INDN 212: Creation Phase 2

So, now that I've got a few of the various components done, it's time to start making the ceiling mount for the light. This mount serves as more than just a point for the lights to connect to. It's going to be the housing for all the electronics, so it has to be large enough to sufficiently accommodate.

One of the things that I started with was a method to be able to attach the ceiling mount to the ceiling. After talking to one of the technicians, we came up with a solution to the problem, involving small metal plates that serve as holding points for screws into the ceiling. This would work out really nicely, and most importantly, take up minimal space on the underside of the ceiling mount.

So I started out with a small piece of sheet brass, and since these pieces wouldn't actually be a visual component to be seen, I used brass mostly for it's strength and lightweight nature. I the planned out my form, and then cut and drilled the plate into the appropriate form. Once the ceiling mount is finished, I'll attach the plates.

For the ceiling mount, I'm not showcasing any wood or special material and I've decided to spraypaint the piece white, so I decided to use pine to make my construct, as it is light and easy to work with due to its low hardness. It also turns out pretty nicely on the router, as I discovered. So, I had my plans, so I planned them out onto my board, and then drilled my holes first.

Once the holes were drilled, the routing could take place. This was fortunately something I was rather familiar with, as I used it a bit for the last project, so that was relatively easy. It was just extremely time consuming as there was a lot of wood that needed to be removed to make way for all the electronics (which I'll be covering soon in one of my upcoming posts).

Fortunately, I discovered that I could be quite brutal with the pine, and be quite harsh with the way that I used the router, as it could chew through the grain of the pine pretty quickly. This made my job a lot easier. I had various depths that I created so that the pine could retain its strength even though I wanted to create a sloping surface on the underside.

Once I had all the routing done, I was able to attach my brass plates. I attached the brass plates in opposing directions so that when the light is affixed to the ceiling, twisting the light would latch it onto the screws and keep it there. The square holes are for the motion sensors to sit in, to ensure that their field of view is a little bit inhibited, so as to ensure that the motion sensing is limited to the space directly below.

I've tested my tolerances and the spaces I've made should fit the electronics nicely. I've got a lot of cabling, an Arduino Mega, and 4 relays to fit into the space, but there should still be plenty of space for any other random things that need to be added.

Right, well next I'll look at the voodoo magic known as the Arduino.