Press enter or click to view image in full size
A couple of months ago, I came across this ebay-listing.
Silicon wafers are often used as a base for manufacturing micro-electronic components, using a process called photolithography. With this process, schematics of integrated circuits can be “etched” into the wafers. The combination of these highly-detailed drawings and the pearlescent-look wafers have, results in something downright stunning.
I ordered six wafers and started working on a project to showcase this fascinating material and the processes used to put it to use in our daily lives.
A project in honor of silicon.
Parts
Press enter or click to view image in full size
After a couple of weeks, the wafers arrived. Meanwhile, I started collecting parts that I would use to showcase them. My idea was to put each wafer in a frame with a passepartout and illuminating them with an LED. So off I went on a trip to a nearby IKEA to gather some parts.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
More parts
Now, I prefer minimalism, so I don’t want to have any wires exposed used to power the LEDs. So I ordered some more parts to allow the frames to be wireless. I got six 2200 mAh rechargeable cells that I estimated allow the frames to have about 70 hours of light (This wasn’t the case, unfortunately).
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Assembly
After all parts came in, I started soldering and wiring up the batteries, charging modules and step-up converters. At first, I noticed that soldering a lead on a Li-Ion cell is quite hard, so I used some sanding paper to make the surface of the terminals more rough.
After combining all electronic components, the result were six sets.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Press enter or click to view image in full size
When the sets were done, I tested all of them by doing a full charge/discharge-cycle, making sure all parts work as intended and to avoid explosions later on.
Time for some woodworking!
Press enter or click to view image in full size
I took all the frames apart into individual components, as they had to be modified in order to have a battery-compartment.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Press enter or click to view image in full size
After some drawing (thanks to my dad) I knew what sizes I needed to cut. I also cut some additional back-plates in order to be able to separate the battery-compartment from the passe-portout.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
I drilled the needed holes to fit the LED and the charging-port for the first end-to-end-test. I decided to place the switch between the battery and the charging-module. This allows the frame to be powered directly via its Micro-USB port.
I originally estimated the frame to have about 70 hours of battery life. I measured the LED to use about 30 mA. The battery has a capacity of 2200 mAh, so 2200 / 30 = 73.33 hours. Unfortunately, the battery life actually was around 26 hours. I am not yet entirely sure on why this is the case, but my bet is on the Step Up-module, as it produced quite a bit of heat.
Anyway, time for some hot-glue and poor woodworking.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
After I got a bit impatient, I created this pretty poorly cut back-plate. I drilled a hole to fit the switch which will allow the unit to be turned on and off by softly pressing it against the wall. It’s definitely not pretty, but nobody is going to see it anyway.
The result
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Press enter or click to view image in full size
I’m pretty happy with the final result. I think the frame looks very clean and it really showcase the beauty of the wafers. One down, five to go.
By the way, the switch works perfect as well.