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Stroboscopic Fountain

For our SIDE project, a year long project that we do for Ms. Berbawy’s Principles of Engineering class, we decided to make a stroboscopic fountain. The stroboscopic effect, pioneered by Harold Edgerton, makes objects appear as though they are moving in slow motion. How does this work? A strobe light is flashed at the same rate and time as an object is moving. Every time the strobe light flashes, it illuminates the object in the object in the position that it is in. In the case of the fountain, the strobe light flashes every time the water droplets are in the same position relative to the lights, so it looks as though the water droplets aren’t moving when they are actually getting replaced by the water droplet after it each time the strobe light flashes, you just can’t see it. We based our build off of Joli Factory’s Instructable, including buying their circuit board kit and using their sketch.

WARNING: this project uses a strobe light, which may be harmful to people sensitive to flashing lights

Materials Needed:

- Joli Factory PCB electronics kit
- Solder
- Arduino Nano
- 0.125” extruded acrylic (black and clear/frosted clear)
- Black: 667.15 cm squared
- Clear: 370.5 cm squared
- Acrylic cement or gel
- (4) M2x10 screws
- (4) M2 nuts
- Single color LED strip
- Stranded wire (2 colors optional)
- Foam core board
- VicTsing 80 GPH Submersible Water Pump
- (1) 2 gph drip irrigation emitter
- (1) 12” lenght of 0.25” irrigation tubing
- (1) battery clip with male DC plug
- (1) 9V battery
- Small container

Tools Needed:

- Soldering iron
- Scissors
- Exacto knife
- ULS 3.5 40W laser cutter
- 636-080-AC-HD screwdriver
- Syringe and applicator if using acrylic cement
- Wire stripper
- Needle nose pliers
- Flash drive
- Butcher paper
- Gloves and safety goggles
- Scotch tape
- Tacky glue
- USB A to B cable”

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