How-To: DFRobot "Beetle" + AA power This short photoset shows how to combine the

Archive FastLED Archive
,
1

How-To: DFRobot “Beetle” + AA power
This short photoset shows how to combine the DFRobot “Beetle” and the DFRobot “AA Boost” battery pack (with just a little pin-bending) into one compact, portable LED-driving platform for under US$15.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kriegsman/sets/72157647377779280/

This is exactly how I made about half of the “Aurora Lanterns” for Burning Man 2014. The other half used 3xAA or 4xAA battery holders, also from DFRobot, all links below…

Beetle: The DFRobot Beetle is a small, cheap (US$7.90), easy-to-solder, Arduino Leondardo -compatible (ATmega32U4) microcontroller.
http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1075

AA Boost power adapter: DFRobot also makes an AA Boost module (US$5.90) that holds two AA batteries (very securely), and steps the power up to 5V.
http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=991

Also of note:
3xAA-to-MicroUSB battery pack (US$1.60). No switch, but it plugs directly into the Beetle’s MicroUSB port! You can easily cut one power lead and install a switch in-line. Super easy, and the 4.5v power is fine for the Beetle and the LEDs.
http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1130

And finally,
4xAA battery pack (US$1.30), with switch and leads. In my personal experience, the “6v” (a bit less) output here is ALSO fine for the Beetle and the LEDs – although it’s potentially, technically not ok. I built several lanterns using this, and they all worked just fine.
http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=202

I used the 3xAA and 4xAA for larger lanterns or things where I needed the extra mAh. But for lots of projects, the 2xAA module is just great, especially with the pin-bending + Beetle trick.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kriegsman/sets/72157647377779280

2

Any pictures of your Lantern Mark, maybe you previously posted but I missed it.

3

I made fifteen or twenty different so-called “Aurora Lanterns”, and gave most of them away at Burning Man. I have pictures / video of a only a few (oops), but here are two:
https://vine.co/v/MLdzdz6r3Kv
https://vine.co/v/MVtMHjX9BIb

They had four modes:

  • lava lamp (mellow swirls and colors)
  • rave (fast bright and blinky)
  • fire (evolved from the Fire2012 code), and
  • “tent light” (soft warm white steady light)… because sometimes you just need to find your d^*% shoes in the dark.

All of them ran for at least 24 hours continuous on one set of AAs.

4

This is a great solution for 5v power, thanks for sharing.

5

How do you change modes? I was thinking about an accelerometer-based thingy recently… found some thin tube batteries online, was thinking light sabre with added wizard functionality :slight_smile:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ADXL345-digital-accelerometer-tilt-sensor-module-to-send-code/1943547489.html

6

You could wire up a simple push button to one of the other pins to allow external input if you want, but what I did was different.

I made it so that quickly powering it on and off again switched modes, but that powering it on and off slowly did not.

So, if you turn it on, and leave it running and turn it off, and later turn it back on, it powers up into the same mode it was in (which is desirable). To change modes, quickly click the power off and on and off and on.

I used regular Arduino EEPROM storage to preserve the state/mode between power-ons.