That old black magic song is a popular American jazz standard that was written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. It was first featured in the 1942 movie "Star Spangled Rhythm" and has since become a timeless classic. The song's lyrics describe the enchanting and magical effects that love can have on a person. It uses vivid and imaginative language to paint a picture of the powerful allure and allure of love. The opening line, "That old black magic has me in its spell," sets the tone for the song by suggesting that love can be both mysterious and intoxicating. Throughout the song, the lyrics evoke images of moonlit nights, stars, and other romantic imagery to convey the passion and intensity of love.
Magic can be, of course, sometimes hard to grasp.
When I first presented the bulb to some friends, their initial reaction to the bulb suddenly being powered out of the thin air was shock though, most of them guessed the trick just a few seconds after. While I realize I might be a special case, this does limit my ability to do magic tricks with the bulb, such as this, where the bulb magically lights up all on its own.
Throughout the song, the lyrics evoke images of moonlit nights, stars, and other romantic imagery to convey the passion and intensity of love. The chorus repeats the line, "That old black magic that you weave so well," emphasizing the idea that love is a kind of sorcery or magic that can captivate and enthrall. In addition to its lyrical beauty, "That old black magic" is also known for its memorable melody.
How To Make Your Very Own Wireless, Extra-Magic Smart Bulb ?
As you may remember, I broke my smart bulb. Seeing an opportunity in this unfortunate (okay, mostly just annoying) event, I decided to take on that opportunity to reverse engineer it. And of course, after reverse engineering comes the part where I improve it!
I liked the original bulb design, but it had one annoying constraint, as most light bulbs too: it must be plugged to wall power to work! While I realize I might be a special case, this does limit my ability to do “magic tricks” with the bulb, such as this, where the bulb magically lights up “all on its own”:
So how did I overcome the constraint?
When I first presented the bulb to some friends, their initial reaction to the bulb suddenly being powered out of the thin air was shock — though, most of them guessed the trick just a few seconds after.
Magic can be, of course, sometimes hard to grasp.
Have you guessed it yet? If you guessed, a battery, well, you’re right!
If you recall, when I cracked the bulb open, I discovered that it comprised three different circuit boards — one for the power supply, one for logic (+Bluetooth radio), and another one for the actual LEDs. The power supply board had only three connections to the logic board: 3.3V, power, and a third, higher voltage line, which I guessed was around 12V, after connecting it to my power supply and experimenting with different voltages.
So my game plan was to fit some battery in there, ad some circuity to convert the battery voltage to 3.3V and to 12V, and play that everything fit back into the bulb.
After trying a bunch of different kinds of batteries — 500mAh and 350mAh LiPo batteries, as well as a pair of AAA NimH batteries — I figured out that none of them would fit! I remembered I had a tiny 130mAh LiPo battery lying around, and decided to see if that might work as a last-ditch solution, and it worked!
This is how you disassemble the bulb
So now for the “magic ingredients”:
- Small LiPo battery — 100mAh will do
- 12V Step Up Voltage Regulator — I used this one
- 3.3V Voltage Regulator — You can use this one
The next step is super easy: simply connect the inputs of the 3.3V and 12V regulators to the positive side of the battery, their grounds to the negative side of the battery, and then connect the 12V, 3.3V output and the ground to the logic board of the bulb:
The most challenging step by far, though, is figuring out how to fit everything in!
It can be done, just make sure you don’t squeeze the LiPo battery or short circuit anything (I recommend using Kapton tape or similar for isolation). LiPo batteries react really bad if you puncture them… and so please be careful.
Just put everything together… …and voila!
Finally, make sure you isolate the bulb base from the electronics — just to make sure it won’t blow up if you do plug it to mains. As a side note, the bulb should be considered “battery operated only” now, as doing any more might be problematic: for example, messing with the mains of a light bulb is illegal in some countries, including Israel (unless you are a certified electrician).
Bonus — adding a switch and a charging circuit
After packing everything in and re-assembling the bulb, I quickly realized it would be tedious to disassemble the entire bulb each time I wanted to disconnect or recharge the battery. The battery lasts between 30 minutes and a few hours (depending on usage), so I would have to do this before and after each demo.
Luckily, I had a small circuit that I created for another project which housed a Switch and a LiPo charging circuit with a Micro USB port (and as a bonus, 3.3v regulator on board). I quickly trimmed just the part I needed from that circuit and connected it to the battery and the logic board:
Trimming off the parts you don’t need is a lot of fun!
I managed to pack everything back into the bulb, with the switch / USB port facing towards the base screw of the bulb, so I could switch it on/off and recharge it by simply removing the base screw, which pops out really easily.
