Inside a swirling holographic star pyramid (amazingly deep 3D effect)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ธ.ค. 2023
- For its simplicity this is a great visual effect. A 3D chamber with bright stars floating around inside it.
It's not really a hologram as such, more of a prismatic illusion using moving LEDs and a complex prismatic film.
This unit is a Luxa Starlighting Rainbow Starburst Pyramid. It was bought from a local garden centre, but may be available under different names in other countries.
I love the simplicity of the slip-ring assembly in this. It's optimised for easy manufacture with multiple contact points for reliable power transfer. The gold plated domed contacts and thick PCB tracks with a generous layer of grease should give a long lifespan. Especially with the slow rotation of the heavily geared motor.
I should take the junky eBay one apart to compare the mechanism.
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I think big Clive single handedly keeps his local poundshop afloat
My God, it's full of stars!
The light assembly was way more simple than expected, I'd pictured some sort of frame with LEDs.
Internally crude but very effective.
@@SlartiMarvinbartfast Difficult to call it crude, when there is so much elegance to it. Elegance isn't complexity, it's simplicity.
You could use some of the 2 wire "addressable" colour changing LEDs and have it change colour whilst rotating! 👍
Really, you don't even need to mess with some tricky two-wire protocol, you could just stick a little microcontroller onto the bottom of the rotating shaft too and program it to do whatever you wanted (such as driving multi-wire LED strips too).. There's plenty of space there for extra electronics on the rotating part.
@@foogod4237 I meant the USB powered self controlled lights he has reviewed in the past. Would just need to cut the wires and solder them on 👍 they are wide angle LEDs though, so might not work well, replacing the existing LEDs with auto colour changing (not diffused) might work better!
@@foogod4237Instantly I can think of so many things you could do with that. Some 3D printed parts and some WS2812 strips and a generic controller unit with remote and now you got some fully controllable RGB effects.
@@foogod4237 one could. but tbh more and more i think MCUs are 'cheating'. it seems people think 'sod learning things about electronics, i'll just buy some arduinos!'. i often see on arduino fora people asking 'what is a pull-down resistor', or similarly obvious questions. MCU are cool, in their place, which i think is after learning about _real_ electronics for a few years. however i am a miserable old bastard. so probably wrong!
No need for any of that. Just use a bunch of those slow color-cycling LEDs...
My grandma has had one of these for years, just leaves it up all year. I was talking to her the other day about what it probably looks like inside, now I know. Thanks
My OCD is playing up: the motor is connected to "BAT", the power supply (which is not a "4xAA" battery box as indicated on the PCB) is connected to "MOT". 😋
I didn't even spot that. I'd guess they just used the connector closest, since they are in parallel.
If you have astigmatism, EVERY light looks like this!
Okay, this is more complex than I would have expected. I would have thought that the lamps would be stationary and only a cylinder with a textured foil would be rotated.
Rattling nuts, shaft, screw, rounded end, good solid, splashed bench, big reveal and slipring all in one video, people would pay good money for this commentary 🤣
Looks like they're fixed colour LED's. Would be nice to have a few RGB colour shifting LED's mixed in.
That exact contact method is used in an old Tandberg tape recorder I've just restored for the record/playback switch, where a strip of double sided PCB is used with a couple of sets of those springy contacts either side held with a plastic 'sled' via links to the rec/play select lever. It's 55 years old and the contacts are still perfect!
Almost all AV equipment has one or more rotary switches that are based on this principle at least if its old enough to not use rotary encoders. My Danelctro guitar has suc a rotary switch to becaose it has more pickup setting than a toggle/ blade pickup selector could accommodate.Your car aslo has a clockspring in the steering wheel which is simular
Pretty much every digital multimeter with a rotary switch uses springy contacts wiping against traces on the PCB (usually gold plated).
@@ferrumignis Yeah those to. Is cheap reliable way of making a multi function switch.
Also used in electric car power steering systems,works great till the copper tarnishes and or sometimes when the weather's really cold and your steering goes notchy, im talking 2010 by the way not 2023 as they might now use something better like bamboo😅
@rimmersbryggeri
Not since 3rd gen airbags.
looks like something you'd see watching old-school star trek
It is very reminiscent of the old sci-fi effects.
Thanks Clive. Blown away by how simple this device is. I was expecting all kinds of motors and gears
I'd love to find large sheets of that prismatic plastic to build a couple of 70's style light organ displays. I miss those things.
Search eBay for prismatic plastic. I saw some in a recent search.
@@bigclivedotcomI'm also searching for this film, could you provide a link as a jumping off point? I am looking for the exact film used in the lamp.
I think this would be even better if each LED cycled among different colors, either coordinated, randomly, or whatever. As-is, it's nice but the identical color star always drives across its same horizontal band.
