How to Make a Planet Lamp That You Can Control with Your Smartphone

The beauty of modern tools and electronic components is that you can build your own devices that suit your unique tastes. Lamps are a great example of that. You no longer have to cross your fingers that some company out there is making a lamp that you like — you can just make one yourself. If you happen to love astronomy, YouTube channel The Wrench has a video demonstrating how to make an LED planet lamp that you’ll be able to control from your smartphone.

All you’ll need to replicate this project is a few inexpensive components and access to a 3D printer and some paint. You’ll start by 3D printing a hollow sphere to act as your planet. The Wrench has linked to a model of Jupiter for that. You will also need to 3D print the parts for the base of the lamp. Once your Jupiter model has been printed, you can go ahead and paint. This is your chance to get creative and replicate the look of a real planet or come up with your own.

The LEDs for the lamp are a strip of WS2812B individually-addressable RGB LEDs, controlled by a mini NodeMCU WiFi board. The Wrench has provided the code to make everything work. With that, you’ll be able to use the Blynk IoT service to control the color and brightness of the LEDs inside of the lamp.