It’s hard to say when a project is completed. When something that has taken your heart and soul for more than 6 months every day after work is done. This is a story of my thesis, Lights. But most importantly, this is a story to tell you that if you have an idea. If you have something that makes you curious. Something that is there making you hesitate if you should do it or not. Stop thinking. Just fucking do it.
This is the story of how I took my little knowledge in computer science and electronics. Building a prototype of a controllable light out of it. Every afternoon, for 6 months.
In a side project, there’s always that moment of what to do. You start tinkering ideas, sketching some of them, trying to discover new stuff.
In this case, I wanted to go out of my comfort zone. I wanted to learn JavaScript to do a backend. Design a beautiful app. Do some industrial design and touch some finances for a product. I also wanted to strengthen my knowledge about the Raspberry Pi and the Arduino. I wanted to do it all by myself, learning every aspect of it.
I wanted to do an object, from the idea to the prototype, sketch it out, architecture it and build it. I decided to do something visual, yet easy enough to be able to show and install quickly everywhere. I decided to do a light; one that you could control from anywhere, change the color of it, intensity, etc.
The first sketches of the architecture of Lights.
Key takeaway: Do something you love, or want to learn with a lot of passion, get out of your comfort zone.
You have the idea, you like it, but you don’t know where to start at all? Don’t worry. I’m sure 99.9% of the people don’t know what they are doing at first, but this is the beauty of it, this is the best part of all. When you are lost in the concept.
I didn’t know where to begin myself. I started to build the architecture while talking to different people about the topic. After that, I realized that I needed two backends instead of one. I also needed Bluetooth, an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi, etc. That small thing I previewed in my first sketch wasn’t at all what I’d have to do.
But this made things even more exciting. «Let’s see if I’m capable of this» I thought. So I just began writing my first NodeJS lines of code. After a couple of hours, I was able to enter to my localhost and see «OMG! This is finally working», on the screen of my browser with a huge title and a white background. Good times.
A simple thing that a backend developer would just do in a second, took me hours to figure out. The satisfaction, though, was insanely huge.
After a couple of months asking questions. Reading through all the blogs, tweets, books, etc. I was satisfied with my two small backends, the one that would go in the cloud and the one that would go to my Raspberry Pi. Although they were not perfect. Perhaps the code was a bit messy, maybe they didn’t follow some patterns or whatever you can name. But the main thing after looking at that work was basically the satisfaction of the «It works». And the feeling that you have when something unknown works, cannot be taken away.
Key takeaway: Just start already. Don’t overcomplicate. Write the first lines, draw the first stroke, get started. That’s how you do it.
I was 50% there. I had to do now the visible face of my project, so I started designing. After some iterations I was satisfied with what the app looked like.
After starting with a white UI, the black gave power to the app.
However, the problem wasn’t the app. The problem was the light. I’ve been doing design for a long time, but never 3D design. I tried it in the past a couple of times. I remember being overwhelmed by so many options and stuff happening in the screen all at once. I stopped because of a lack of motivation and understanding. This time though, I wanted to begin with something new, keep it simple and progress in a nice peace. I downloaded Cheetah 3D.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I thought again and again.
I started to put cylinders together. Started to put materials into the objects, rendering those to see the result. The problem was, my lamp looked really bad.
I decided to take my time there, so I bought a small video course to learn the basics of the program. I started copying what they did in the video, starting to copy stuff in my house. And after a week trying, tinkering, starting over, etc. I was really satisfied with my small 3D design.
Before and after of the light.
There are tons of resources in the internet. People willing to help, documentations, tutorials, blog posts, videos, podcasts... Take advantage of that.
This has been, by far, the project I’ve been most engaged in, probably in my life. Most of the time I didn’t even know what I was doing. I was lost in a sea of doubts. However, in those moments, it is important to relax. Stop and take a minute to realize that if someone has done it before, why can’t you?
Challenge yourself to do whatever you want to do. Without that, you just lay in the sofa thinking, «I’m not gonna be able to do that». And that’s just not true.
A tiny fact from me now. I’ve always loved maths for the satisfaction that they give when it works. And this project has been the same way. I remember now every afternoon really frustrated thinking, «I have to stop. This won’t work.». I remember now every moment that I thought I was not capable of doing it. I remember the email I sent my director saying «We won’t have Bluetooth, it is just impossible to get it right». But I remember those moments with a huge smile in my face now, thinking that I just did it, I was able to overcame it.
Make mistakes, learn from them. But most importantly, don’t think, not even for a second, that you are not capable of doing something. You can do it, and you will. You just have to get up, and start walking.
All the project is Open Source.
I am presenting this thesis the 14th of July. After that, I’m planning to write more mails like this in my future website, so stay tuned!
People from over 7 different countries have helped me in the making of this project. Without them, it wouldn’t be as perfect as I think it is.
Don’t know where to start, or you just simply wanna talk about some ideas? I’d love to read a tweet about it!
The project also has economics, market studies, test tables, etc. I’ll be posting the complete report with all my work the 14th of July.
If you want to learn more behind the decisions of Lights, let’s talk!
Just fucking do it.