This week’s selection is the astonishingly beautiful FLOLA lamp by 3LOBIT.
This project, should you pursue it, will result in one of the most amazing lamps you have ever witnessed, 3D printed or not.
While it is a nice lamp as seen in the image at top, there is far more to the story: the “flower” petals open and close! And they do so at variable speeds you can control. Watch this video to understand how it works:
I’m sure you’ll agree this is an incredible lamp and one that anyone would enjoy using. But it’s not something you can purchase at a retail store; this is a 3D printing and electronics project.
The project requires 3D printing around 20 parts, some of which look rather complex, as they make up a sophisticated gearing system to engage the flower petals. You’ll also require an Arduino controller, which is used to drive the petal movement as requested by the joystick, as well as a stepper motor, switches, connectors and various other electronic bits.
This lamp is a beauty to behold, as its movement evokes the natural pattern of a flower.
There’s quite a story behind the project, which is described in some detail on the project’s page. I encourage you to have a read, as it is the same sequence you’ll go through when designing a similarly complex project.
It seems there might be a future version of the FLOLA lamp that involves digitization. The goal of that move would be to enable remote control of the flower through an app. It would also be possible then to have a service trigger actions automatically. For example, the lamp could unfold and light up at sunset without human intervention.
This project is available for download at MyMiniFactory, but is priced at a modest US$20, which I feel is a very fair price for such an incredible project. There are detailed assembly instructions available at 3LOBIT.
Via MyMiniFactory and 3LOBIT (Czech / čeština)
