[larusso]

Cool project indeed. I used to own the first model and thought about how one could motorize the lamp. I used to own the one which didn’t have the reflected coating on the inside panels. At least in Germany they changed that a few years back from plain white to silver or gold reflection. And now the lamp is also available in bigger sizes. I bought it like most because of the interesting design. But was never really pleased with it. Practical use of keeping it closed is zero. I guess that was the reason to motorize it ;) But even in the open configuration it’s so dark that it’s unusable as a promised light source.

[sephalon]

Part of the reason for automating it was that I wanted to integrate the lamp into my home theater setup: When the movie starts, the lamp slowly closes and synchronously dims out (guests always react with a smile to this). Pressing the pause button dims it up again and gives one just enough light to find the bathroom ;-)

[larusso]

That sounds awesome. How much noise makes the motor during open/close cycle? I remember that the plastic had quite some friction on its own.

[sephalon]

Yes, noise is a problem, which unfortunately makes the lamp quite unpopular with my girlfriend ;-) Some is indeed coming from the folding mechanism itself, but the majority of noise is actually caused by the stepper motor, despite limiting the current to the necessary minimum. One could try to switch to a more advanced (i.e. silent) stepper motor driver than the A4988 (I mainly picked that one because ESPHome already has a driver for it), or use a servo motor instead.

[eastbound]

Oh, no: the practical reason to keep it closed is when you switch it on at night, it shouldn’t suddenly brighten up the room at max volume, but open up progressively so your eyes can accomodate.

Of course if you live with someone, you don’t switch on the lights at night ;)

[t0mas88]

I have the one with copper inside coating, it works well as a lamp above the dining table with an 800 lumen LED lamp in it. I usually don't even have it set to the highest brightness.

[larusso]

Maybe the coated ones do work better. For my use the lamp was simply not bright enough.