Putting everything together… Power on!
I designed a smaller version of the charging circuit, with a spot to connect the 12V voltage regulator board I mentioned above, which you can find on GitHub. Hopefully this will help you to build your own in-bulb charging circuit!
The new bulb-battery charging circuit, with the 12V regulator board mounted on top
If you want to buy it assembled, or better — a package with all the parts and assemble it yourself — just ping me on Twitter, and I will try to get one for you (I have a few spare boards).
Now for Some Magic: ng-beacon and Battery SmartBulb!
When combined with the power of ng-beacon and the LiPo battery, the Smart Bulb all of a sudden becomes and excellent tool for magic tricks (and pranks, if you’re so inclined ;). You can tape the beacon to the bottom of the center of the table during your séances, keep it in your backpack to light up your “bright ideas,” or put it in your pocket and casually cause all the smart bulbs lying on your friends’ coffee tables to light up different colors every time you enter the room!
So long as you can get the ng-beacon and the bulb in proximity, you can use any of these strategies to treat your friends to some family-friendly magic. Here is the code to do so:
All you need to do is change the threshold value to control the distance. We monitor the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication — that is, how strong the signal received from the bulb is), and change the red intensity accordingly. The code also does some basic filtering — it averages the last 10 samples to filter any noise that would cause flickering (RSSI is really noisy in real world).
SmartBulbs, Web Audio, and Sneezes!
How does this work? I hacked my web-lightbulb project from the Web Bluetooth Post to use the Web Audio and recognize loud sounds, toggling the bulb power. In fact, this is all the code I had to add to the project in order to make it work:
Basically, I call getUserMedia() to get microphone access, and then create an analyserNode object which lets me access the raw audio stream coming from the microphone. Then, I set up a timer that run every 20 milliseconds or so and detects peaks by calculating the average sound power over the last few milliseconds. If the average sound power is greater than SNEEZE_THRESHOLD, it will toggle the bulb (switch on/off). There is also a timeout mechanism that makes sure we wait at least for SNEEZE_TIMEOUT milliseconds before toggling the bulb, just to make sure we don’t interpret the same peak twice.
Let There Be Light!
I showed off many of these “magic tricks” during my talk at Jazoon Tech Days, and some people even came up afterwards and told me that it reminded them of a real magic show! I even tried to use the Web Speech API to get voice control to power on the bulb on stage when I said a “Magic word.” It didn’t quite work during the demo, but the audience seemed to enjoy it all the same. For some reason, Web Speech was not able to pick up my commands during the talk.
There are clearly loads of “magic” possibilities for the smart bulb, and maybe even other IoT/Bluetooth LTE connected devices we could do tricks with! I’d love to hear any great ideas you have in the comments — a part of me is thinking I might build some more tricks and take this magic show on the road! ?
So how did I overcome the constraint?
The song has a smooth and catchy tune that has been covered by countless artists over the years. Some notable versions include recordings by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. Each artist brings their own unique interpretation to the song, adding their own personal touch to its timeless appeal. "That old black magic song" has stood the test of time and remains a beloved classic in the American music canon. Its enchanting lyrics and captivating melody continue to resonate with audiences of all generations, reminding us of the enduring power and allure of love. Whether performed by jazz legends or contemporary artists, the song remains a testament to the magic of music and the eternal nature of love..
Reviews for "That Old Black Magic: An Ode to Forbidden Love"
1. John - 1 star
I found "That old black magic song" to be incredibly boring and repetitive. The melody was unoriginal and lacked any sort of catchiness. The lyrics were lackluster and didn't engage me in any way. I couldn't wait for the song to end and it left me feeling disappointed.
2. Sarah - 2 stars
I didn't enjoy "That old black magic song" at all. The vocals were weak and lacked emotion. The instrumentals were uninspiring and didn't add anything to the overall song. It just felt like a generic and forgettable track that I wouldn't choose to listen to again.
3. Mark - 2 stars
"That old black magic song" didn't leave a lasting impression on me. The production felt dull and the song lacked energy. The repetitive chorus became annoying after a while and I found myself losing interest halfway through. Overall, it just wasn't a memorable or enjoyable experience for me.
4. Emily - 1 star
I couldn't connect with "That old black magic song" at all. The melody was forgettable and the lyrics didn't resonate with me. The vocals were bland and lacked any sort of passion. I found myself skipping the song after listening to it for a minute as it failed to captivate my attention.
5. David - 2 stars
"That old black magic song" didn't live up to my expectations. The overall composition felt flat and unoriginal. The song failed to evoke any strong emotions or make me feel engaged. It simply passed by without leaving a lasting impact. I was left disappointed and underwhelmed by this song.