These sketches were the very first ideas. Using a motor was the first idea, but this was quickly put aside as I couldn't figure a way to prop up the design. At this point I was thinking of using much heavier materials for the plate the animation was going to sit on. Later I decided to use foam-core ! Took me a while to work that one out. But it was light-weight and very easy to cut.
Here's when the design started going somewhere. I decided the perfect thing would be to modify a turntable. This original sketch shows I wanted the buttons on a plinth below the turntable. This idea was quickly scrapped when I realised how hard it would be to manoeuvre, and I didn't like the clunkiness of the design.
This is when I decided exactly where I wanted the buttons to be placed, and started to think where to place the strobe. The original idea was to have the strobe placed separately, but the idea evolved into keeping the object fully contained.
The first concept sketches to where I would place my strobes, and how they would be wired. After a few tests with LEDs, the animation became distorted over three different strobes (even when playing at the same time). I decided maybe it would be better to use multiple LEDs all focusing on one point.
Latest design:
And here we come to the final design. When searching for parts, I came across a torch with LEDs inside, think it had about 9. Me and Dad dismantled the torch and tested to see if it would still work connected to the circuit board we had been using. Success! After this point I had to plan where the strobe would be placed, and what materials would be used to make the strobe handle bendable. We used parts of a lamp and heatshrink tubing (gotta love that stuff).
