I was interested in the poetic connection between using the daytime light to power something for the night. Manan and I started with the idea of a moon light powering through solar. But we quickly realized that this is not an original idea at all and so many people have done that before.

I then thought of the mini disco ball that I always have at all of my apartments, bringing a playful angle to the sunlight shining in my room. Aren’t disco balls always fun to look at?

Manan shared this disco ball he saw in a bookstore in San Francisco, combining both our moon idea and the disco ball.

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The prototyping wasn’t very difficult. We just needed to use PWM to create the variable speed motor.

First cardboard prototype:

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With beautiful direct sunlight

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We have direct live measurements from Manan’s USB Meter.