The Flap Light was a departure from the Solar Paddle Lights that I had completed for my ‘First Years Project’ in October. Another jump from the Flap Light has me investigating various ways of using less material; showing off the incredibly thin forms that can be achieved when using LED’s, weighing the virtues of autonomous function and support versus the use of external support structures; looking at battery operation versus wired/corded connections and the limitations or advantages of both; assessing light quality.

I often find that the form which I really desire initially may not be achievable because some process, material, or technology is not available to make the design a reality or I cannot afford the process that would be most suitable. Obviously it is easier to go big and bulky. But the challenge, and the fun, is finding ways to work with limitations and hopefully arrive at something that is damn close to what you were working towards during the design stage.

Here is the first of three approaches to a similar form that I am currently investigating.

The first is the Flap Light where the main lighting face has been reduced to a ring form. I decided to do this because the main LED component is a strip which wraps around the perimeter of the acrylic casing and each LED is distinguishable instead of a diffusing quality so getting rid of the middle portion of the lit face and changing it to a ring form seemed logical.

The LED strip requires a 12 Volt power source to shine at its full brightness. I have not found batteries that can fit into such a small housing and provide 12 Volts of power. So wiring it to the wall seems the next logical step. I absolutely hate standard transformers (like the ones for cell phones) that design students and individual designers are forced to use for these types of applications. Therefore, I set out to find an alternative. I found a transformer that is half the size of a normal transformer and has no casing. This means that I can create my own case with the ABS plastic RP machine that we have. This way I can use my own power cords seamlessly as well as creating a transformer case that is more complimentary to my light.
The other issue this project has brought up is the lack of off-the-shelf, small push-button switches available for purchase. I bought a very small and thin touch-pad switch from McMaster-Carr in hopes of resolving this form factor obstacle, but found that the switch is only momentary so that when you release pressure on it, the light turns off, making this an impractical use for the switch in this application.

More about the other two forms in my next post…