Swapping the fixed colour LEDs for colour changing ones could give the effect you are looking for. A mixture of slow and fast ones would give the appearance of randomness as they rotate around the shaft. Perhaps Clive will "enhance" this one.
Two of the slow changing coloured LED's can be put in parallel, and then you can make strings of these in series. I found that 7 series sets of 2 parallel gives the best effect, but then sadly the supply is around 22 Volt, a bit unpractical. The individual LED's all have ever changing currents, from 1 mA to 10mA , and the frequency is slightly different per LED, so ever one in influencing every other.
BC, that’s the most unique slip ring I’ve ever seen. Long time fan, by the way. You have taught me a lot,my good Sir, and I thank you for that.
I've got three of these, different sizes 8,12, and 16", different colors red, white and green...glass prisms...they're Christmas trees. Similar type of mechanics I think, haven't taken apart because they're kinda old and work on 120v w/incandescent bulbs. Belonged to my mother back in the day...1950/60's I'd say.
I bet the other TH-cam content creators loathe you for establishing consistent high quality content. You definitely have raised the bar of excellence on TH-cam.
There are lots of great technical channels out there.
@@bigclivedotcom Indeed, a truly humble man.
👍👍
Love this. Thanks Big Clive. Of course, now I want one. LOL
I wonder what it would look like if you just used the outer pyramid structure and installed inside addressable WS2812B leds with somethign like an ESP-32 development board running WLED, so the leds were static but the effects using WLED (or even xlights, I guess) would provide the animation? I expect BC to complete this project by Christmas Day, ready for the great reveal!!
Actually, I think my local garden centre in Addlestone has these in its Christmas section, so they'll be half price or less in the New Year!!
Got my eye on a xmas themed lights
Boxing day sale here we come
That is a GREAT idea, Nick!!
Van Gogh' Stary, Stary Nights, simply wonderful mech inside.
Where is this device being sold ? Nice light effect.
Congrats on ONE MILLION subscribers, Clive !!
I bought mine from a garden centre with their Christmas lighting range in.
What is it typically called I wonder? Not having much luck searching for it
@@mikecooper03 It's called a Luxa starburst pyramid here.
Where can I find this material?
@@mikecooper03 I haven't found it in places I have looked in Ontario and western New York... still looking.
That's pretty ingenious.
At first I thought it was a 2-D form...this would be great hanging from the ceiling...or several...maybe changing the lights to RGB's as well.
Very neat. Looking forward to seeing you reusing it.
What's more neat, from an economical perspective is the fact they're using triangular panels, so they can batch out a bunch of these from square stock with little in the way of scrap save for the half-panels they can't use in this application.
That's a lovely one 👍
Its been a loooong time since Ive really loved something you have taken to bits, and wanted one!
Replace the LEDs with slow colour changing ones and it'd change its' appearance even more, or just stick in LEDs of the same colour to make it suit where it'll live colour-wise... :)
I was thinking that all green LEDs would be nice, put several of them in your garden. Use a rechargeable battery.
Cool looking effect. It doesn’t hurt that I’m wasted at the moment…
I'd be interested in the plastic diffuser. It'll made a great bathroom window privacy film.
The Sun reflected rays would look amazing.
Look for holographic window film. It's great.
I'd change the LEDs for those ones that slowly colour cycle :D
Much better than the other one
That same motor/shaft/ring setup was used in a couple of those 'fireplace' heaters. Cat/Dog hair binds up the blowers in those and i tend to scrap a couple every year.
Thanks a lot Clive.
One another puspose for using the "rotating contact" method could be for making a rotating POV device. Many POV DIY videos show a battery mounted on the rotating part itself, which seems a bit cumbersome. Using a slip ring may also help, but may be a bit expensive.
Have a great Christmas Clive and family 😊.
That's a kinda neat cost-reduced slip ring. But not reduced so far that it's bare wire jammed up against the ring, they at least are using some cheap springs. I, too, wonder about the lifespan of such a thing, but they've at least put a tiny bit of thought into keeping it from wearing out in a couple weeks' use...
Great video. A very nice device and surprisingly well made too.
A big square sheet of that refracter stuff would look good with your supercomputer behind it.- STARRY STARRY NIGHT. 💥💥💥💥💥💥
I could see making this into a small rotating Christmas tree
That was fascinatingly simple.
Very nice 👍
Another great video, thanks Clive. 😊 These in theory would be a great DIY project with them being so simple
The contacts on the slip ring are probably the trickiest bit.
Everything Old is New again !
Like the Motor, Gears, and Slip Rings. That is 1940's 50's tech'.
Yes it is. This would have been done with little tungsten bulbs back then.
Cool effect.
