Kaleidophone

What are kaleidoscopes missing? More gizmos and gadgets! I made this kaleidoscope that uses etched glass and an LED strip to create this blooming infinite lines effect. The image at the end is a tiny little LCD screen that plays gifs at around 30fps running off of a Teensy 4.1 as its processing speeds are pretty high for such a small profile. Powered by a lithium battery with a charging board so it can be used on the go!

Was inspired by the ever popular Nova Scopes where one side has etched mirror with semi-transparent colored glass on the outside of it such that a light can be shined through creating colorful repeating geometric displays. I wanted to be able to have it all be in one unit such that you didnt have to carry around a flashlight and hold it separately. Instead of the flashlight the LED strip is controlled via a linear potentiometer with an attached knob. The knob can be moved forwards and backwards to change where the LEDs on the strip are illuminated.

The kaleidoscope also has 3 illuminated buttons on the side for controlling the displayed GIF and changing the colors and settings of the LED strip. 

This is just the first proof of concept! I want to spend a lot more time on the model of the body to make it more aesthetic (thinking sci-fi space ship). Want to try out some different etched mirror designs for the sides. Different configured settings for the buttons like brightness controls would be useful too.

For now I'm really happy with how it turned out!