A Better Starduino

I’ve been working on a new version of the Starduino lamp. The first one, though it worked, took a long time to make. It had 50 individually wire-wrapped LEDs held at a fixed spacing with drinking straws and hot glue.

The new version will use thin PCBs holding surface-mount LEDs in position. Each PCB, like each drinking straw, will hold 5 LEDs, which need to be individually addressable. I found some nice flexible FR4 copper-clad on eBay, and have been working on toner-transfer etching these boards. My initial attempts failed because the toner did not fully stick, but I think I may have a fix: I have increased the amount of toner to be transferred by selecting the blank space in GIMP and shrinking the selection a bit, then filling it with black. This filler helps to balance the toner distribution on the boards, allowing the paper to adhere evenly and not peel back (which ruins the transfer).

Below are the panelized new boards, intended to work on 9” by 6” PCB.

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