This LED lamp is in a way a continuation of my previous project "Fiber Optic and LEDs - a Wall Decoration", I think a natural one, I wanted to make something simpler, easier to do, that would be available to many of you. The "mechanical" parts of the lamp are 3D printed, the electronic part is simple and the plastic optical fiber is eye catching. The shape of the lamp is inspired by Helder Santos' project "Square LED Lamp" and the arrangement of the optical fibers is very similar to that of my project mentioned above. I will show you in this instructable how easy it is to make this LED lamp.

FiberOpticLightKit

The absorption spectrum of a metal complex can be used to calculate the splitting energy, \(\Delta\), when the absorption corresponds to a \(d \rightarrow d \) transition. Let's use the \(d^9\) Cu(II) complex (discussed above) as an example. A \(d^9\) metal ion has only one visible-light \(d \rightarrow d\) transition. Let's assume that the coordination geometry is approximately octahedral (although it is actually a Jahn-Teller distorted octahedron, and more like a square plane). If we assume it's octahedral, then the \(d\)-orbital splitting diagram (see Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)) leads us to expect one electronic transition: an electron is excited from the \(t_{2g}\) to \(e_g\). The energy absorbed is equal to the energy of the \(\Delta\).

This page titled 11.1: Absorption of Light is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kathryn Haas.

Many cases are not as simple as a \(d^9\) octahedral case because there are multiple possible electronic transitions, and also multiple absorption bands in the UV-vis spectrum. In these more complex cases, the actual energy of the transition are affected by differences in electron-electron repulsion energies in the ground state and the excited states. We will learn how to account for multiple possible excited states and electron-electron repulsions using Tanabe-Sugano diagrams later in this chapter.

FiberOpticLightCable

An example of such a measurement is shown below in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) for a Cu(II) complex. The sample appears a pink color to the eye, and when it is measured using a UV-visible spectrometer, it is shown to absorb visible light at approximately 530 nm. The absorption spectrum can indicate the oxidation state of Cu, the ligands bound to the Cu(II) ion, and the coordination geometry. The color of the solution in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) is a shade of pink.

I put the lamp on the bedside table, I have been using it for a few days and I really like it. I am very satisfied with how the construction succeeded. However, maybe I will make some changes in the future…

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The final step in building the lamp was to upload the program to the Arduino micro controller. I used an USB to Serial module with the FT232RL chip connected as you can see in the photos above. Of course you can upload the code with other USB to Serial adapters. There are a lot of howto's online about programming the Arduino Pro Mini.

FiberOptic Lights for Ceiling

I started with the 3D printing of the components, it takes quite a long time so in the meantime I was able to make the connections between the pieces of LED strip. It is good to check the correct operation of the LEDs before mounting the soldered pieces as in step3 of the project "Fiber Optic and LEDs - a Wall Decoration" (I just changed the value DATA PIN to 5 and NUM_LEDS to 32 in the test code).

After finishing the printing of the frame, the hardest part followed: ) fitting and fixing the four pieces of 8 LEDs each in the channels of the lamp frame. I loosened the protective plastic of the self-adhesive layer of the LEDstrip and for the best and most precise fixation I also used a few fiber optic ends inserted through the side holes. Then I slowly untied the protective layer and by pressing the strip to the frame, I fixed it. You can see the operation more clearly in the photos above.

Fiberoptic lighting for homes

External libraries I used (sleep.h and EEPROM.h are among Arduino's internal libraries) are FastLED and ArduinoMultiButton.

LED FiberOptic lights Car

The d-orbital splitting in coordination complexes results in a gap (\(\Delta\)) that happens to be just the right magnitude to absorb visible light. Because metal complexes can absorb visible light, they display an array of colors. Not only is the color attractive to the eye, it is an indication of the chemical and physical properties of the metal complex. The color (like the magnitude of \(\Delta\)) depends on the identity of the metal ion, the coordination geometry, and the ligand identity. Chemists don't just "look" at color, though - we measure it using electronic absorption spectroscopy. This is usually done in a lab using a UV-visible spectrophotometer.

Fiberoptic lamp Vintage

The program is essentially an adaptation of the codes from FastLED Breath for the breath effect, from palettes with button control for the different color palettes and the code from DemoReel100 with button for effects. For putting the Arduino Pro Mini to sleep, with a double click, I was inspired by this article. Also, at this moment (double click) the current operating mode is saved but also the settings from each operating mode.

For example in color palette mode I would make the brightness lower or choose color palettes with lower brightness. I would add a few more effects, I really liked the noise effect in my "Fiber Optic and LEDs - a Wall Decoration" project, I'm thinking of adding it to the effects mode. I could also power the LED strip through a MOSFET transistor as I did in my "Safety Armband" project and thus greatly reduce the idle consumption of the lamp. Now if I turn it off with a double click, the lamp consumes about 30 mA and in operation I measured a maximum of 400 mA.

I made the rest of the connections according to the electronic schematics and then I mounted the lamp support and fixed it with a lot of hot glue, I fixed the touch button also with hot glue (not before mounting the push pin) and I fixed the Arduino Pro Mini module in the place provided by the support.

This operation was followed by inserting in the side holes some pieces of plastic optical fiber. I cut the pieces as perpendicular as possible using the same template as in the "Fiber Optic and LEDs - a Wall Decoration" project. 8 pieces of fiber, so a total of 16 pieces, of different lengths join the pairs of holes that are at the same distance from the sides of the lamp frame, as in the photos above.

The lamp works in three main modes that can be selected by double-clicking on the push button: solid color mode (and with the breath effect), palette mode and effects mode. With a simple click in solid color mode you can choose different colors (9 colors) also with the breath effect, in palette mode you can choose several color palettes that are taken from PaletteKnife for FastLED and in effect mode…some effects :)

The absorption spectrum shown above in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) is a simple case in which only one absorption band is observed in the visible region of the spectrum. In a simple case like this, the color of a complex can be predicted as the complementary color of the light absorbed by the solution. When a solution or object absorbs a certain wavelength, we see the complementary color; or the color opposite to the absorbed wavelength on the color wheel in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\). In the case of the Cu(II) complex spectrum shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), the color of the light absorbed at 530 nm is green, and the predicted color observed is pink.

The table below lists the approximate colors of absorption corresponding to wavelengths of light absorbed, and gives similar information to that deduced from Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).