
Trying to make a pretty book lamp - zecken
http://sam.town/book-lamp/
======
altano
You are placing a burden on people you gift things to that diminishes the
value of receiving gifts from you. It's like giving a friend a painting and
then holding the friendship hostage unless they hang it up as their living
room centerpiece.

I find it rewarding to give people things. I find joy in the act of giving and
how the other person might feel by receiving the item. If they use the thing
for a week and then and throw it away, it doesn't diminish the act of having
given it to them. If anything it makes me briefly reflect on how I can give a
more useful gift next time.

So you've now given your dad a gift, he lost it and feels terrible about it,
and you're chastising him in iMessage and on the internet, ensuring that he
feels even more awful. The next time you give him something it'll be
accompanied by a sense of anxiety and dread.

Unless you think he was intentionally careless with the gift out of malice,
why don't you stop being an asshole for a second and console him instead.

~~~
bignell
The author shares one snapshot of one brief interaction with someone, for the
purpose of humor, and you think that entitles you to judge the entire
relationship?

I feel like your reaction reflects more on you than the author.

~~~
altano
How do you think his dad would feel if he saw this article?

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noonespecial
A quick observation: The reed switch might have been "sticky" not because of
the strength of the magnet, but because of the current all those lights
required. For any given reed switch, there's a current that will keep it from
disengaging once it engages. Reed switches are generally considered signal
devices, not current switches for this reason.

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zoidb
"electrical engineers seem to be in the biz basically only to make lights turn
on or blink." or for writing about the build process :)

~~~
yitchelle
> or writing about the build process

Those are for EE engineers turn SW engineers...

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wiradikusuma
I'm a software engineer trying to learn hardware. I noticed in the article,
the author drew some schematics.

These days, I don't use UML to write apps (everything in my head as I do
everything myself anyway, and sometimes I write comments and unit tests), but
I remember it being useful during my early days of programming.

I'm thinking, since this is my early days of hardware, I should use write
schematics (just like I did with UML). Is that a good idea? Where to get
started?

~~~
jakecopp
I find sketching schematics for hardware is a lot more natural than sketching
UML, and they're super helpful for making sense of a rat's nest of wires. I
can't recommend them enough! I'm a big fan of using paper, it's quite
efficient and easy to edit. I only use a design app to present the schematic.

Most electronics books will teach you the basics, but this StackExchange
answer is a good summary too:
[https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/28251/rules-...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/28251/rules-
and-guidelines-for-drawing-good-schematics)

------
jakecopp
Travelling to SFMOMA (from Sydney) I came across the Lumio books and I found
them absolutely gorgeous. As a poor college student the price was very steep
though.

That article definitely inspired me to have a crack at making my own!

An open-source PCB/laser cut paper book light project like the Lumio sounds
like a great idea - if anyone knows of other builds I'd love to see.

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pmorici
I don't understand why he went though all the trouble of designing and
printing that 3d box but didn't make a professional PCB. If it were me I would
have done a PCB before even considering that box and just mounted the PCB
directly in the book.

~~~
mdorazio
Making a custom PCB is _much_ more difficult than printing up an enclosure.
And more costly if you don't have all the tooling already. For a small one-off
DIY project like this, it completely makes sense.

~~~
pmorici
Not really. A board for the book spine would have been like 4 square inches.
You can get three copies of a board for $5 per square inch from OSHpark so $20
total. I doubt 3d printing something of that size is any cheaper.

~~~
mdorazio
I think you misunderstand 3d printing costs and time. $20 gets you an entire
kilo of standard plastic for printing. I highly doubt his enclosure setup took
more than 50 grams to print, or about $1 total. Total printing time was likely
under 5 hours.

PCBs are over an order of magnitude more expensive and generally have a two
week lead time unless you fab them yourself on a cnc or laser setup. Also,
what do you do if you realize you messed up something in your PCB setup? You
have to wait for a whole new batch or else toss it and wire manually anyway.
With 3D printing, you just modify the model and print a new version in a
couple hours.

For one-off prototypes like this a custom PCB is a really iffy proposition.

~~~
pmorici
Only if you already invested several grand in a 3D printer. A service like
shapeways is similar cost and time to getting a pcb made. A pcb milling game
machine is the same cost as a 3D printer.

~~~
mdorazio
You're again overestimating costs. A perfectly capable 3D printer can easily
be had for under $500 and serves many more purposes than just fabbing PCBs.
Many, many places (including libraries now) have 3D printers available for use
at low cost. A mini mill capable of milling a PCB is harder to come by and
also not useful for much more than basic engraving.

~~~
pmorici
Check out the OtherMill Pro. You can do a million things with it besides basic
engraving and PCB manufacturing.

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franciscop
It looks like in the original the top-bottom of the pages js glued together
and the inside of the pages is cut-off. That'd probably make it better at
difussing the light.

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Broken_Hippo
Nice work, and nice end product. This is exactly the sort of thing I'd not
only have in my house, but would be happy to give to others.

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IgorPartola
Wasn't there a thing like this on Shark Tank?

~~~
pmorici
Yes, the product being cloned in this blog post, Lumio, was pitched on Shark
Tank.

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eps
Nice idea, interesting project, but repeated dad bashing is a bit off-putting.

~~~
MrQuincle
I don't know if eps is your dad, but I thought it was not too bad. :-) You
probably have a good relationship with him from my interpretation of the
situation.

As a "standing lamp" to have a wireless charging option would be cool. Or the
USB cable should be used to make it hang from the ceiling.

Nice work!

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tibyat
give your dad a break!

