“SATtiny is a solar Circuit Sculpture in a form of a satellite with blinking LEDs with optimized current consumption to last all night long.
After seeing the great sculptures form Mohit Bhoite, I fellt in love with his satellite sculpture. For my own satellite sculpture, I set the goal to see it blinking not a few hours but the whole night! and also to have the chance to choose the pattern I wanted, may be emulating an RC discharge curve or even morse code. For that, a micro controller was needed. Looking at the market I found the ATTinyxxV line to be one of the most suitable for this project. The circuit has just few parts but the results are just great. I have assembled two of them, they sit next to my desk window already since a few months and they work just perfectly! How it works? During the day, a super cap is loaded thanks to the solar panels. The Attiny checks this status every 8 seconds and in case of absence of enough power to charge the super caps (absence of light) the blinking routine starts. The sleep current was measured around 4uA. The blinking interval has been set so it can blink up to 7 hours.”