complex , as intricate like a Swiss watch. If it can be made to work. Edit: I just thought, There's another possible thing you can make the coils do. When you draw current from the rotor coils , you can detect that in the stator coils. So if you run both the stator and rotor from small microcontrollers, you could potentially use that to communicate between them to update the display. Some sort of thing where it would do something at a particular time or in a distinctive way to indicate a bit.

[@NickElectronics]

A generator is a good idea, but the frequency of the generated waveform will be low, even with a generator that has 3 poles and 6 coils. So, I would need quite a large capacitor to keep it stable Wireless power transfer works on 85kHz btw

[@michaelallen1432]

@@NickElectronics Electrochemical capacitors (super capacitors) are surprisingly compact. I can't necessarily say they are compact ENOUGH, but they might be.

[@NickElectronics]

​@@michaelallen1432 But they are not very suitable for filtering. They are intended for high-energy storage applications. Their ESR is quite high, which makes them less effective as filters

[@Robothut]

Great idea to transfer power to a rotating unit. Thank you for sharing with us.

[@NickElectronics]

You are welcome. Might try capacitive coupling in the future as well

[@TheRambo010]

You could have made the wireless power transfer with just a magnet on the bottom and a coil cutting the magnet's field. It would make it heavier for the motor to spin, but you would need a driving coil.

[@NickElectronics]

@@TheRambo010 Yes, i could. In the future I will change the design a little bit ☺️

[@kidswhodostuff7217]

This is incredible! Would you consider having a clear, cylindrical case to keep things off? Touching that while spinning may be catastrophic. I love content like this man, but I don’t want to misLEAD you.

[@NickElectronics]

Yep, a clear acrylic case around it is a good idea because it would also reduce noise from the motor :) Thanks man, will do more content like that 😉

[@zapa1pnt]

I like the way the single board allows you to see through the display, as though the board is not there. 😁✌🖖

[@NickElectronics]

Yep, that is a feature of the volumetric display. However, it also makes synchronization somewhat difficult if a complex image needs to be displayed

[@SpeedyGwen]

and by modulating the power that goes wirelessly, u could send data and make it a volumetric display

[@NickElectronics]

I could and still can :D Maybe in the future

[@ajaysatpalkar856]

These would make cool tail lamps!!

[@NickElectronics]

For sure, but IDK if the police would allow it, though :D

[@snipetdm0001]

crazy cinematography

[@NickElectronics]

@@snipetdm0001 Thanks, heheh ☺️

[@sciencekid8500]

you should sell these. I would genuinely buy some

[@NickElectronics]

@@sciencekid8500 I am considering such an option, but it is too raw so far. Its a prototype that requires lots of polishing. But please follow to see when it is going to be ready for the market 🙂

[@sciencekid8500]

@@NickElectronics i would suggest using a 3d printer for a sort of frame, rubber stabilizing feet for a more professional look, and find a way to make it so that the components have pins that connect for easy installation... you could also sell it as a kit.

[@professordey]

From the picture and what I can only see as the only logical progression for this tech, I had assumed you were using a flexible PCB disks stacked on top of each other and all spinning together. That would give you a truer volumetric display with far less occlusion in theory. Very cool implementation either way. I do wonder if you'd be able to set it up so you could stack a data signal on the carrier wave of the power coil as well, similar to NFC, that would let you make the display be powered and also dynamic.

[@NickElectronics]

I have just been at the conference where some guys presented their way of establishing communication between two parts of WPT systems. It is not that easy as it seems😅

[@backacheache]

For your next trick, could you do one with addressable led's? You could use an off the shelf matrix board and a wifi enabled Arduino to control it (meaning you'd still only need to provide power) you'd have to provide a small sensor to sense it being at position zero so thsy you could keep the drisplay in sync with the rotation of course but could look smazing

[@NickElectronics]

Yep, it could indeed look amazing! I’m considering making a part two :D

[@everythingvinyl]

KZbin did well with this suggestion. Just subbed.

[@NickElectronics]

Hehe, thank you :D

[@bloodyhell302]

Good to see you use J.B. W... grey goo for everything.

[@NickElectronics]

Ahahha 😅

[@Marvinzock34]

4:00 xD crazy explanation you got a sub bro nice project

[@NickElectronics]

@@Marvinzock34 Heheh, thanks :)

[@executor485]

Ahhh... A new channel to binge!!! Oh wait, you're new to the game and this good?!?! The Integza of electronics, you heard it here first!

