Trying to make a pretty book lamp (opens in new tab)

I'm a software engineer trying to learn hardware. I noticed in the article, the author drew some schematics.

These days, I don't use UML to write apps (everything in my head as I do everything myself anyway, and sometimes I write comments and unit tests), but I remember it being useful during my early days of programming.

I'm thinking, since this is my early days of hardware, I should use write schematics (just like I did with UML). Is that a good idea? Where to get started?

You are placing a burden on people you gift things to that diminishes the value of receiving gifts from you. It's like giving a friend a painting and then holding the friendship hostage unless they hang it up as their living room centerpiece.

I find it rewarding to give people things. I find joy in the act of giving and how the other person might feel by receiving the item. If they use the thing for a week and then and throw it away, it doesn't diminish the act of having given it to them. If anything it makes me briefly reflect on how I can give a more useful gift next time.

So you've now given your dad a gift, he lost it and feels terrible about it, and you're chastising him in iMessage and on the internet, ensuring that he feels even more awful. The next time you give him something it'll be accompanied by a sense of anxiety and dread.

Unless you think he was intentionally careless with the gift out of malice, why don't you stop being an asshole for a second and console him instead.

I don't understand why he went though all the trouble of designing and printing that 3d box but didn't make a professional PCB. If it were me I would have done a PCB before even considering that box and just mounted the PCB directly in the book.

"electrical engineers seem to be in the biz basically only to make lights turn on or blink." or for writing about the build process :)

Wasn't there a thing like this on Shark Tank?

Nice idea, interesting project, but repeated dad bashing is a bit off-putting.

A quick observation: The reed switch might have been "sticky" not because of the strength of the magnet, but because of the current all those lights required. For any given reed switch, there's a current that will keep it from disengaging once it engages. Reed switches are generally considered signal devices, not current switches for this reason.

Travelling to SFMOMA (from Sydney) I came across the Lumio books and I found them absolutely gorgeous. As a poor college student the price was very steep though.

That article definitely inspired me to have a crack at making my own!

An open-source PCB/laser cut paper book light project like the Lumio sounds like a great idea - if anyone knows of other builds I'd love to see.

It looks like in the original the top-bottom of the pages js glued together and the inside of the pages is cut-off. That'd probably make it better at difussing the light.

Nice work, and nice end product. This is exactly the sort of thing I'd not only have in my house, but would be happy to give to others.

give your dad a break!