Sander van de Bor - California STEAM

Check out these cool gifts from my makers friends!

This design has about 100 LEDs, and the addressable equivalent LEDs could use up to 50mA+ just sitting in idle. Running these LEDs directly from the MCU reduced the power consumption to only 1mA while running, and down to 100nA in idle.

I often get questions what LEDs I use. Specifically, why I use discrete LEDs instead of addressable ones.
For example the commonly used WS2812b. They’re easy, but they consume constant background power and don’t allow for the low power consumption I need.

I’m very happy with how these boxes for the Amoracci pendant turned out.

Luminescent Artist Palette Earrings: Wearable LED Color Sculptures - Rechargeable

I am designing a matching pendant on the left side for the Fibonacci earrings on the right. The pendant is using PWM outputs to the LEDs, allowing a much smoother animation. You can clearly see the "frames" on right side, while the left has a much smoother transition for the same pattern and speed.

Such a nice alternative to the coin cell battery holder!

3D image of the new prototype boards, created with KiCAD

The art palette earrings now use a supercapacitor instead of coin cell batteries.
They are designed with two components: main board and "face plate". A recent prototype with a ceramic face plate turned out well. I'm leaning towards using a PCB for the front due to its practicality and durability.

I made these GlowCaps! They let you easily add RGB LEDs to things like candle holders or light up your fursuit. They're powered by a supercapacitor, so they charge in just minutes and can run for hours or even days.

I just posted my Amoracci necklace! For that design a placed the supercapacitor horizontally so that the pedant will not tilt to one side.

Exploring the interplay of love and mathematics, especially in the spirit of February, the month of Valentines, the Amoracci pendant is a visual meditation on the beauty of these interconnected concepts. Its design is inspired by the Fibonacci sequence. #Fibonacci #JewelryDesign #Love #Mathematics

My hand drawn circuit talk i'll talk a little bit about anwaar which will cover some of my use of Hybrid caps! @californiasteam.bsky.social has done wonderful jewelry work with hybrid caps and a lot of the tech we use overlap. If you're planning on going to #teardown2025 def consider these talks!

LED Cube 6x6x6 6x6x6 LED cube with 216 WS2812 addressable RGB LEDs

Now in stock on Lectronz: LED Cube 6x6x6 https://lectronz.com/products/led-cube-6x6x6
#Displays #LEDs #Lights

screenshot of the dots arranged in desmos, the graphing tool

not that anyone asked but here's a phyllotaxis distribution of n points in the unit disk

www.desmos.com/calculator/g...

I will be speaking @crowdsupply.bsky.social
#Teardown2025 together with these wonderful friends working on similar projects.

These Fibonacci earrings are a little bit different. These have ultra-bright LEDs, each enhanced with a focused lens.
The earrings have 104 LEDs per side, which can be programmed to display a variety of patterns, brightness and speed.

Graph showing the charge of 15.2c

How much charge does a 15F Hybrid supercapacitor actual hold? Here is a graph of data taken with the NRF Power Profiler that shows that the charge in this 15F capacitor was 15.2c from 3.8V down to 2.8V, which exceeds the specifications.

Happy New Year everyone!

Check out these unique PCB designs!

This design utilizes 18 RGB LEDs, controlled directly by the microcontroller's PWM outputs. Since these are non-addressable LEDs I had to connect each LED to the microcontroller. The actual traces connecting each LED form the structure of the tree itself.

My journey with wearable electronics began with these small red LED spiral earrings – 12 LEDs, a microcontroller, and a coin cell battery. Today, I'm pushing the boundaries with designs featuring up to 104 LEDs, still powered by a microcontroller, but now utilizing a supercapacitor instead.

Just love how these small LED strips now allow you to add 2D to a small surface like a headband!

Just love these traces on this PCB!

Showing two LIC capacitors. The blue version is a 3.8V 40F capacitor and the purple version is a new 4.2V 90F capacitor. This purple capacitor is only 5mm longer but contains 3x more capacity.

Lithium-ion capacitors (LICs) are a special kind of supercapacitor. Typically, they have a voltage limit of 3.8V, but recently, I discovered a new type that can handle up to 4.2V! This voltage increase can significantly boost their energy storage capacity by tripling it.

The subdued glow of the purple/UV LEDs on these Fibonacci tech earrings lends a touch of magic, transforming the environment into a dreamlike realm.

You might have noticed that none of my wearables use current-limiting resistors for LEDs.

LED earrings in different colors powered by a coin cell battery.

Do LEDs really need current-limiting resistors?

Definitely! And @chipperdoodles.bsky.social does use a supercapacitor in their Anwaar wearable as well!

I use an ATtiny1616 and charlieplex all these (regular 0603) LEDs to get the lowest power consumption. In the modes from the video the power consumption is around 1mA. You won't be able to get that low with the WS2812b since each pixel will consume around 1mA already just to power the internal IC.

A battery will have more capacity, but the capacitor will charge much faster. In this design it is fully charged in 3 minutes, in my newer designs it's around 90 seconds. But the biggest advantage is the safety. These don't catch fire nor explode, and you don't have shipping restrictions.