The Magnificent Xighting LED Disco Ball

The Magnificent Xighting Disco Ball

Miss the good old disco days? Lighten-up your day with the magnificent Xighting Ball; a motor-powered rotating LED disco ball with astonishing Touchpad capability! 

Our Mission
Show how easy it is to setup and use the MSP430, while illustrating all the advantages of using this fully-featured microcontroller.

Team Members
Victor Basantes, Pohan Wu, Swapnil Dhuri

Video URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-bXeeE_eQ

Main Components
(2) TI MSP430G2 Launchpad
(1) TI Capacitive Touch BoosterPack
(1) TI L293 H-bridge
(14) n2222 Transistors
(1) TI *recycled* Base Case
(1) Step motor
(1) 6-in Acrylic Neck-less Bulb
(1) Acrylic Sheet

Design Process – Summing Up 60 Hours of Work into 3 Easy-To-Follow Steps

1. Create the ball and base. If you crave the need for engineering ingenuity, we are convinced that you will be keen to this phase. We had to cut the bases and drill the ball with 60 holes for the 60 LEDs that this thing covers. The main challenge here was finding a way to uniformly measure the distance between each LED (horizontally and vertically); until we created a plastic-covered paper “ruler” as a measuring tape to resolve this issue
   
2. Solder cables and circuitry. Have you ever had the fabulous satisfaction of soldering 60 LEDs inside a 6-inch acrylic ball? We did; and we’d like to share with you that this was probably the toughest part in this entire project. We soldered the LEDs in groups of 5, with a total of 12 groups (6 rows times 2 groupings per row). This had to be done very carefully to make sure that the ground and power wires never touched, while still having the flexibility to connect the wires to the board.
   
3. Programming and implementation– In the midst of creating adaptable software, we found ourselves writing functions for pattern design that could be easily called and altered by providing the iterations and speed desired. Writing drivers for the step-motor was fairly straight-forward; so no major trouble or setbacks there. Last, but not least, we implemented the Touchpad’s sensing features to allow anyone (with a pulse, at least) to rotate the ball to their heart’s deep rhythm desires.
   

Other Tools and Parts
Soldering Iron and Wires
Strips of Velcro and Knife/Blade
Screwdriver, Screws, and Washers
Battery Cases and Power Switches
Ruler, Markers, Paper

Overall Cost ~ $40
Thanks to TI’s wonderful Sample Program, we were able to reduce costs on quite a few items. Some of the unavoidable costs included the acrylic bulb and sheet, the 60 LEDs and the step-motor; which totaled approximately 40 dollars.

Source Code, Guide, Schematics, and Pictures are available at: 6675.source code, schematics, guide, and pictures.zip

That concludes our report! We hope you enjoyed our project and video. Don’t forget to vote!