Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I tried making artificial sunlight at home

victorpoughon.fr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 243 posts

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#221

Post by lnrd »

nkmnz wrote: post #182
jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

wow, these look awesome (on your marketing page ;)) I understand the pricing might depend on many factors including the location and the agent, but could you give a ballpark, such as "don't start looking for an agent if you want to spend less than X?"

What I learned over time is that if a product/service requires contacting an agent or a salesperson, then its price is only affordable for businesses and is not intended for regular consumers.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#223

Post by reaperman »

stevage wrote: post #154
reaperman wrote: post #79

I saw "artificial sunlight" and thought "oh wow I'd love to see the spectrogram of the lighting solution this person came up with". I was disappointed to merely see "CRI 95+". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH_owRxupC0 This is great video on the shortcomings of "CRI" - it explains in detail CRI, CRI extended, TLCI, TM-30, and SSI. Brightness and color temperature are only two small parts of lighting - more people sh…

Huh, incandescents have been banned here (Australia) for years. Even compact fluorescents are out.

There appear to be enough loopholes and lack of enforcement that you can still piece a solution together: https://electricalproducts.com.au/incandescent-lamps.html?p=...

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#224

Post by mac-mc »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #173
mac-mc wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little garden spectrometer is pretty good, and around $60: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQmaJYMOAk . And the LED supplier should give a spectrometer graph. If you can get a dual peak LED that will give a better spectrum distribution. The Amaran 200x S is one of the best.

Very cool! I definitely want a spectrometer at home now! edit: looks like it's more of a DIY project than a commercial thing. Maybe DIY spectrometer is my next project then!

I bought a little garden on aliexpress from the guy who makes it. It's very plug and play and it does about 350-1100nm, which is pretty impressive. I used it to verify how my own DIY sun reproduction setup works. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807055520087.html

There is also this commercial one that is Bluetooth and more portable for around $150, similar spectrum range but lower spectrum resolution than the little garden one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXryggwr_Q

https://www.amazon.com/Analytical-Wavelength-340-1000nm-Spec...

The hopocolor vis light ones are also fairly widespread and are more stand alone for about $280: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807972511960.html

My current issue is finding a 250-400nm UV spectrometer or IR spectrometers beyond 1000nm that don't go into the $1000+ range. Standard mass market CMOS sensors don't go into those ranges, so they become far more specialized parts and thus way more pricy.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#225

Post by jclarkcom »

Nelkins wrote: post #197
jclarkcom wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there is no IR to speak of, however a lot of people tell us they feel warmer when they stand under it - just a psychological effect but interesting to observe

Would you ever consider making a product that emits some level of IR? Or even a very small amount of UV? Would be amazing for the winter months, even if it was just a very small amount.

UL safety cortication and energy regulations make it difficult to add UV and IR, UV because it can easily damage people's eyes and IR because it introduces too much heat which can be a fire or touch/burn risk. Energy regulations also limit how much wattage you can put into lighting, if most of that energy goes into creating IR (like real sunlight) then you won't comply with those regulations. For now it's better to buy a separate space heater to create IR, then you could also use a cheaper energy source like gas.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#227

Post by sneak »

jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

Why aren't there prices and an order form on your website?

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#228

Post by lostlogin »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #158
jclarkcom wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - channels can be a pain, reach out to me directly if you run into issues: Jonathan @ Innerscene

Why not sell them directly, or via well known retailers, at the highest price point and with the longest warranty? e.g. McMaster-Carr with a 10 year in-home repair warranty. And you can still offer discounts via other lower price channels.

> 10 year in-home repair warranty.

The vendor travels to the house and repairs it? One warranty claim could wipe out a startup.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#229

Post by zamalek »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #32
petsfed wrote: post #27

Is there a reason why you went with traces rather than pours? I count 7 signals per board, and they're all meant to be low impedance. You could even expose copper on the back of the board to be used as ad hoc heat sinks without spending any extra money. The weird little triangle loops on the back really stand out to me, even though you probably don't need to worry about the impacts of a loop in your circuit.

Thanks for the feedback. Everything I know about PCB design is self-taught. I'm a total beginner, so I'm sure there's a lot to improve! There's only 2 routes per board, VCC and GND. I initially planned for SMD header pins that I didn't end up using, because soldering wire on bare pads was good enough. I also planned for 8 connection pads per PCB, but only used 2 to 4 in the final assembly. So yeah, lots of room for i…

My first few boards had exactly the same problem, it wasn't mentioned in any of the tutorials that I watched. All you need to do is add a fill region that encloses the whole board, and usually set it to GND.

You probably don't need to worry about EMI and EMC with DC, but if you want to make these dimmable you definitely want a ground pour "behind" any high frequency lines. You additionally don't need to worry about that if you aren't manufacturing, but it's still worth learning it the right way IMO. The sig/pwr-gnd-gnd-sig/pwr stack-up is well worth getting into the habit of (it has great EMI characteristics), and translates relatively easily to gnd-sig/pwr-sig/pwr-gnd stack-up once you've nailed down the design (which has amazing EMI characteristics).

Rick Hartley made these stack-ups popular (if he didn't outright invent them): https://youtu.be/52fxuRGifLU?si=8W1WXfJRHg3Oeep5

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#230

Post by MichaelZuo »

lostlogin wrote: post #228
MichaelZuo wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not sell them directly, or via well known retailers, at the highest price point and with the longest warranty? e.g. McMaster-Carr with a 10 year in-home repair warranty. And you can still offer discounts via other lower price channels.

> 10 year in-home repair warranty. The vendor travels to the house and repairs it? One warranty claim could wipe out a startup.

Do you not understand the concept of budgeting for warranty costs in the pricing?
Post reply on HN