Our friend Viktor sent in his latest build. He took a $1.99 IKEA plastic bag dispenser which looks great for only a few dollars and used it as the structure of his DIY moodlight. I visited my first IKEA last year and was quite amazed at how they create an experience that I have never had in any other store. I had to hold back from purchasing a ton of odds and ends for future projects since I haven’t finished the huge pile of projects on my list. An IKEA will be opening on a year or two in Winnipeg and I am thinking it will be a frequent stop for cheap project material and inspiration. 

“At the heart of the circuit is one of the smallest PICs, a PIC12F683, which has only 8 pins. It only has one PWM channel but I needed 3 channels for the three colours, so I had to implement 3 channels of PWM in software. The plastic bag dispenser from IKEA is a perfect fit for this purpose: it has a solid frame that is easy enough to customize using some not too powerfull power tools, white in colour, it already has mounting points on the back for easy hanging on the wall and the frame has large holes on it so that cables and the white fabric I got for it to cover can pass through them easily.”