Lamp Adapter for USB Arduino Projects

How can I power an Arduino from a light socket? Can I retrofit an old lamp for a USB power supply? And can I adapt exiting screw-in fixtures to power my NeoPixel light shows without rewiring the lamp?

I thought this would be a simple, inexpensive purchase so I looked online for an existing solution. They have all kinds of plug-in USB adapters for wall outlets so surely they must make a version that screws into a light bulb socket. Something that I could just replace the bulb with, then plug my Arduino with NeoPixels into the shiny new USB port and have instant power for my project. Surely I'm not the only one who wants to make a light show for an old lamp.

You can easily provide 5v USB power for your Arduino project from a screw in lamp or light socket.

But I could not find a version like I wanted. They do have big, bulky awkward looking versions, but not the simple, small ones like I was envisioning. They also have pre-made remote control adapters that turn the light bulbs on and off with WiFi, Bluetooth and even LORA. Then there are the popular HUE and other RGB light bulb systems.

But I wanted to make my own custom light show, so none of these commercial solutions worked for me. All I wanted was to change the screw-in socket to a USB power supply.

Had to resort to some antique technology to adapt an existing light fixture for USB power. I wanted to turn a screw-in light bulb socket, the kind you see in any lamp or ceiling light, to provide USB power for an Arduino. I wanted to use the Arduino and some RGB LED neopixels with Bluetooth or WiFi to make the lamp into a remote control light show. I finally had to use an ancient light socket to wall socket adapter and one of those tiny USB wall chargers to create a workable power system.

Luckily, I still have lots of electrical adapters from my days of being a budget-sensitive-photographer.

Complex Facets with Move Command in Fusion 360

What if you want more complex faceting than the basic technique provides. Well there is a simple way to add complexity and visual interest to the shapes you just created. Just tilt some of the facets with the rotation feature of the MOVE command.

Start by creating a faceted gem using the techniques described in the first tutorial. Sketch a polygon and extrude it with a negative taper angle. In the examples below, we use an eight sided shape (octagon).

Now open the MOVE Command and:

• Set the MOVE OBJECT type to FACES. 
• Select the "All-In-One" option as the MOVE TYPE. 

Select one of the faces of the shape and pick a point on the face. Fusion 360 will try to snap to certain points like the middle or ends of edges or the center of the face. Each point will allow you to change the faces in different ways, but there are a few that work well.

Make Faceted Gems in Fusion 360

Faceted gem shapes look very complex, but they can be simple to create in Fusion 360 if you know a few techniques. With these tips you can create simple jewelry, forms for casting, frames for furniture and gem shaped stained glass planters.

Simple and Easy Two Step Technique

It only takes a couple of steps to create a faceted gem shape in Fusion 360.
Read the Tutorial >>>

Tilting Faces with the Move Command

You can take the gem you made with the basic technique and continue to modify it. Using a clever technique with the MOVE command, and maybe some parameters

Simplest Way to Make a Faceted Gem in Fusion 360

(1) SKETCH a POLYGON 

Start a SKETCH and under CREATE, select the POLYGON option. The Circumscribed and Inscribed options work well. Set the number of sides. Click OK when done, then click FINISH SKETCH to exit the sketch mode.

Sketch a POLYGON.

(2) EXTRUDE with NEGATIVE TAPERS

Make the TOP: Select the EXTRUDE command. Click on the polygon sketch and pull the extrusion upward to create the top part of the gem. Set the TAPER ANGLE to a negative value. Smaller values will leave a flat top on the gem, higher values will

Shell Command in Fusion 360

I started keeping some notes about commands in Fusion 360, just some neat tips and tricks I had gleaned from all the how-to videos. These tips were often scattered in videos about other subjects and I had a hard time remembering which part of which videos contained the information I wanted.
Often, I will use the tips in exercises immediately after watching the video to help me remember them better. I started taking some screenshots from the exercises and storing them in a reference file. I would print them out and make notes to help me remember. Eventually I began to type the info directly into the file.

Over time I started to develop a style of note keeping, and I combined these notes with some old illustration files to make it more professional looking (old habits die hard). These screenshots and note files were supposed to be the building blocks for some blog posts and videos, but I started feeling like the illustrations and notes were actually useful just like they were. I still intend to do the videos and tutorial blog posts, but I decided to share these illustrations first.

They are intended to be a very basic framework about the Fusion commands and you are supposed to print them out and scribble your own notes on the sheets in a way that makes sense to you - a kind of DIY cheatsheet for Fusion. They should fit on a US Letter or an A4 piece of paper with a margin for a three hole punch. Collect them all and make your very own custom training manual. Or at least that's my intention.

