Design

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-an-LED-Ambient-Mood-Light-A-Beginner-/  is the website to our project info. 

Final decision

My partner and I decided that as our final decision and the project we would start to design would be the mood lamp. The reason for our decision is that equipment we need to make this project are optional and will still work, easier to create then the pinhole camera and the end result is more fascinating and useful.

Software and Hardware required

Pinhole camera hardware needed:

• a large piece of 5mm thick foam core board
• A 2cm x 2cm flat piece of thin metal from a tin can
• three 35mm spools
• A tubual plastic, cheap ballpoint pen (tube will be cut and used in the camera)
• Black acrylic paint
• A strong craft glue
• A sharp knife for cutting the foam core board
• A metric ruler
• A needle
• A fine-grit sandpaper
• A flashlight or electric torch
• A metal straight edge to aid in cutting

Hardware needed for (LED) mood lamp:

• Arduino Uno board (older boards should be compatible)
• USB A to USB B connector cable
• Arduino solder-less breadboard shield (or
• 3 resistors (330 ohm)
• Red LED
• Green LED
• Blue LED
• breadboard connector wire
• white paper
• scissors
• tape

Some of these materials could be substituted if they are not readily available:

• A regular breadboard can be used instead of the breadboard shield
• Other resistors can be used, just try to find three identical resistors between 330 and 1000 ohms
• Any different color LEDs can be used in this project

Software Required

For the pinhole camera no software is required. Although for the mood lamp  a computer a Arduino computer software

Advantages and Disadvantages of my ideas

The advantages of making a pinhole camera:

1. Captures images clearly
2. Captures high resolution pictures within seconds
3. High quality images of outdoor and indoor settings

The disadvantages of creating a pinhole camera:

1. Might break easily
2. Might be difficult to judge exposure correctly
3. Long exposure time

Advantages of creating a (LED) mood lamp:

1. cheap materials
2. no prior or electrical experience needed for the project
3. project takes about 15 minutes to resemble

Disadvantages of creating a mood lamp:

1. technology knowledge is required
2. materials that are needed are not easy to find
3. not only circuitry knowledge is needed but also some C programming language

Tech Fair Thoughts

The two ideas that my tech fair buddy and I came up with and decided to investigate further are a Pinhole camera and a (LED) mood lamp. Both projects include quite a few materials and focusing. The reason for my peer and I choosing these two projects is because making the camera was original and different than any other camera pupils created in the past. We also chose the mood lamp because nobody created it before and once it would be created it would be reuseable. Also creating the mood lamp would help expand our knowledge about circuits, motherboards and LED lights.
My partner and I would have to put a lot of time into either of these projects; both of the projects/ideas require some focus and knowledge. I assume that if we make the mood lamp (or camera) they would both take a lot of time to create and quite a few small pieces of important materials. The output of camera would have be more complicated than mood lamp because for the camera we would have to figure out how to import the pictures and be able to review them (during the tech fair). While with the mood lamp all we have to do is just change the code we have to insert to change the color of the mood lamp.