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  • Author Author: zengirl2
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WeatherBrella - Experiencing Brellazilla

zengirl2

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You may recall that in my last post I described the umbrella business as being rather nasty -- I now have additional support for that theory. The umbrella on the right is the one I received from a company geared to weddings. Their site said returns were impossible and they even declared that they take photos of everything that leaves their warehouse. Well, I guess this little Brellazilla slipped through the cracks. As you can see, the handle is stained, and be glad this is not smellavision. It reeks of cigarette smoke and I can already picture the rainy wedding where this umbrella sat sadly in someone's ashtray. Luckily, once confronted with my photograph, the company immediately decided to take the umbrella back. However, I wasn't willing to risk another purchase with them. I went straight to a company that specializes in umbrellas, and luckily, they carried the same exact brand. I can't tell you how beautiful white looks when it is actually clean and smells fresh (yeah, we all know it is really called off-gassing). Anyway, I'm really excited, not so much by the clean umbrella, but by the screw in its handle.

 

I wanted a screw in the handle so that it would be removable, making it easier to create a new 3D printed version. Well, the screw on this handle turned out to be misleading. Once I removed it, the handle would not budge. "Oh, it's probably just an awesome pressure fit", I thought to myself. Well, it was a little more than that. Apparently, something was blocking one of the side walls. I tried jabbing with various jeweler's tools inside the bottom of the handle, and it was evident that there was some movement, but not enough to release it. I started thinking of how plastics work, and my first thought was that freezing it might help. So, with my husband's help, we put some canned air inside. It did indeed fog up the metal shaft, but still the piece wouldn't budge. Finally, I thought of how I loosen all syrup jar lids -- a hot faucet. In about two minutes, my husband had a tug of war with the handle, and believe me, he is a stocky 6'3", and the umbrella was no match. Finally, an umbrella without a handle! It turns out, when the screw had passed through, it had caused the metal shaft to dimple, and it was just enough to keep it stuck. I'm just glad it worked, because I wasn't sure if I was just going to have to melt it off.

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So, now I can start to imagine how a circuit might work in this small space. I know the SparkCore will be tiny, but I'm still not sure I can fit a battery with it. If I do get the parts to fit inside, I will have to do a screw cap, much like I did with my previous umbrella project, to allow for access to the battery. It may also make the LED situation tricky. I was hoping to use one NeoPixel to conserve energy. However, for a nice glow it would have to be situated at the top of the handle, probably in the way of the screw cap. A better choice would be to use a small NeoPixel strip in a length of 5 or 6 and wrap it around the inside. Not only would it have a nice glow, but it would also be out of the way of the moving parts. There is one last challenge, and that is the button. If I enlarge the diameter of the handle, I will also have to increase the thickness of the button in order for the umbrella to open. So many tricky details to worry about it, but I still believe something interesting is possible. For now, I'm eagerly awaiting the SparkCore so I can get started on the challenge of coding.

 

 

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Parents

  • A stack of coin cells?

     

    You could make the hand grip longer and reproduce the part that mates with the shaft of the umbrella handle.

     

    You'll be surprised how much you can get inside different things.

    When I was a lad I mananged to get a whole AM radio inside a large pritt stick, the dial at the bottom which usually makes the glue rise up was the tuner.

     

    image

    I also made a flashing terminator eye with a coin cell and a flashing 5m LED and a prosthetic eye from a joke shop.

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    Andy, so far I am liking the idea of extending the length more than the width of the umbrella handle.  On my last umbrella I thought the thicker handle was harder to grasp (although perhaps it would be fine for a man). I think I have to worry about the battery situation because I believe the voltage is being converted through SparkCore's battery shield. So, I think I'm going to need some sort of gadget on there. I love your example of the glue stick -- it's so 007! You know the field of wearables would be loving your abilities right now.

