LED Acrylic Light Box

Wanted to showcase a few projects that are happening in the shop right now. The first is from one of our sophomores, Shubh P ’24, who took the design on on his LED Light Box to another level. Shubh has put a lot of attention to detail in his project from CAD to circuitry. He introduced several types of circuitry components to the design, which include potentiometers as dials, 7 segment display, and pushbutton switches. In addition, he utilized different sized wood in his CAD model to create patterns within the framework of the structure of the box. It really turned out well. Unfortunately, when taking photos of it today, there was a minor glitch in the coding, so he is going to fix the issue and I will post some more photos below.

In addition to the light box, Prince A ’23 is working on updating an older project from a previous student, a bluetooth speaker. The circuitry for the project is being modernized, as is the speaker box. Below you can see some test fitting of speakers in cardboard.

And lastly, Clark B ’23 and Daniel R ’22 are working on getting our traffic light fully functioning. Clark has been making circuit boards on our Bantam Tools mill and writing code to make the light work in unison with the school’s bell system. You can see his array of relays below in blue. Daniel has designed a connector to fit the traffic light on an old tv stand. We decided to print the connector out of a carbon fiber filament for strength, and after some trial and error, we are pretty happy with the final result. You can see it below in black.

Backdrop

Ash worked on the backdrop behind our bed all weekend, installing these panels she purchased. Right now there is some fairly ugly wood paneling behind our headboard, and now we have a nice modern touch with these raised white panels. There is still some work to be done, but it’s clearly a huge improvement. An in progress photo below.

I spent the afternoon working on meeting agendas for the OHNC and ordering a few items for the new Tesla that is coming in a week. I ordered a SSD in order to utilize Sentry mode as well as a license plate holder. Tesla give you a license plate holder that attaches to the front of the car with 3M tape. Not sure I like that idea. The holder I purchased utilizes the hardware provided by Tesla, but allows it to lock to the front bumper and is easily removable.

Delivery

So, the Tesla news got better this weekend as I received notification to schedule delivery. I chose the first available date from the list presented to me, which was March 22nd. The text also let you know it was a tentative date, as it could get pushed further out or closer in depending on the logistics of arrival of the vehicle at the delivery center. I’ve made sure that everything is in order on my end regarding insurance, trade-in, etc. The Tesla app on my phone says everything is up to date, so now just waiting for delivery day to arrive.

Ash and I were supposed to go to Mystic, CT today, but the weather was quite poor, so we decided against traveling. Stayed at home and watched the rainy day go by.

Crazy Lights

A few times this week I’ve noticed in the morning that the lighting in my shop is behaving a bit strange. The system is a ‘smart’ lighting platform that recognizes movement within a room. It will automatically turn on the lights when movement is sensed, and then turn the lights out after a set time if no movement is sensed. Usually when I arrive at work the lights turn on automatically, and then after a while of working at my desk they turn off. I then get up and walk a few steps to get them back on again. This morning, I got up from my desk to get the lights back on and then started turning off and on again at random. It was very strange. It lasted for about 30 seconds and then everything was normal again. I’ve put a short video of it below.

In other news, our students have finally decided it was time to create some more permanent name tags for their lockers in the shop. After a few different iterations, they settled on making acrylic nametags. They spray paint the back of clear acrylic whatever color they want, then engrave their names in reverse on the acrylic. It creates a really nice finish. They are measuring and drilling holes into the lockers today, and will probably spend some time next week finishing the job. Each student is responsible for making their own locker tag. Below is an example.

Morning Snow

It snowed last night, not a lot, but a few inches. I think the early morning saw some colder temperatures, and the snow seemed to stick to the trees in such a unique way. On my drive to work in the morning the snow capped trees were rather stunning. I tried taking a photo when I arrived at work, but it really did no justice to what was actually being seen. As tjhe day wore on, the snow melted and the mornings beauty was all gone. Glad I was able to see it.

You can see the trees and snow from inside our shop