2c:null 2d:["$","title",null,{"children":"✨LED Astronaut Painting✨ | Virginia Poltrack | Observable"}] 32:T764,I had created several astronaut paintings that are hanging in my office, and for the longest time, I kept thinking about how cool it would be if little elements on the painting could light up! In each of the paintings, I add a variety of little buttons and levers that aren’t accurate in any way, but I like how they look on the image. I finally had a free day over the weekend and decided to pull out all the circuit boards and IoT “stuff” that had been sitting in my basement and try to make the astronaut painting light up. Here’s the process I went through to create the project: (Full list of items required: Astronaut painting (or painting of your choice), 5 LED lights, Arduino Uno, wire, soldering iron, electrical tape, duct tape, wire cutters, wire stripper tool, batteries, alligator clips and battery case.) Initially I thought using neopixels and a Flora board would be the ideal (and easiest) solution, that I could sew them into the painting using conductive thread, but after some research and tinkering, I decided that using an Arduino Uno and LED lights would be better — I wasn’t going to change the color of the lights, and I wanted a simple blinking pattern, so LED lights would work just fine in this case! Simplicity was key for me — although I can write and edit some code, I didn’t want to get stuck on that step, and I was hoping to find information online that could help me (which I did!). I had trouble getting started, as I hadn’t worked on a project like this in a long time. Luckily, there are many, many resources online that were very helpful! I found an Arduino tutorial online that I could use for the lights. I made some slight edits to the code, adding two additional lights, and adjusting the blinking pattern. I also made slight adjustments to the schematic to allow for the two additional lights. This is the original schematic:33:T589,I used electrical tape to help secure the soldering, and also because there were a few small wires sticking out at some of the solder points, and I didn’t want to risk having those wires poke through the canvas. This part definitely took the longest, in part because I tested every light after every solder to make sure it still worked (imagine if I had just put all this together at once and it didn’t work — I would have no idea how to start checking to solve the issue!) This was more challenging than I expected, as I had never soldered before, and found that I had to re-do several of the soldered points. (This started to test my patience towards the end, as I was getting excited to see the final product!) There were some other updates to make, as well. Initially, I used a 9V battery to power the lights, and it wasn’t strong enough (the last three lights would barely flicker). I switched the battery out for a casing that holds 6AA batteries, and that was strong enough to power all the LED lights. I used an x-acto knife to cut a small hole in the canvas that aligned with where the lights needed to go. This was actually a little scary, I had never taken an x-acto knife to one of my paintings! I taped the lights into place using electrical tape on the back. After securing everything to the back of the canvas using a combination of electrical and duct tape, the painting was ready to hang!34:[{"id":"3704edf5af2641c5b13ae99fddbeaa3841aa45b224c73a419e56883a7973a690d942f3166d2b181c478c393729df02f299de0967736fa1087bb027ecb102f97d","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/3704edf5af2641c5b13ae99fddbeaa3841aa45b224c73a419e56883a7973a690d942f3166d2b181c478c393729df02f299de0967736fa1087bb027ecb102f97d","name":"scheme.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","lastModified":1655996532872.627,"size":80946},{"id":"c0f5d84a2c7645fa5078af3ad73fb39c804fc4f2a925f3ad18564baeeb10848ed0133b7efa0d41bbcfb5d15245c26299469ae8e8cb4878f3fb1ca91ce95e73d0","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/c0f5d84a2c7645fa5078af3ad73fb39c804fc4f2a925f3ad18564baeeb10848ed0133b7efa0d41bbcfb5d15245c26299469ae8e8cb4878f3fb1ca91ce95e73d0","name":"image.gif","type":"image/gif","lastModified":1655996766959.185,"size":32297652},{"id":"b2beb07ee020cd4b18bf2e4b625111fade5bdc0eae89e1796b03d4e388cb386e71e65ab6ce0ca7a25eb13fb889d2839c8a659ac3eda7aba95ebff6e06871e4d4","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/b2beb07ee020cd4b18bf2e4b625111fade5bdc0eae89e1796b03d4e388cb386e71e65ab6ce0ca7a25eb13fb889d2839c8a659ac3eda7aba95ebff6e06871e4d4","name":"lights.gif","type":"image/gif","lastModified":1655996660061.563,"size":13765835},{"id":"e4341b0861e303452f4348b8a3ecdf838d48318e0761e39434d04b5f1dd2e5f2b279aaa34d0808d212b7284fbe6b84f201cf59626b65909096c2930ec4540611","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/e4341b0861e303452f4348b8a3ecdf838d48318e0761e39434d04b5f1dd2e5f2b279aaa34d0808d212b7284fbe6b84f201cf59626b65909096c2930ec4540611","name":"wiring.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","lastModified":1655996990645.1,"size":400240},{"id":"39ac4004324e5d02e2641c18e3a9cee477393b596a18c77a8a76c9051af16cb9bc4f72b90bad1f0791962c7ecc946dd917c00bfebcdb5c4e1be39f4f06921f63","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/39ac4004324e5d02e2641c18e3a9cee477393b596a18c77a8a76c9051af16cb9bc4f72b90bad1f0791962c7ecc946dd917c00bfebcdb5c4e1be39f4f06921f63","name":"desk.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","lastModified":1655997002305.855,"size":364020},{"id":"43f1377c4466ddc225e473d5fbcb94558bf302db458d7c272128e04aa3b01e521dd9dd0aa82372811f5fdefda9be8943261c932d76cc3610934049632ce1bf77","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/43f1377c4466ddc225e473d5fbcb94558bf302db458d7c272128e04aa3b01e521dd9dd0aa82372811f5fdefda9be8943261c932d76cc3610934049632ce1bf77","name":"wiring 2.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","lastModified":1655997089297.827,"size":392860},{"id":"416bfa2bd28a2e7c8928cfd645a4c40515dc56a35ea57fa04843745111b112e64c05f6cdff32de64e160a21c5be3ef97acffd4db9115913759723ea645a8e25c","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/416bfa2bd28a2e7c8928cfd645a4c40515dc56a35ea57fa04843745111b112e64c05f6cdff32de64e160a21c5be3ef97acffd4db9115913759723ea645a8e25c","name":"finished.gif","type":"image/gif","lastModified":1655997150949.132,"size":11786562}] 30:{"id":"54d90f595f826037","slug":"led-astronaut-painting","title":"✨LED Astronaut Painting✨","thumbnail":"7384e4b4cc987be63379ccb3b15b34f9bbd3bb255456835eb2c567ce85fca6b2","access_level":"public","create_time":"$D2022-06-23T15:00:15.595Z","update_time":"$D2022-06-23T15:29:03.176Z","view_time":null,"first_public_time":"$D2022-06-23T15:20:09.825Z","has_unpublished_edits":null,"fork":false,"stars":4,"starred":false,"owner":{"type":"team","id":"0f7cf30ad42cb9ea","login":"virginiapoltrack","name":"Virginia Poltrack","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/f7fa5d3fbf0e6edc81bd8a0c1efb5d09e2f0f13d7a9e8c66339ac50024b12705","tier":"starter_2024"},"version":69,"publish_version":69,"role":null,"authored":false,"authors":[{"type":"individual","id":"a64b11385caf1308","login":"virginiapoltrack","name":"Virginia Poltrack","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/f7fa5d3fbf0e6edc81bd8a0c1efb5d09e2f0f13d7a9e8c66339ac50024b12705","tier":null}],"members":[{"type":"individual","id":"a64b11385caf1308","login":"virginiapoltrack","name":"Virginia Poltrack","avatar_url":"https://avatars-next.observableusercontent.com/f7fa5d3fbf0e6edc81bd8a0c1efb5d09e2f0f13d7a9e8c66339ac50024b12705","tier":null,"role":"editor"}],"comments":[],"custom_thumbnail":true,"trashed":false,"lapsed":null,"subscribed":null,"forks":0,"collection":null,"type":"notebook","body":{"titling":"auto","title":"✨LED Astronaut Painting✨","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"# ✨LED Astronaut Painting✨\n## Weekend project for fun, with step by step process and pictures","pinned":true,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":35,"value":"---","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":28,"value":"