Making these sheets useful and presentable to the public turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated. The SHELL command is one of the simplest commands and it still took me several days to make these sheets, to turn all those scribbles into full sentences, put the images into some sort of organized sequence etc. So I'm not sure if this will become a regular feature or not.

If you find this useful, please drop me a note or a comment on the FACEBOOK page so I will know I should produce more.

I divided the notes onto different sheets because I wanted to leave room for people to take notes and make their own drawings. I wound up with several sheets and I'm afraid they became too densely packed with information for much note taking. But this is just a first draft and the format might change in the future - if enough people are interested. Let me know what changes and additions you want - more dense, less dense - more detail, less detail - larger, smaller etc.

THE SHEETS

Each blog page has it's own sheet and some notes. I will come back and add the tutorials to the individual pages, and maybe even a link to a video if I ever make it.

Basics and Introduction

What does the SHELL command do and where do you find it? What kinds of objects can you use it on and are there any complexities to the command? SHELL is a simple command that can save you a lot of time.
Read the Tutorial >>>

Selecting Faces - One, Several or All

- Coming Soon -
Read the Tutorial

Inside or Outside - Setting Shell Direction

The SHELL command lets you choose the direction of the shelling action - INSIDE or OUTSIDE. If you choose INSIDE then it puts the walls along the inside of the existing shape and maintains the existing exterior surface shape. If you choose OUTSIDE then Fusion will add a wall outside of the existing shape and the original geometry will become the hollow interior. This is useful for making casting molds or to maintain clearance when designing cases and enclosures.
Read the Tutorial >>>

Special Conditions - Single Face Objects, Adding Faces

There are a few shapes, a SPHERE or TORUS for example, that only have one face. You can only make these shapes hollow, you cannot punch a hole through them with the Shell command without adding geometry or splitting the face before shelling. FORMS made with the sculpt tools can also act like a single-face object unless you turn off Tangent Chain in the dialog box.
Read the Tutorial >>>

Tips, Tricks and Gotchas

FORMS: Thicken- v- Shell
--- Coming Soon- Shell -v- Extrude Cut - v- Combine Cut
--- Coming Soon- Why Can't I Shell This
--- Coming Soon- Modifying Shelled Bodies
--- Coming Soon- Adding Details - Before or After
--- Coming Soon- Tangent Chain

Videos About The Shell Command

Brad Tallis shows a time-saving way to make a bracket
NYC CNC shows an interesting use to create an odd shape

Check out all of our Fusion 360 Tips, Tricks and Tutorials.

Also find me on:

FACEBOOK -or- INSTRUCTABLES -or- YOUTUBE

Follow @tangoofthegeeks

Shell Inside Outside in Fusion 360

The SHELL command lets you choose the direction of the shelling action - INSIDE or OUTSIDE. If you choose INSIDE then it puts the walls along the inside of the existing shape and maintains the existing exterior surface shape.

If you choose OUTSIDE then Fusion will add a wall outside of the existing shape and the original geometry will become the hollow interior. This is useful for making casting molds or to maintain clearance when designing cases and enclosures.

To understand the difference between the two options, start with

Shelling Single Face Models in Fusion 360

There are a few shapes, a SPHERE or TORUS for example, that only have one face. You can only make these shapes hollow, you cannot punch a hole through them with the Shell command without adding geometry or splitting the face before shelling. FORMS made with the sculpt tools can also act like a single-face object unless you turn off Tangent Chain in the dialog box.

See all sheets on the SHELL COMMAND or take a look at

All of our Fusion 360 Tips, Tricks and Tutorials.

Also find me on:

FACEBOOK -or- INSTRUCTABLES -or- YOUTUBE

Follow @tangoofthegeeks

Shell Command Intro in Fusion 360

What does the SHELL command do and where do you find it? What kinds of objects can you use it on and are there any complexities to the command? SHELL is a simple command that can save you a lot of time.

Download the image and print on A4 or Letter paper for a quick cheatsheet

See all sheets on the SHELL COMMAND or take a look at

All of our Fusion 360 Tips, Tricks and Tutorials.

Also find me on:

FACEBOOK -or- INSTRUCTABLES -or- YOUTUBE

Follow @tangoofthegeeks

Forms Thicken versus Shell in Fusion 360

FORMS have special properties in Fusion 360, and there are special commands to work with Forms. Although you can use the Shell command on a Form (while in the SOLID workspace), that might not be your best option.

