DESIGN NAME: Nopales
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Lamp
INSPIRATION: Nopales was inspired by the landscapes of my Mexican upbringing and our passion for developing creative hardware. We wanted to reframe Printed Circuit Boards (PCB)s beyond their technical existence, to expose the material's beauty and transform it into something tactile, delightful and captivating. We spent months working with manufacturers to create a simple and efficient way to interlock the PCBs both mechanically and electrically. Nopales circuit is designed to shine for months or even years.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Nopales is a modular lamp designed to be playfully assembled from a single Printed Circuit Board. Unlike typical PCBs that are flat and hidden inside enclosures, Nopales subverts this industrial nature to create a delightful object that is meant to be touched, bring joy, and evoke life into our spaces. It can ship flat as a postcard and can be hand assembled into your own nopal. Grow you cactus by combining cards.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Nopales starts as a flat PCB that breaks apart by hand and can be interlocked into your own Nopal (cactus), then you can press the button to cycle though multiple brightness levels. It has an auto sleep timer to prevent draining the battery in case you forget to turn it off.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started early 2023 and exhibited at the HeadHi Lamp show in Brooklyn NY from March until July. A new updated version was shown at PioneerWorks Software For Artists Day in November.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Lighting Products and Fixtures Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Printed Circuit Board, LEDs, Microcontroller, CR2032 Battery
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Variable dimensions
Flat: 84mmx125mmx5mm
Assembled: 50mm x50mm x100
TAGS: PCB, Lamp, Nopales, Cactus, Modular, Mexico, Art, Garden
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: -
CHALLENGE: The project looks deceptively simple but a lot of research has gone into the interlocking connections. Even when PCB manufacturing is a mature industry, there is no way to connect two boards in the ways we were searching for. Current solutions require bulky mechanical components "connectors", or to be solder. We have tried multiple approaches and worked with the PCB manufacturer though iterations. Orienting components in different planes, plating surface edges, special routing, springs, and more.
ADDED DATE: 2023-12-30 04:28:16
TEAM MEMBERS (2) : Sebastian Morales and Tiri Kananuruk
IMAGE CREDITS: MORAKANA LLC
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