We create an original gift with the help of chemistry, physics and electronics
Good afternoon, dear habrovchane. It so happened that I have been developing electronic devices based on microcontrollers, microprocessors and FPGAs for quite a long time. I want to share one of the devices developed by me.
The idea came to me while viewing articles on Wikipedia, namely articles on copper sulfate (copper sulfate), in which there is a picture of a crystal grown at home.
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In the process of thinking, I came to the following device: a grown copper sulphate crystal should be placed in a transparent glass cylinder along with a LED for backlighting and a small electronic circuit that controls the LED. The crystal should slowly flare up when a man takes it in his hand, to shine while he is in his hand, and some time after he is let go of his hand to go out. Thus, at the exit we will get a beautiful and original souvenir, which you can give to a girl, friends, or keep to your memory.
The implementation resulted in the following:
The video shows the crystal itself, the assembled device, and the device with the power supply already connected and flashing the code. Unfortunately, my camera could not cope with a bright blue glow, in life it looks much more beautiful.
Now I will try to briefly outline the process of creating such a device.
From the school course of physics, we remember that it is not difficult to grow salt crystals from aqueous solutions. To do this, it is enough to make a saturated solution of the selected salt (in this case, copper sulfate), add a crystal-seed to it and wait several days. Of course, two questions immediately arise: where to get the copper sulfate and where to get the seed crystal. Copper sulphate can be purchased at any gardening shop. If I am not mistaken, it is used either as a remedy for pests, or as a remedy for plant diseases. It costs about 100 rubles for 500 grams. a jar. Also, you can purchase it directly from a supplier of chemical reagents, in the process of googling I ran into chemical. warehouse in Moscow, where they sell vitriol at a price of about 120 rubles per kilogram.
Wherever you buy it, you end up with a bag of blue powder.
500 grams is more than enough for our purpose.
The next thing we need to take care of is the seed crystal. This is a small crystal, on which copper sulfate will settle out of solution, and which will grow to quite impressive sizes (by the way, by the way, if you want, you can grow a much larger crystal than the one I showed, the process will not be different, you will need just wait a little longer). The seed we get from a saturated solution of vitriol.
Wikipedia comes to the rescue again with a graph of vitality of vitriol depending on temperature:
As we see, with increasing temperature, the solubility increases significantly, so take a glass and a half of water, pour it into a saucepan and set it on fire. It is not necessary to bring the water to a boil, 70-80 degrees is enough for us. When the water is hot enough, begin to pour into it the vitriol, constantly stirring. You must continue to add copper sulfate to water until it ceases to dissolve in it. After that, transferring warm solution to any suitable dishes, I used rather wide plastic packaging for Viola cheese for this purpose.
Now we just have to wait. Because there are no crystallization centers, except for walls, the process can be delayed. As a result of cooling and evaporation of the solution, small crystals of copper vitriol will begin to precipitate on the walls of the vessel.
Our task at the moment is to select the most beautiful crystal of sufficient size so that it can be tied with thread. The kind of crystal is a matter of taste, but I personally prefer small druses to single crystals and large slovenly clusters. In the process of growing a druse from 4-5 monocrystals, in my opinion, it becomes much more beautiful, one large single crystal or an incomprehensible “hedgehog” out of a dozen, so I checked the capacity every 1-2 hours in search of the most suitable candidates.
So, after 4-5 hours we had a small seed crystal. It must be carefully tied with a thread (do not wind a cocoon on it, one loop is enough, otherwise the threads will prevent crystal growth). The second end of the thread is wound on a pencil and retired to the kitchen, prepare a saturated solution a second time. This time we need to prepare it enough to pour it into a suitable jar in which our seed crystal can hang without touching the walls and bottom even after 4 days of growth. The rest of the technology is the same - we heat the water and pour syrup in it until it ceases to dissolve. Next, cool the solution a little and pour it into a prepared jar (which it is advisable to warm slightly with warm water before that to prevent the solution from crystallizing quickly on the walls) and lower the seed into it, putting the pencil across the neck of the jar and ensuring that the crystal does not touch the and bottom. We put the bank in some not very warm and not very cold place, for example, on a shelf, and the first step is almost over!
We can only wait a few days until the crystal grows to the size we need. It is not recommended to remove the crystal from the solution for a long time, but it is quite possible to get and check how the growth process is going on. It also does not hurt to clear the thread of small crystals deposited on it so that they do not spoil the shape of the seed.
One thing must be taken into account: water crystals are unstable and prone to weathering - water evaporates from them, with the result that a beautiful crystal is gradually covered with white bloom and eventually crumbles into powder. To keep the crystal as long as possible, you can take the following steps:
1) Varnish the crystal. This is not a panacea, but still prolong the life of the crystal for several months.
2) Store the crystal in an airtight container. It also will not save, but in combination with the first method will give the crystal a year of life, or even more.
3) The best way is to fill the crystal with a clear organic liquid, for example, some kind of transparent oil. In such a vessel, the crystal will persist for a very long time.
