Published May 1, 2026

Beach Box

Structural embodiment and artistic representation of Chicago Data on beach weather.

IntermediateFull instructions provided13

Things used in this project

Hardware components

SparkFun Solder-able Breadboard - Mini

Particle Photon 2

55g Servo

LED Strip, NeoPixel Digital RGB

DC Power Cord 5V Power Supply

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

Story

General

This project was assigned under the prompt “cultivating light.” My partner and I were expected to collaborate together to combine artistic both components and technical aspects to create a project responding to the aforementioned theme.

Decision

My partner and I decided to take our project in a much more literal direction. Searching the Chicago Data Portal for thorough and frequently updated datasets, we found the Beach Weather Stations data set which updated about once an hour and measured many factors which would give us a lot of room to work with.

Developing the Idea

Ultimately, my partner and I decided to utilize the wind direction with a and solar radiation from the data set to embody weather at the beach, with a servo and LEDS respectively, covering the “cultivating light” theme.

Technical Aspect

I programmed the servo to match wind direction with its up to 170° spin:

I also programmed the LED lights to match the intensity of solar radiation. I wanted to make the thing more so I did code a lower and higher threshold to make the solar radiation clearer to the viewer. So while the brightness still matches the intensity of the solar radiation, if the solar radiation is in the lower threshold it will fade in and out to that. In the higher case, it would blink. I attached everything to a breadboard, soldering wires and making sure everything was connected correctly.

Nothing too complicated with the code, just stuck the servo and LED function in a loop for continuous display. I did learn to use the map() function which maps one numerical range to another, so even though the wind direction ranged from 0-360°, I mapped it to correlate with the servo which only spun 0-170°

Mixing Art and Tech

A large part of the project was collaborating with my partner, who played the big part in creating a physical display which would fuse with what I’d programmed. This involved ensuring that my technical components themselves and other parts like wires would be covered up, and no aspects like weight would conflict. We wanted to create a spinning platform as the main centerpiece to have it turn when representing the wind direction, sort of like a weather vane. Consequently, my partner made a display out of origami so as not to weigh the servo down too much and ensure it would spin, and covered it up with fabric waves.

Finally, we attached the LEDs to the roof of the box so as to light it up, which my partner covered with cotton clouds so that they would be hidden but still shine through.

Final Reflection

In the end, for me personally, this was both the hardest and coolest project I’ve done ever. I’m so grateful to have had such an amazing partner to collaborate with who communicated so openly and well, being what made this project possible. Attaching my photon to the breadboard and wiring everything up was definitely the most difficult part of this project for me, but I’m so glad I had the opportunity to just be pushed to do it, because now I feel like after that most things don’t look too hard.

Video of Working Project

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R7MC-AqA3WjJCaaZiJ4rgo8ac3sINKJ_/view?usp=sharing

Code for Entire Project

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include <neopixel.h>

// This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE.
#include "Particle.h"
#include <ArduinoJson.h>

JsonDocument doc;

String strJSON = "";

int count = 0;
 
int temp;

int rain;

int direction;

int speed;

int solar;

// Let Device OS manage the connection to the Particle Cloud
SYSTEM_MODE(AUTOMATIC);

Servo myServo; 


#define PIXEL_PIN1 SPI1
#define PIXEL_PIN2 SPI
#define PIXEL_COUNT 41
#define PIXEL_TYPE WS2812B

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip1(4, PIXEL_PIN1, PIXEL_TYPE);
Adafruit_NeoPixel strip2(PIXEL_COUNT, PIXEL_PIN2, PIXEL_TYPE);

uint32_t green  = strip1.Color(0, 255, 0);
uint32_t yellow = strip1.Color(255, 255, 0);
uint32_t red    = strip1.Color(255, 0, 0);
uint32_t blue = strip1.Color(0, 0, 255);


void setup()
{  
    Serial.begin(9600);
    while(Particle.disconnected()) ;
    
   myServo.attach(D1);
    
    
    
    
   myServo.write(0); 
   
    
    
    strip1.begin();
    strip2.begin();

    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) 
    {
        strip1.setPixelColor(i, yellow);
    }
    
    for (int i = 0; i < 41; i++) 
    {
        strip2.setPixelColor(i, red);
    }

    strip1.show();
    strip2.show();
    delay(150);
  
    
    
       
    
    
    

    Particle.subscribe("hook-response/beachData", handleResponse);
    
    Serial.println("Setup has ended!");
}


void loop()
{

        if (b < 0) b = 0;
        if (b > 255) b = 255;
    
        int minBrightness = 20;
        if (b == 0) b = minBrightness;
    
        bool high = (b >= 128);

        {
            for (int cycle = 0; cycle < 5; cycle++)
            {
            
                strip2.setBrightness(b);
                for (int i = 0; i < PIXEL_COUNT; i++)
                    strip2.setPixelColor(i, yellow);
                strip2.show();
                delay(200);
    
                strip2.setBrightness(0);
                for (int i = 0; i < PIXEL_COUNT; i++)
                    strip2.setPixelColor(i, yellow);
                strip2.show();
                delay(200);
            }
    
            strip2.setBrightness(b);
            for (int i = 0; i < PIXEL_COUNT; i++)
                strip2.setPixelColor(i, yellow);
            strip2.show();
    
        }else{
        for (int cycle = 0; cycle < 1; cycle++)
        {
 
            for (int i = b; i > 0; i--)
            {
                strip2.setBrightness(i);
                for (int p = 0; p < PIXEL_COUNT; p++)
                    strip2.setPixelColor(p, yellow);
                strip2.show();
                delay(10);
            }
    
            for (int i = 0; i < b; i++)
            {
                strip2.setBrightness(i);
                for (int p = 0; p < PIXEL_COUNT; p++)
                    strip2.setPixelColor(p, yellow);
                strip2.show();
                delay(10);
            }
        }
        }
    
        
        strip2.setBrightness(b);
        for (int p = 0; p < PIXEL_COUNT; p++)
            strip2.setPixelColor(p, yellow);
        strip2.show();


    int angle = map(direction, 0, 360, 0, 170);

    if (angle < 0) angle = 0;
    if (angle > 170) angle = 170;
    

   for(int pos = 0; pos <= angle; pos++) 
    {                                   
        myServo.write(pos);             
        delay(15);                   }
    
    for(int pos = angle; pos >= 0; pos--)     {
        myServo.write(pos);              
        delay(15);                      
    }
   
}


void handleResponse(const char *event, const char *data)
{
    
    Serial.println("Handler has begun!");
    
    deserializeJson(doc, data);

    JsonObject root_0 = doc[0];
    
     temp = doc[0]["air_temperature"];
     rain = doc[0]["rain_intensity"];
     direction = doc[0]["wind_direction"];
     speed = doc[0]["wind_speed"];
     solar = doc[0]["solar_radiation"];

    
    
    Serial.println(temp);
    Serial.println(rain);
    Serial.println(direction);
    Serial.println(solar);
    
    Serial.println("Ended!");
    

    updateSolar();

}


void updateSolar()
{
    int b = map(solar, 990, 1001, 0, 255);


    if (b < 0) b = 0;
    if (b > 255) b = 255;

    int minBrightness = 20;  

    if (b == 0)
        b = minBrightness;

    strip1.setBrightness(b);

    for (int i = 0; i < strip1.numPixels(); i++)
    {
        strip1.setPixelColor(i, yellow);
    }

    strip1.show();
}