[@NickElectronics]

@@executor485 Ahaha, thank you for your feedback :)

[@abundantharmony]

Him: "...but my board is already on your hotplate." His girl: "....oh it is?"

[@NickElectronics]

Ahaha. Happened to my friend once! 😆 My friend… 😅

[@szklanka67]

yt randomly recommended this channel to me, decided to stay for longer. the lamp thingy looks really cool, keep up the good work!

[@NickElectronics]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@underdog1252]

I assumed it would be a volumetric display lol. You should add a SMD microcontroller to the board for multiplexing/control; you could then add a magnet to the base and a hall effect sensor to the rotor for synchronization.

[@NickElectronics]

@@underdog1252 It is going to be in the future. Probably. I have ideas about it, but I will see how it goes :D Cause not quite sure how to so it properly. So many options

[@katoshi6464]

awesome project, would love to make a lamp like this for my desk but im not sure ill be able to stand all the noise also, great editing and quality, i would have never guessed the video only had 400 views at the time im watching

[@NickElectronics]

Thank you! Yes, noise is the issue, but I believe there are some solutions-reducing vibrations and possibly placing it in a transparent case. I tried my best and put a lot of effort into editing :) I'm very glad it turned out well!

[@bengouws]

Up next a clock or something with cpu control, RGB would be nice... a rotating video display would give a nice holographic scene.(esp32/blm for the wireless data transfer). Ooof so many ideas from this video, thanks for sharing.

[@NickElectronics]

You are welcome :) Yes, there are a lot of good follow up ideas

[@jan_harald]

I hate how people call shit "volumetric" and "3d" when all it is is just a fan with basic POV system... but the actual 3d stuff, like the one you're doing, are very cool

[@NickElectronics]

@@jan_harald Thanks, appreciate your feedback 🙂 It’s gonna be even better in the future! :)

[@theawesomer]

Very cool - You should put it under a glass dome.

[@NickElectronics]

I will probably in the future :D

[@Groovewonder2]

I wanna see an extendo version of these. It'd need a more powerful coil if that one doesn't have much more headroom, but they'd be killer as decorative lights.

[@NickElectronics]

@@Groovewonder2 There is gonna be continuation, definitely 👍 But after several videos probably

[@raydunakin]

I got a chuckle out of that "size doesn't matter" joke.

[@NickElectronics]

My masterpiece.

[@sumwanelz6150]

Hey, if you disassemble an old VCR, you'll be able to fish out a multi-channel rotary transformer from under the video head! Careful not to crack the ferrite plates though.

[@NickElectronics]

@@sumwanelz6150 Yes, I have just googled it. Cool stuff. Same working principle 😅 Transformer was invented long time ago

[@BitSmythe]

*You can easily balance by hanging the display part from a thread hot-glued (sparingly) or taped to the bottom.*

[@NickElectronics]

Next time I will put more effort in balancing for sure

[@EvoKey]

Would love this to show every time Solidworks was crashing or awaiting a command to finish.

[@NickElectronics]

You can make one and put it next to your screen :D

[@J4me5De1t0nniu5]

The spinning itself could actually act as a way to transfer power by passing a magnet near a coil on the floating surface… as it starts to spin it would get power, allowing you to control it via Bluetooth

[@NickElectronics]

@@J4me5De1t0nniu5 I will consider it in the future. But the problem of generator like that is lower generated current frequency. So I would need bigger filtering capacitor, probably

[@finhas8865]

Pretty sure you could get the stroboscopic effect by turning on and off the wireless power delivery at certain frequency

[@NickElectronics]

@@finhas8865 Yes, you are right. Effect should be quite similar

[@zapa1pnt]

Maybe a next step, for this could be to have the LEDs programmed to blink, to create effects, like the camera sees, visible to the naked eye. Possible? Maybe a three or four sided arrangement? 😁😁✌🖖

[@NickElectronics]

Yes, its possible. I am thinking in that direction

[@skulkingshadow]

Looks really cool, now make a volumetric display

[@NickElectronics]

@@skulkingshadow Step by step

[@christian_coulson]

you'd make a fortune if you turned this into a desk clock

[@NickElectronics]

@@christian_coulson Probably? I don’t know 😅 I will be working on this design step by step, trying to improve it 😊

[@miketrissel5494]

Hey Nick, thanks for secretly slipping me the formula for your gray goo. That stuff works great! Who would have thought it was made from Napalm, Agent Orange, Cyanide and Ketchup, and still be gray, and smell and taste great 🤣

[@NickElectronics]

Ahaha, no worries! But please don’t tell anyone, especially not in the comments on the KZbin! :D

[@philhoward4466]

@@NickElectronics you mean leave out the mustard?