That's all for now, in the next two articles we will focus on the design of the device, the development of its electronic part and firmware.
Part 2
Part 3
Idea
The idea came to me while viewing articles on Wikipedia, namely articles on copper sulfate (copper sulfate), in which there is a picture of a crystal grown at home.
')
In the process of thinking, I came to the following device: a grown copper sulphate crystal should be placed in a transparent glass cylinder along with a LED for backlighting and a small electronic circuit that controls the LED. The crystal should slowly flare up when a man takes it in his hand, to shine while he is in his hand, and some time after he is let go of his hand to go out. Thus, at the exit we will get a beautiful and original souvenir, which you can give to a girl, friends, or keep to your memory.
The implementation resulted in the following:
The video shows the crystal itself, the assembled device, and the device with the power supply already connected and flashing the code. Unfortunately, my camera could not cope with a bright blue glow, in life it looks much more beautiful.
Now I will try to briefly outline the process of creating such a device.
Step 1: Growing a Crystal
From the school course of physics, we remember that it is not difficult to grow salt crystals from aqueous solutions. To do this, it is enough to make a saturated solution of the selected salt (in this case, copper sulfate), add a crystal-seed to it and wait several days. Of course, two questions immediately arise: where to get the copper sulfate and where to get the seed crystal. Copper sulphate can be purchased at any gardening shop. If I am not mistaken, it is used either as a remedy for pests, or as a remedy for plant diseases. It costs about 100 rubles for 500 grams. a jar. Also, you can purchase it directly from a supplier of chemical reagents, in the process of googling I ran into chemical. warehouse in Moscow, where they sell vitriol at a price of about 120 rubles per kilogram.
Wherever you buy it, you end up with a bag of blue powder.
500 grams is more than enough for our purpose.
The next thing we need to take care of is the seed crystal. This is a small crystal, on which copper sulfate will settle out of solution, and which will grow to quite impressive sizes (by the way, by the way, if you want, you can grow a much larger crystal than the one I showed, the process will not be different, you will need just wait a little longer). The seed we get from a saturated solution of vitriol.
Wikipedia comes to the rescue again with a graph of vitality of vitriol depending on temperature:
As we see, with increasing temperature, the solubility increases significantly, so take a glass and a half of water, pour it into a saucepan and set it on fire. It is not necessary to bring the water to a boil, 70-80 degrees is enough for us. When the water is hot enough, begin to pour into it the vitriol, constantly stirring. You must continue to add copper sulfate to water until it ceases to dissolve in it. After that, transferring warm solution to any suitable dishes, I used rather wide plastic packaging for Viola cheese for this purpose.
Now we just have to wait. Because there are no crystallization centers, except for walls, the process can be delayed. As a result of cooling and evaporation of the solution, small crystals of copper vitriol will begin to precipitate on the walls of the vessel.
Our task at the moment is to select the most beautiful crystal of sufficient size so that it can be tied with thread. The kind of crystal is a matter of taste, but I personally prefer small druses to single crystals and large slovenly clusters. In the process of growing a druse from 4-5 monocrystals, in my opinion, it becomes much more beautiful, one large single crystal or an incomprehensible “hedgehog” out of a dozen, so I checked the capacity every 1-2 hours in search of the most suitable candidates.
So, after 4-5 hours we had a small seed crystal. It must be carefully tied with a thread (do not wind a cocoon on it, one loop is enough, otherwise the threads will prevent crystal growth). The second end of the thread is wound on a pencil and retired to the kitchen, prepare a saturated solution a second time. This time we need to prepare it enough to pour it into a suitable jar in which our seed crystal can hang without touching the walls and bottom even after 4 days of growth. The rest of the technology is the same - we heat the water and pour syrup in it until it ceases to dissolve. Next, cool the solution a little and pour it into a prepared jar (which it is advisable to warm slightly with warm water before that to prevent the solution from crystallizing quickly on the walls) and lower the seed into it, putting the pencil across the neck of the jar and ensuring that the crystal does not touch the and bottom. We put the bank in some not very warm and not very cold place, for example, on a shelf, and the first step is almost over!
We can only wait a few days until the crystal grows to the size we need. It is not recommended to remove the crystal from the solution for a long time, but it is quite possible to get and check how the growth process is going on. It also does not hurt to clear the thread of small crystals deposited on it so that they do not spoil the shape of the seed.
One thing must be taken into account: water crystals are unstable and prone to weathering - water evaporates from them, with the result that a beautiful crystal is gradually covered with white bloom and eventually crumbles into powder. To keep the crystal as long as possible, you can take the following steps:
1) Varnish the crystal. This is not a panacea, but still prolong the life of the crystal for several months.
2) Store the crystal in an airtight container. It also will not save, but in combination with the first method will give the crystal a year of life, or even more.
3) The best way is to fill the crystal with a clear organic liquid, for example, some kind of transparent oil. In such a vessel, the crystal will persist for a very long time.
That's all for now, in the next two articles we will focus on the design of the device, the development of its electronic part and firmware.
Part 2
Part 3
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/111610/
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