Interesting. This looks like it would work for a minature/model lighthouse.
i guessed how this worked as soon as i saw it moving and was not disappointed !
lovely simple mechanism with diffraction lenses and a rotating pillar of lights :)
i also like the simplicity of the pcb slip ring, although i doubt it'll last as long as more expensive purpose-built parts even with all of that grease.
they should sell this as a beginner kit for children, it's very fun
I saw that mechanism and immediately thought, "lighthouse." You could even use some of the fractal material to build a Fresnel lens.
Neat indeed !
Says 4xAA on the circuit board. There was or probably is a battery powered version but I'm not a fan of Alkaline powered stuff and NiMh is often too dark for the LEDs. It's just more interesting to know it can also handle 6 Volts.
It would probably be used with a resistor. I took another one apart with 4xAA and it did have a resistor.
2xNiMH is obviously not going to work with LEDs, 3x just about works but is a little on the edge, 4x is going to work absolutely no problem. Alkaline cells don't deliver much more voltage than NiMH over most of their life, they start above 1.5V but as they discharge, the voltage drops, terminating at right about 1V. While NiMH stay at right around 1.25V for almost the entire length of their discharge cycle. This is at low currents, at higher currents both types suffer some voltage depression, tends to be more pronounced in alkaline. So if NiMH were too dark, alkaline would have also been too dark throughout most of the cell life.
@@SianaGearz Most LED gadgets use just two cells, which makes it impossible to use with rechargables other than protected buck converted Lithium 1.5V cells.
I would bend the LEDs on the upper portion of the shaft to face outwards. Would probably give a much nicer motion effect.
it puts one in mind of chatoyancy. cheers! very xmas BC!
Today I learned a new word. (I had to google it)
@@bigclivedotcom good lord. i informed BC of a thing! what a reversal of the usual order. i shall hold this moment dear in my heart!!
after a few moments consideration. once i stopped alarming the dogs and mrs by chanting "i made big Clive learn a thing, i made big Clive learn a thing" whilst dancing around my drawing room. i am still blown away by the perversion of the natural order obtained by me causing BC to learn a thing. this is the best xmas gift i have received since the horrific-ly hued Miami dolphins jacket i got for xmas in 1987. i am now going to drain a litre of vile sloe-gin in celebration! happy ruddy xmas! BC for PM!
That's really neat.
Some years ago I designed some kit that was fitted on a rotating head which was fed power and data via slip rings... proofing the rs422/485 against the transients was ”interesting"
This kind of slip ring contact made with a PCB is extensively used on electromechanical pinball/arcade machines and jukeboxes.
You have a nice low voltage even higher quality gold plated one here.
Ooooh thats nice. I might have to get one. very interesting effect. 2x👍
you could make your very own police car blue light its a bit slow but still if it get people out the way. Im joking of course can you imagine how happy the rozzers would be pulling Ralph over with a custom in the back. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Reminds me of a Jukebox that was in the juke joint my dad ran when I was a wee boy.
You could REALLY easily mod this to be programmable and ludicrously overkill. If you attach a little microcontroller onto the raised platform and just tap off the exposed connections, you could replace the string of lights with proper RGB tape with the MCU just taped to the top of the platform, meaning no signal integrity issues with the PWM signal as it's all up on the spindle already. The Seeeduino Xiao or Adafruit QtPy would be perfect for this. Hell, if you wanted to, you could even get a little capacitive touch sensor and connect it to the metal frame for touch control. This is a delight and I want 10 of them.
Thats amazing...I've seen ones like that but never a modern take on it.
But the question we're all asking is does it get the big Clive seal of approval
It does. This is a nice unit, and serviceable for people like us.
Oh wow cool 😎
Being a wedge shape, I now want to see if you could put enough of these together and make a full circle of them 🙈
Interesting effect, it's a shame nobody makes custom diffraction gratings!
Be fun to add your own colours too, or hundreds of them 😅 I'd almost buy one now... What are they called?
I think it looks cool
Totally not what I expected!
Would love to see you do a big clive mod to this light good teardown video as usual.
Nice.. simple but it works...... but we need more festive tat!
I wonder what kind of grease that is. I’ve seen some labeled as “dielectric” grease, but not sure that’s what this is. In this use case, the grease has to lubricate, but not conduct so as to not short out the rings, but also has to not prevent electrical contact between the wipers and the rings.
Would be nice to put more and addressable LEDs inside (together with a little microcontroller to change the color of the lights automatically)
It's full of stars. 🌌👨🚀🛸
Nice thought:
but the artifact would need to be a rectangular block with proportions 1::4::9::etc in higher dimensions. Hence the short cut with the plastic cover...