[@cpscdave]

That is actually really kind of awesome!

[@NickElectronics]

@@cpscdave Thanks a lot! 😊

[@exoticloop]

Great vid! Looking forward to more. Don't forget the gray goo!!!

[@NickElectronics]

@@exoticloop Grey goo is in my heart forever 🙂

[@zombieregime]

An accelerometer breakout board and a beam break ir phototransistor (can be found in SOOOOO many electronics, like old roller ball mice, scanner beds (to home the sled) ... lots of stuff) and you can ask a chatbot to write you a program that will read the accelerometer, and coordinate it with the beam break (just put some tape on the edge to break the beam once a rotation) telling you where the heavy side is in its rotation. You dont need fancy turbine rotor balance machines if youre smart about it....although, those arent exactly hard to build either....

[@NickElectronics]

Hmmm, thanks for sharing the knowledge! I might try making one just for fun😅

[@DatBoiOrly]

The easiest way is to use copper rings have a brass ball bearings in them then having the same at the top basically making power go through two stationary objects

[@NickElectronics]

@@DatBoiOrly I don’t think that’s easy to do mechanically, is it? You have to have two bearings in such case, for + and -

[@DatBoiOrly]

@NickElectronics two rings one for + one for - then brass balls as the contacts theres a guy on YT that did this the same guy that built a 5 axis 3D printer & used it for the heating bed

[@NickElectronics]

@@DatBoiOrly I think I know what you are talking about. But still not quite sure if It can be spun fast without reducing reliability significantly

[@DatBoiOrly]

@@NickElectronics not really no since the only way they can physically come out is through the top & bottom & since weight is solving that it'll be fine

[@NickElectronics]

@@DatBoiOrly Okay, hmm, thanks for the info. I guess I just find mechanical designs more complex than electronics one. So my brain is just not braining in the direction of mechanical solitons 😅

[@DiThi]

You can probably balance it with a cheap micro scale, by having one side of the assembly rest on the center of the scale with a peg, and the other side to a fixed post of equivalent height. Then you can rotate the platform to see at what point it is heaviest or the lightest.

[@NickElectronics]

Hm, I hadn’t thought about that. The only solution I found online is to place a rotor on a loose horizontal shaft and rely on gravity. The heaviest part of the disk will rotate to the bottom.

[@Imaboss8ball]

Idk what the efficiency is like for wireless power transfer but you could use two different motors. One inner one and outer one to act as a generator. You could probably transfer data through torque variation as well. The benefits is that presumably it wont push unneeded rf into the world.

[@NickElectronics]

You're asking a very good question about efficiency. It's quite low with the motor between the coils because eddy currents are induced in the motor casing, which is essentially a piece of metal. So, a lot of power is lost just to heat the motor, and there's not much that can be done about it. But still, using two motors sounds like overkill.

[@Imaboss8ball]

@@NickElectronics the second motor wouldn't have to be an actual off the shelf motor. You can a hollow ring. Or rather two of them. The inner one would have small magnets. The outer would have small coils.

[@erockbrox8484]

Of course I would want one of those.

[@FrozenKnight21]

I lnow this would complicate this a bit. But you can use your inductive coils to xfer data with power. It takes a bit of work, but it is how RFID works. I look forward to your next project. Thanks for sharing.

[@NickElectronics]

I can try it, but I need to calculate the communication bandwidth because I need to constantly refresh data for a large number of LEDs quite quickly. I should think about it more. Thanks for the advice

[@FrozenKnight21]

@@NickElectronics how fast is rotating? And what is the slew rate of your LED's. Are they monochrome or multi color? If your using monochrome, then you only need 1 bit per led, if they are multicolored then we need at least 3 bits. (For 8 color) Since your typical monitor updates every 1-3ms, ill use that. Anyway do its 1/(bits*update frequency). Then you just need to make sure your coils support that frequency, and encode it with your power. (Though I'll admit that I don't know exactly how that works as I've never tried it, but I know it can be done. I assume there are modules you can get online which do that for you.)

[@amedeodeseta6950]

This is a really cool and beautiful project! I would love to have it!

