Booklight

A lamp designed to produce soft illumination in static or portable use. Incorporates a large tactile magnetic lever for activation and capacitive touch controls for brightness adjustment.

The lamp has a shape similar to that of an open book with the outer covers at 90 degrees apart. In place of the pages, there is a rigid lamp shade component.

Design and manufacture

The custom designed circuit board powers and controls 7 addressable LEDs which each have 3 diodes of different colour temperatures. Light is diffused by the translucent shade made from 3D printed PLA. The device is powered by either changeable AA batteries or a USB C connection.

One side of the outer cover can be opened to access the PCB where the three AA batteries can be changed.

The outer structure is manufactured from plywood using a laser cutting process to create the geometry required to achieve a 90 degree curve in addition to etching of the topography of Yr Wyddfa. Magnets are used to hold the cover in the closed position and to mount the lever while allowing for rotation.

The topographic engraving is on one half of the outer cover and comprises contour lines etched into the wood. The shade is shaped as a quarter segment of a cylinder with the outer curved portion comprising a slight bellows profile.
A USB-C cable can be connected to a port in the bottom of the lamp to provide power. A lever, spanning the width of one side of the outer cover, pivots from one end such that it can be moved between two positions to power the device on and off.

Specifications

Manufacturing methods 3D printing, laser cutting, PCB manufacture and assembly
Development tools KiCad, FreeCAD, Onshape, Arduino IDE, Inkscape
Main materials PLA filament, 3mm plywood, neodymium magnets
Power 3x AA batteries or USB C connection at 5V