  • in reply to zengirl2

    I don't claim to be a wearables expert, but have built quite a few battery driven things over the years. The 3.3v requirement for the SparkCore should be helpful as it should mean more options for batteries. At 100 - 300mA the current draw is quite a lot for batteries so you might want to have some kind of auto switch off or look into if the SparkCore has any low power options to shut bits down and then start them back up as needed.

    If you have a look on radio controlled vehicals or UAV website you might get tips for small light batteries. A Lithium Ion Polymer Battery (LiPO) battery could work which is what the SparkCore site seems to recommend.

    VyOuaYNOTBCkSZ2Ns3TG

    However, you might want to go down the approach of having removable batteries or an external charging circuit and connector to save space. You can connect a battery directly to your SparkCore, it has an onboard regulator.

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    Andy,

     

    I've heard that I can help cut down on power usage by playing with the time period of queries to the net. As for batteries, I was hoping to use a LiPo and remove it for recharging.  That's good to know that the SparkCore has a regulator;  I think the only problem is that there won't be a JST connector on the unit. So, I'm definitely going to have to cobble something together. I will take a look at RC stuff to see if they have a good battery fix -- good idea.

  • in reply to zengirl2

    Hi Leslie,

     

    In this size-optimised design, you may most likely need the external charger as Andy says. If you can find space though, it may be possible to permanently leave the charger in the handle, because this means you don't need to find another JST connector (and they can be stiff usually too, and difficult to plug/unplug frequently).

    I've had good experience with this Olimex charger, it is 30x13mm, maybe it might fit?

    image

    The unpopulated pads that you can see in the photo can be used for the output from the battery, to your circuit. I placed a small switch in series at that point, so that the load could be switched off during charge.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Shabaz,

     

    I like your new monster pic image As for the part, I'm just not picturing how it would work. I get the battery plugged in at the jST, but I don't know how this connects to the SparkCore.  You can tell I've been on the "remove LiPo" bandwagon for too long.

  • in reply to zengirl2

    Hi Leslie,

     

    Thanks! : )

    The diagram below shows how the Olimex module can be used:

    image

    I did a similar circuit topology, to make myself a portable 5V/3.3V power supply (basically just replaced the "Sparkcore" in the diagram above with a DC-DC converter to get 5V and 3.3V outputs.

    image

Comment Children
  • in reply to shabaz

    I was hoping that was the case. So, it looks like you just hard wire the SparkCore and then just plug into USB for recharge. Did you leave an opening in your housing for the USB, or do you just pull your unit out of there for charging?

  • in reply to zengirl2

    Hi Leslie,

     

    I cut out an opening, this is what is looked like end-on:

    image

     

    This was the completed thing, I had 0V/5V/3.3V wires, that I could plug into any circuit. With the switch turned on, Ithe power would be turned on to the circuit. With the switch turned off, I could charge the unit (actually I could charge the unit with the switch turned on, but I don't think that is a good idea, it may confuse the charging IC).

    image

    If you have room for the Olimex board, I think it could be a convenient way to save having to make the LiPo removable.

     

    (The olimex board output is just the battery output, i.e. about 3.7V, so if the sparkCore needs 3.3V, then a regulator is needed, the olimex board doesn't contain that).

  • in reply to shabaz

    That definitely looks like a good choice for your project, and now you have cleared up the mystery about going straight in with wires.  Now I think I need to find out what the boost converter is doing on the battery shield of the SparkCore. I was looking at a similar charging device at SparkFun a month ago that has a boost built in, just in case this was an option. I just don't understand why one would boost the power.

  • in reply to zengirl2

    Hi Leslie,

     

    I had a strange idea. image

    You could wrap wire along the length of the umbrella and then use a magnet to put charge into your battery.

    You just need to add a super capacitor to the circuit and a couple of diodes to catch the charge from the coil.

     

    Granted, it might look strange if people see you stroking your umbrella with the magnet, but if you have the lights off, who is to notice? image

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    Or put the magnet inside and shake it up and down to make electricity, I think I've seen torches that work that way.