[@NickElectronics]

Maybe in the future i will sell something simillar, but so far it is too raw :D

[@llamapoopy]

Love these underrated KZbinrs, tho I did see this and immediately think it was mitxela, you definitely deserved my sub

[@NickElectronics]

Thanks a lot :)

[@yandimieff7527]

Just a great video! I love it!

[@NickElectronics]

@@yandimieff7527 Thank you very much ❤️

[@luceriousisback]

Love this, great youtuber fr. HOWEVER I had to turn the volume down by 70% cause my headphones have incredibly powerful bass. TURN DOWN YOUR BASS FOR YOUR MIC, other then that I love the banger of a vid.

[@NickElectronics]

@@luceriousisback Hi, thanks for the feedback. During audio editing I suppress low frequencies. But I suppose have to suppress even more. Thanks for the feedback, in the next one I will pay more attention to it

[@BloodAsp]

This channel will explode in popularity, keep it up! \m/

[@NickElectronics]

Thanks, appreciate the feedback ❤️

[@slowrider8680]

Thank you youtube recommendations

[@shinrakishitani1079]

I've always wanted a Grand Turismo volumetric display

[@NickElectronics]

@@shinrakishitani1079 Here it is :D

[@5hape5hift3r]

Could use magnets in the base with coils on top to power it, like an electric generator. This would be more like the motor powering the display.

[@NickElectronics]

I could. Tere is already a huge discussion about it in the comments 😅. I just hadn't thought about it at the beginning. Also, the upper coils could be made with PCB tracks, which would save some space and weight as well. Additionally, I was wondering if it's possible to make a BLDC motor with a low-power wireless power transfer option, where the stator has coils and the rotor has magnets plus additional coils for recieving some power from bottom coils. Hmmm

[@zapa1pnt]

@@NickElectronics: Not Exactly sure what you said, there, but it sounds good to me 😁✌🖖

[@treschlet]

For easy balance, just put LEDs on both sides. double-sided PCB production is pretty cheap these days

[@NickElectronics]

The one in the video is also double-sided, but since it spins, I don’t really need both sides. But thanks for a suggestion

[@enilenis]

Been making these things for something like 20 years. I just call'em "Povards". With wifi and things like ceramic capacitors, you can really spin up your system and have to run without shattering. Data can be transmitted wirelessly. There's always a dilemma with spinning gadgets like LIDAR's regarding how much to put into the stationary base and the mobile platform. Slip rings are only for small wire counts, slow RPM's and minimal wear. They're not for 6000rpm, that's for sure. If you're using induction power, that's good, because then you can even encase your electronic parts in vacuum and get rid of air friction and whoosh. This is really one cool system that can be bult and programmed a hundred different ways and each one will have its advantages and limitations.

[@NickElectronics]

Hello! Do you also use wireless power transfer with inductive coupling in "Povards"? I'm curious if I could do the same with capacitive coupling instead. The communication aspect is also quite interesting. I could use a Wi-Fi module on the spinning part, but I might also explore close-range communication, possibly based on the principles of a CD drive or HDD. Another option could be to use some kind of modulation to embed data into the power pulses. However, I’m unsure which solution would provide enough bandwidth for a display and would be the simplest at the same time. As you said, any solution has pros and cons

[@enilenis]

​@@NickElectronics I just power by using shaft as one electrode, and an insulated ring as the other. Like a makeshift slip ring, because I'm cheap. And I mostly do slow turning scanners. All of my LED builds lie somewhere in a bucket. I wanted volumetric type displays and found that it's actually easier to have a spinning screen and a synchronized projector. That way, the surface that makes the volumetric picture has no electronics in it. I wish there was a way to have a silent volumetric display, but anything that spins pushes air and vibrates.

[@NickElectronics]

​@@enilenis Hmmm. Interesting. Thanks for sharing! I hadn’t thought about a synchronized projector. Still, the spinning part can be placed in a transparent case. Of course, it would reduce noise, but not eliminate it completely.

[@enilenis]

@@NickElectronics I never used induction coils the way you did, because wouldn't it be simpler at that point to have 2 (or more) coils on top and neodymium magnets at the bottom, with a rectifier board, turning the spinning plate into a generator. Only drawback would be, in having to have a slightly stronger motor than the one out of a CD-ROM drive, as some of the torque would get eaten up by inductive resistance. Also, the device wouldn't power when stationary. You'd always have to spin it up and maintain RPM's unlike in your case, where the field is oriented in a way that makes it irrelevant, whether the top is spinning or not. But it adds the need to drive a bottom coil, while you could've had 2 coils on top, magnets at the bottom and electrical generation on the fly.

