An Over-Engineered(?) Arc Shaped LED Lamp

Creator Ronny Ziss has a nice spacious wall-to-wall plywood desk at his home office, and wanted a better lighting solution. Rather than buying a lamp with a physically adjustable base that takes up desk area, he instead devised an arcing lamp that spans across like the table it’s meant to illuminate.

The new lamp is constructed with two layers of aluminum riveted together, with an addressable LED strip inside. When bent, the aluminum slides into triangular fixtures on either wall, securing it in an arc shape that both provides structural rigidity, and allows the lights inside to focus on different areas of the desk.

User interface is provided by a clever rotating knob/button setup, which attaches underneath the desk via magnets, and enables Ziss to adjust the brightness, size, and the position of the individual LEDs that are activated.

If that wasn’t cool enough, he added a clever Easter egg mode. When the lighting is arranged in a certain way, and the mode button is pressed for 10 seconds, it then plays a 1-D version of Pong. This not only provides a small distraction, but also shows off the different colors that the arc can produce, beyond just white for illumination.

Be sure to check out the project overview and demo in the video below!