DIY Wooden Stick Lights

Hello, it has been a long time since I read instructables and this is my first one. I assume that I will not enter in every details but if you need some, that would be a pleasure to add them :-)

At the beginning of the year (2016) I started this project and here is what I've done :

palo is a light stick which has magnets on the bottom to fix it on the desk, in the kitchen or elswhere. Tap on it and it lights on, tap again and it switches off. It is portable with a long battery life due to the great warm white LEDs and it charges wirelessly.

Required parts :

None electronic stuff :

• 4 mm pin wood / other

• 4 mm or less plexiglas with sandpaper

• 8 neodymium magnets D5 x 3 mm

• 3 screws and 3 nuts M3 if you don't want to glue the back like me

• Electrical tape for insulation

• Shrink tube

• Epoxy and wood glue

Electronic stuff :

• Arduino nano

• Qi receiver module for smartphone

• Lipo 1S (3.7V) charger

• Lipo 1500mAh - 3000mAh

• DC booster ~3.7V to 5V

• Mosfet type N

• ~30 cm LEDs warm white 5050 or others working on 5V

• 1x Piezo

• Wires

• Optional : a switch

During my internship I was able to use a laser cutter so it was a great opportunity for me to create a wood project without spending too much time on the frame. I wanted something great looking, usefull/practical and human friendly.

The frame is a 7 layers of 4 mm pin plywood (you can use whatever you want but this one gave a nice finish on the side with the laser cutter). You will find the DXF file bellow for laser cutting and CNC router. It has a large 3Ah lipo battery so you can use it several hours without charging it. When not using it, place it on a Wireless qi charging dock and it will charge. To switch it on or off, tap on the piezo sensor which is bellow the first plywood layer

As the assembly is a combination of solder and glue parts, I preferred to make some diagram that explain the whole thing.

It isn't complicated to assembly. If you're not sure how to do it, solder first, do some tests and then glue. You can arrange the electronics as you want. I tought my way is good but you could probably do better ;-)

NOTE : disassemble carefully the QI module to extract the coil and the flexible PCB. Remember the wiring.

Plug the arduino nano to your computer and upload the sketch bellow. I didn't do it yet but you could add a sleep mode the would reduce the consumption of palo when not using it.

I hope you appreciated this project. Here are some pictures that illustrate the final result and my practical uses :-)

See you next time!

PS : if you have any questions, it will be a pleasure for me to answer