Enhancing a Magnifying Headband with Auto Sensing Light -- Episode 585

Do you often use a illuminated magnification headband? Do you get annoyed that you need to turn it off and on when looking away from your work? This project contains 2 solutions, a basic tilt sensor option that can be added in minutes, and a more complex distance detecting circuit which will change the illumination depending on how far away the object you are looking at is.

Watch the Video:

Bonus Content:

Download Code and Schematics

Bill of Material:

Product Name	Manufacturer	Quantity	Buy Kit
LC1780USB Magnifier, Spectacles & Headband, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x & 3.5x	LIGHTCRAFT	1	Buy Now
102010328 Arduino Microcontroller Board, SAMD21G18, ARM Cortex-M0+	SEEED STUDIO	1	Buy Now
STMICROELECTRONICS Daughter Board, VL53L0X Gesture and Ranging Sensor, FlightSense	STMICROELECTRONICS	1	Buy Now
MICROCHIP Power MOSFET, N Channel, 60 V, 200 mA, 5 ohm, TO-92, Through Hole	MICROCHIP	1	Buy Now
COMUS (ASSEMTECH) Tilt Switch, 15 °, 60 Vac, 0.25 A, Nickel	COMUS (ASSEMTECH)	1	Buy Now

element14 presents | About Katie Dumont | Project Videos

Actions

Top Comments

hifromkatie over 2 years ago in reply to DAB +1

Thanks, it hard to find the culprit further than "something under the epoxy blob", by bypassing the switch circuit which has the auto power off and other stuff hidden under expoxy, the problem is resolved…

Parents

beacon_dave over 2 years ago

This is another interesting and useful looking project.

Attention to the quality of lighting these days is often hard to find and it appears that brightness has more often than not taken priority over the quality or control of lighting.

A comfortable head-worn light with a good level of light control, producing even light without hot-spotting, would be a valuable visual aid for all sorts of activities.

A bit late to the party perhaps but I noticed that the SAMD21 power manager has a 'reset cause' register (RCAUSE) which can tell you the reason why the device reset.

https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/SAM_D21_DA1_Family_DataSheet_DS40001882F.pdf#page=158

Mapping these to some GPIO pins might help with diagnosing future issues.
- Cancel
- Vote Up 0 Vote Down
- Sign in to reply
- More
- Cancel

Comment

beacon_dave over 2 years ago

This is another interesting and useful looking project.

Attention to the quality of lighting these days is often hard to find and it appears that brightness has more often than not taken priority over the quality or control of lighting.

A comfortable head-worn light with a good level of light control, producing even light without hot-spotting, would be a valuable visual aid for all sorts of activities.

A bit late to the party perhaps but I noticed that the SAMD21 power manager has a 'reset cause' register (RCAUSE) which can tell you the reason why the device reset.

https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/SAM_D21_DA1_Family_DataSheet_DS40001882F.pdf#page=158

Mapping these to some GPIO pins might help with diagnosing future issues.
- Cancel
- Vote Up 0 Vote Down
- Sign in to reply
- More
- Cancel

Children

hifromkatie over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

Thats good to know, I hadn't delved into the data sheet for the SAMD21 registers.
It doesn't actually reset however, comms between the board the the PC, and the sensor and the board stay up throughout, just a slight power fluctuation visible on the LED.
Bypassing the built in switch and power controller board that was in the visor seems to fix the problem, not so pretty when you have to change original components out like that, and removes the auto power off, but it's not a big issue
- Cancel
- Vote Up 0 Vote Down
- Sign in to reply
- More
- Cancel