Lighting Device Known as Chameleon Lamp

Overview

The objective of the project is to design a light that would mimic a color that is shown to it just like the characteristic of a chameleon.

Explanation

In the design of the lamp driver, LEDs are used because they are very efficient since they only emit one frequency of light which causes this light produced to be perceived as flat and lifeless. Because of this, tungsten bulbs were used in place of LEDs because they are not flat and lifeless. Transistors have to be used to turn a separate power source ON to power the bulbs because the Arduino cannot provide enough current to power tungsten bulb without damaging it. This is an advantage because the lamp would not draw too much current from the laptop.

The setup is made possible by connecting the PWM pins to the base of the transistors and grounding the transistors to the ground of Arduino in series with diodes. This is to prevent current flowing back through the tungsten bulbs from the Arduino. The bulbs can be dimmed the same way the LEDs can be dimmed in the Arduino code because of the use of PWM.