The FORM workspace's Modify menu has its own THICKEN command. When you use this command you can shell out the form, but both of the resulting surfaces (interior and exterior) act as separate objects in the Modify menu. You can push or pull on one without affecting the other surface (within limits.) This gives you a lot of freedom for sculpting the outside shape and interior cavity.

By contrast, dropping the Form back into the solid workspace and using the SHELL command on the solid form somehow connects the interior and exterior surfaces. When you push/pull on one it also affects the other surface. If that's what you want, this might be very handy.

And if the FORM is an open surface model (not a solid) you can also use the Solid version of the Thicken command (under the create menu.) This option also creates a connection between the two surfaces and causes them to act like a single wall.

Which option is best? Well that depends on what you want to do with the resulting surfaces.

Download and print on A4 or Letter for a custom Fusion 360 manual cheatsheet.

See all sheets on the SHELL COMMAND or take a look at

All of our Fusion 360 Tips, Tricks and Tutorials.

Also find me on:

FACEBOOK -or- INSTRUCTABLES -or- YOUTUBE

Follow @tangoofthegeeks

Wrath of a DIYer

No, really... seriously?!?!?! Few can muster more righteous indignation than a committed DIYer who has to clean up after another, obviously amateur DIYer.

A recreation of the insane screws used to secure the brackets for a small set of blinds - and a comparison of the normal size. This is over and beyond even for a DIYer.

I got a call from a neighbor asking if I could "show them how" to install some blinds. I know what that phrase really means, but I agreed to anyway. I even took a set of driver bits and ratchet because I knew they wouldn't have any tools, except maybe some cheapo ones from the discount bin at the dollar store. (I was correct.)

Lightning Detection with Arduino

Summer heat and those amazing afternoon thunderstorms are already starting, so I'm thinking of adding a lightning detector to my DIY weather station. I've wanted a lightning sensor for a while, but they have always been expensive, tricky to calibrate, and had a bad reputation for hobby level users.

However, two things have changed this year and both make it possible for even an amateur like myself to connect a reliable lightning sensor to my Arduino - all for around $30 USD.

My DIY weather-station needed a lightning detector sensor for my Arduino base unit. Luckily there are several good options that are easy and cheap to buy and install.

First, vendors have recently begun selling reliable, easy-to-use boards based on the AS3935 detector chip. Even better, the supporting code libraries and tutorials are finally understandable to mere mortals. With that combination, I expect to see more options like this coming onto the market.

Second, I now know enough to hack into those cheap commercial lightning sensors, take the alert/alarm signals and feed them into my microcontroller - all without destroying the sensor. That might be simple for you, but it's a big deal for me.

(If you just want to watch the lightning strikes visit Lightningmaps.org or Blitzortung.org or make your own node at en.blitzortung.org/cover_your_area.php.)

DIY Dremel Accessories made From Scrap Electronics

Just uploaded a video of the DIY Dremel Accessories I made with salvaged parts from printers, scanners and old CD/DVD players. I show several ways to use these parts to make sleds and jigs to improve your wood and metal projects.

There is an Instructable guide being made for the video that includes detailed build and design steps for making your own versions.

Video of the DIY Dremel accessories I made using salvaged scrap arts out of old printers, scanners and CD players.

If you have lots of old printers and scanners sitting around, or even old computers and boom boxes, there are lots of useful parts inside them. The guide rods and sleds, the motors and rails are all strong, sturdy high quality stuff that will provide smooth mechanical movements for free.

Be sure to check out the video on YouTube and leave a comment.

Also find me on:

FACEBOOK -or- INSTRUCTABLES -or- YOUTUBE

Follow @tangoofthegeeks

Fusing Glass with a Home Microwave

I need to clarify something. I do NOT create the glass in my illuminated glass jewelry. A friend does the glass, I just do the special effects. So, I hand write all the code from scratch as well as assemble the electronics along with most of the bindings, frames and mountings. But the glass, the real center-point, is done by someone else.

The glass was done by a friend, all I did was add the lights and code.

However, I do know something about the process and would highly recommend it as a fun craft, whether you intend to animate it, light it, or just play to the glass.

My friend uses a budget friendly version of glass fusing that uses a microwave safe kiln to melt the glass, not an expensive specialized kiln. Yes, that's right - you heat up glass to the melting point in your basic home microwave oven. The process itself is simple and easy to get started with, but the fun comes from learning all the tricks and techniques for getting the look you want.