One Ring to Rule Them All
Growing up, my dad would watch the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movies with my brothers and me. It was an awesome way to spend time with the family and be enchanted by the magic of Middle Earth. For my last Hackathon (a four hour design competition) of the semester, I wanted to make a LOTR decoration/piece of art that I could give to my dad for Christmas!
One Ring to Rule Them All (ORTRTA) is a wooden wall piece that lights up The One Ring's inscription. ORTRTA fits into my theme of creating meaningful prototypes that have strong roots in art and design. I wanted to make a simple and refined wall decoration that blends old technology (wood working) with new technology (Arduinos and NeoPixels)!
Making ORTRTA was a personal and educational experience. It was personal because my younger brother Jack helped me build present for our dad! It was educational because I learned the significance of “Hello World-ing” (proof of concept testing) with this project. I had bought the wrong NeoPixels, and I had messed up the ring design. But because I tested a week in advance, I was able to finish making ORTRTA in four hours!
Here is my concept sketch. I originally wanted to use a Plasma Cutter to make the ring out of steel. However through early testing, I discovered that the design would be too complicated for a four hour Hackathon. So I pivoted and used a Laser Cutter to engrave a piece of plywood.
The original ring description I found online (on the left) had a couple problems, so I used Photoshop to fix the mistakes (improved version on the right). First, I had to correct the letter that was split apart. I used the Transform Tool to bring the two together. Next I had to edit letters that made a complete circle. I erased the parts of the letters that connected so that the middle of the letter would not be cut out.
Here is my little brother Jack! We measured out five 30" boards from a 5/4" x 6" x 16' piece of wood and cut with a Panel Saw.
We were careful to measure and cut precisely, but we had to take some of the longer boards to the Chop Saw to cut off any excess trim.
Once we had all our boards cut, we took them over to the paint room to coat them with Wood Stain.
Next we went back to the studio to get our NeoPixels to work. As I mentioned earlier, I had bought the wrong NeoPixels! I got 12V power supply instead of 5V. This meant I had to use a 12V power source, but it came with a 7.4mm x 5mm male power adapter (Arduino Nano does not have the female adapter). So we had to strip the wires using a Wire Stripper. We then used a Multimeter to find the positive and negative sides and added the machine pin headers with a Semi Automatic Wire Crimping Machine. Once there was a 12V power supply, the NeoPixels began to work!
Here is the circuit and code we used on an Arduino Nano to light up the NeoPixels.
Here are the lights shining the ring inscription's fiery orange!
Above is the laser cut ring.
To provide space to house the lights under the ring, we used the Laser Cutter to cut out inner and outer rings. We used a High-Temp Hot-Glue Gun to assemble all the rings together.
Our Wood Stain was not perfectly dry, but in a Hackathon, there is no such thing as perfect! So we went ahead and lined up the boards to make the backdrop. We then cut four back connectors from a 1" x 2". Finally we used a Pneumatic Brad Nailer to assemble everything together.
Next we cut two holes (second hole not pictured) to feed bolts through using a Drill Press. We then made a third hole (the top/larger hole) to allow the wires to go through the back without being seen.
We wrapped the NeoPixels around the inner and outer ring so that the lights would shine bright but be diffused. We fed the remainder of the lights through the larger hole.
Next we pushed the bolts through the holes and locked it in with a couple of washers and nuts.
Finally we wrapped the excess lights around the back connectors to create and ambient glow in the background.
This project was a success! I grew in my ability to plan ahead, operate useful tools, and think critically. Plus I had a great time building ORTRTA with my younger brother! I just hope my dad likes it as much as I do!
