OtasLab Blog
The SIPT Project: Smart Illuminated Periodic Table
The SIPT is a smart, illuminated periodic table with element samples
This page is in progress. More information about the project will be available in the next few days.
The SIPT is born
The general idea of a periodic table collection is to collect samples of all the elements represented by the periodic table. There are various forms of collections, such as small glass bottles, loose samples, everyday items, or acrylic
blocks.
I’ve chosen the glass vials with engraved caps (manufactured by periodictable.co.uk).
Usually, these vials are stored in wooden boxes, but I’ve had a more interactive way in mind.
The elements all have different and interesting properties in terms of mass, density or time of discovery that make them quite different from each other.
My idea was to display these properties in my element collection through the usage of RGB illumination
The SIPT displaying all elements discovered by the year 1500 in green, those undiscovered in red.
How it’s done
The construction of the SIPT consists of an engraved aluminum face plate with openings for the vial holder. Each vial holder is made from CNC-milled acrylic, which was bead-blasted to create a matte, satin finish for optimal light scattering. The glass vials fit precisely into a blind hole drilled into the vial holders. Addressable RGB-LEDs (WS2812 “Neopixel”) are installed with silicone glue beneath each vial holder. To prevent cross-lighting of other vial holders and for better reflectivity, each vial holder is wrapped in a white shrink tube. An internal DC/DC Converter provides 5V @ up to 10A for the current-hungry LEDs from an external Power supply of 18 to 36V. For maximum flexibility and future changes, the control pin of the LED is brought out by another connector.
Controlled by NodeJS over WiFi and MQTT
At the current state of the project, an Adafruit Feather ESP32-S2 board is used to handle the electronic control of the addressable LEDs. The Microcontroller is subscribing to an MQTT-Topic waiting for color instructions for the LEDs. Choosing the current display mode and changing the parameters can be done on a web page built with NodeJS. When a change in values occurs, the NodeJS package will adjust the color of each element and transmits the information to the MQTT-Broker.
The image aside shows the interface for choosing a year, which is possible either by buttons, a slider, or choosing from common preset values.
At the moment, there is the possibility to either select “Year of Discovery”, “State of Matter” or “Density”, but more options will be implemented over the next week. For the future, there are many features or even a different interface solution in planning.
Pictures
The SIPT shows the states of matter at room temperature. Gases are white, liquids are yellow, solids are blue and unknown states are red.