The completed project!

","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":11,"value":"And the original code:","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":46,"value":"---","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":13,"value":"// variables\nint GREEN = 2;\nint YELLOW = 3;\nint RED = 4;\nint DELAY_GREEN = 5000;\nint DELAY_YELLOW = 2000;\nint DELAY_RED = 5000;\n\n\n// basic functions\nvoid setup()\n{\n pinMode(GREEN, OUTPUT);\n pinMode(YELLOW, OUTPUT);\n pinMode(RED, OUTPUT);\n}\n\nvoid loop()\n{\n green_light();\n delay(DELAY_GREEN);\n yellow_light();\n delay(DELAY_YELLOW);\n red_light();\n delay(DELAY_RED);\n}\n\nvoid green_light()\n{\n digitalWrite(GREEN, HIGH);\n digitalWrite(YELLOW, LOW);\n digitalWrite(RED, LOW);\n}\n\nvoid yellow_light()\n{\n digitalWrite(GREEN, LOW);\n digitalWrite(YELLOW, HIGH);\n digitalWrite(RED, LOW);\n}\n\nvoid red_light()\n{\n digitalWrite(GREEN, LOW);\n digitalWrite(YELLOW, LOW);\n digitalWrite(RED, HIGH);\n}","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":48,"value":"---","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":18,"value":"Here’s the working lights with the small edits I made:","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md","author":"$undefined","summary":"$undefined","providerMetadata":"$undefined","attachments":"$undefined","output":"","database":"$undefined"},{"id":22,"value":"

Testing the lights.

Wiring without the bread board

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Working on the wiring

Replaced all the alligator clips!

The finished product, hanging on my office wall!

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