I’ve been thinking of ways to recreate the eye of sauron. This motor combination used similar to the flame effect you did a while back might be the ticket.
Everyone neeeds a good slipring.
Ohhhhhhh, I think I also need such stars in my apartment. 🤭
Will you destill the cheapest mulled wine for christmas?
This is a prime example of learning how the magic trick is performed. Sure, you know but the illusion is shattered.
You could mount an Arduino nano or micro on the PCB and a bunch of addressable LEDs on the shaft for a much more elaborate effect.
Sometimes the most beautiful things are simple.
I want one and can't find them locally.
could probably stick an esp8266 on the upper side of that and run addressable LEDs up the post?
no moving parts, and a motor??
Put a model house with lights on inside, on the top of the "rotary contact platform".
It is endless! A spooky doll (zombie) figure, with glowing eyes, rotating. A small Earth Globe with the interior softly lit to show blue oceans and twinkly human lights (light pipes?) on the land masses. I don't know. Just throwing ideas!! 😆😃🥰🤩
Neat. Not familiar with electronics in rotation, so forgive my ignorance. Could ground be wired to the motor shaft? That way you could have 2 signals through the pads, with the shaft for ground.
Probably plastic gears. Passing current through a bearing also has issues with microscopic spark erosion over time.
Is the slip ring grease conductive?
Mosk likely it is not. Most electrical greases aren't, if conductive it would cause resistive heating or a short between the traces. The pressure and movement of the sliding contacts will displace it enough to make a good connection.
Go buy the one from shop window and see how worn it is.
Happy Christmas Clive. For some reason having seen how simple it was for some obscure reason I thought it might be a tenner or so. Unfortunately far more £, not your fault. Have a good new year, will the carbonated soda Syphon be in use ?
This concept reminds me so much of the "computers" in the original Star Trek; for example, Assignment: Earth and That Which Survives. Essentially, it was some kind of moving colored lights under a frosty outer lens. Wish I could share a GIF I made, but the episodes are easy enough to find. Just for fun, I've always wanted to make one of these "computers" at home, just to enjoy the relaxing lighting in my living room.
Have I missed an episode? Did you not have an video on Christmas lights for the town and an installation in the council offices every year?
I've not done that for a couple of years.
They could have used a planetary gear assembly which would have given the unit a truly linear form factor.
I was a bit puzzled about the grease - it appears to be present not only on the gold tracks but also between them.
If the grease is electrically conductive, would it not short the tracks?
If the grease is not conductive, how does it help maintain a good connection between the tracks and the pickup contacts?
The grease is not conductive. It is there to reduce contact wear. The contacts make by displacing it.
That slip-ring system is pretty nifty! I suspect a similar technology might be in the less expensive slip-ring modules you can get from the "usual places", although I'd be a bit wary about the "claimed" 15A ratings. I've used a cheap slipring system on our solar light house model, and that's still very much going after 10 years' use (helped by occasional contact lubricant application).
I made a video about the slip ring capsules. If that's the one you were thinking of then you're right to be cynical about the current rating.
could change all the led with super computer ones ?
The textured sheet looks the same as the stuff you put inside cupboards to keeps you crockery clean.
There is 4xAA written on the PCB so I assume there is also a battery powered version of it. And it surely will run of 5V USB then. Options for modifications.
In a future video I take a look at a battery operated version with a single resistor.
That would look really nice inside a frosted glass cone without those shiny metal bits…
LED Kaleidoscope.
would be nice if they made one with 5 of these and an pentagram center for a 5 pointed Christmas tree topper star
the middle part could use a PCB with a buch or LED's that cycle arounf to creathe effect they are moving
but it doenslt look like it is that bright though
should get a second one and mount it 90 to the first and get 2 axis of motion.
Would there be any limtations (signal latency issues) by using this slip-ring princple for a 3rd additional ring for data xfer? Maybe drive a pixel strip (etc), or would it be easier to just mount the uP on the rotating shaft?
Probably easier to mount the electronics on the shaft and use IR to control it.
This is like me, breathtakingly simple and it only takes one screw loose to fall apart.
This was very well timed, I was just looking at slip ring designs! I wonder if there's a design that would be reliable and long lasting at high RPM 🤔
Aliexpress has big motor grade slip rings with carbon brushes.
This looks like it would be more visually effective with monochromatic LEDs or perhaps a mixture of two neighbouring hues.
They do all-white ones.
The liquid is probably drool cause you like it so much.😂
It turned out to be water that had splashed on the PSU when I was emptying the dehumidifier.
Marvel! Marvel at the stars! Marvel like the wind!
did anyone notice that the moter was connected to bat and the power was in the mot conector so just wondering can it be modified to be rechargeable with batteries or even solar powered for outdoor use if made wether resistant