[@diegocassinera]

Since the led are spinning, why not put a couple of coils on the led base, and a couple of magnets underneath so rather than transmit power, generate it

[@NickElectronics]

That's one way of doing it, but it only works the same if the spinning frequency is very high-by that, I mean VERY high. The wireless power transfer frequency is 85 kHz. To achieve the same frequency with a generator using permanent magnets, you would need to spin it at a speed much higher than 6000 RPM. At 6000 RPM with a 3-pole generator, I think you can get a maximum of 600 Hz. 6000 RPM divided by 60 seconds gives you a spinning frequency of 100 Hz. Then, you multiply that by the number of poles (3) and by 2, because each pole generates positive and negative half-waves during one spin. So, 600 Hz versus 85 kHz means you have a frequency that is 141 times lower, which results in MUCH higher filtering components at both the output and input for the same power. So 141 times bigger capacitor does not sounds great for me :D

[@NegativeROG]

As far as the stroboscopic effect goes, I only pay attention part of the time anyways, so I'll get to see the cool movement.

[@ozan1234561]

You could have soldered something like a paperclip which you can bend around and fine tune the balance

[@NickElectronics]

@@ozan1234561 Maybe, but I suppose it might oscillate during spinning and even worsen situation somehow 😅

[@MrBademy]

this looks like next gen evolution of the loading screen :D

[@NickElectronics]

Good idea, by the way. But when you have to wait for something in real life

[@MrBademy]

@@NickElectronics ye like a modern restaurant calling mechanism when you press a button and you wait for the server, or maybe in hotels in reception some type of modern bell :D or maybe on airplanes when there is someone in the toilet it goes red xD many ideas bro, there is potential for this ==]

[@NickElectronics]

​@@MrBademy Everything has potential. But the question is whether it has it enough

[@MrBademy]

@NickElectronics true, you gotta try different shapes

[@MrBademy]

@NickElectronics I'd buy one to put as PC accessory

[@757beko]

Looks very cool. By sacrificing half of the brightness and refresh rate if you offset the axis of rotatıon half a grıd unit you can have 2x horizontal resolution

[@NickElectronics]

I also just could solder diodes with some shift. But for some reason I did not think about it then. Next one will be better for sure :D

[@SomaGaming]

Прикольно) Удачи в новых эксперементах)

[@JavierGutierrezEscalona]

You have a new sub! Beautiful video and great explanation, thank you very much.

[@NickElectronics]

Awesome, thank you, amigo! Hope to visit Spain someday. I’ve heard Spanish people are pretty friendly

[@balazsdusek]

legendary youtube recommendations pull

[@NickElectronics]

Thanks for the feedback ❤

[@Fred_Klingon]

How cool is that! Maybe you can spray paint the green boards to make them black (after soldering)...it shouldn't be a problem :-)

[@NickElectronics]

I could, but I don’t know how spray paint holds up on PCBs and components. I know that varnishes are usually used to cover PCBs. Maybe you have any experience? But still thanks for an advice.

[@Fred_Klingon]

Honestly I never painted a PCB but many other things... I'm fairly sure that you can do it without any consequences. As long as you cover with some tape the vertical PCB where the LEDs are soldered, then you can spray some layers of black on the remaining parts, 3-4 passes should do. Paper tape is the best for this, I don't know exactly how it's called in English sorry, it's the yellow / blue type used for masking when painting walls :-)

[@NickElectronics]

@@Fred_Klingon Yeah, i know which tape do you have in mind. Maybe next time will try :)

[@parttime9070]

One year at Burning Man I think 2005 there was an art piece that had wire globes hanging from a steel frame , at night they spin and you see a line of text in the middle that was telling a story.. I looked at it during the day and it was LED's soldered in place and lot's of little wire's coming down from the top.. Reminded me of this project.. So yeah I was using gray goo decades ago I'm a believer..

[@NickElectronics]

Oh man, I wish I had the chance to go to Burning Man once. It sounds like an amazing (and educational) experience :D You must have had a lot of incredible experiences there, especially if you still remember it after 20 years

[@steveman1982]

Oh! Gray goo, I heard "ragout"... Which also kinda fits :)

[@NickElectronics]

Grey ragout, mmmm, yummi 😄