Show HN: Remote-Controlled IKEA Deathstar Lamp

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.

I owned one of these lights before it went viral and it was a nightmare to install. The thing doesn’t screw into the ceiling like every other light figure does. Instead you install a hook and dangle the damn thing off the hook. Which means the plastic surround never goes flush with the ceiling.

Even when you do finally get it flush after several painful iterations of hanging it, gravity stretches the cord causing the base to come slightly away from the ceiling again.

If you’re OCD like me, it made the light a horrible reminder of that OCD. So in the end I gave up on the light.

Pity because it’s a really cool looking light.

This lamp made a big splash among game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his friends/fans a few years back, because it resembles the first boss of Rez (on which Mizuguchi was the lead): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tStDX7QHNwI

When I saw this story I didn't recognize the model number and I thought "Hey, is that the Rez lamp?" sure enough...

Just in time for May 4th. Well done!

What a gem of a project. I am a huge fan of the PS 2014. To me it is one of the best IKEA products ever, even better than the discontiued Broder shelf system. We bought the large version with copper reflector for my son's room almost ten years ago and until today the mechanism works and it just looks great (it "ties the room together" for those who know). My idea was to replace the balls on the strings with little iron cast x-wings from a key chain ring, but they would always fly into the wrong direction, because the connector is at the back of the x-wing. I do not want some x-wings constantly flying cowardly away from our death star.

This project looks awesome and I will give it a shot, because it actually looks doable for a first ESP32 project. But I will first try it on the smaller version of the PS 2014 before I start working on my son's lamp.

Why does this lamp make people think of the death star? Me and my wife bought it ten years ago because of the cool mechanism and immediately started calling it the death star, but I struggle to see what the resemblance really is.

Didn't know anyone still used gitlab. Also video not working..

  ffmpeg \
   -pattern_type glob \
   -framerate 30 \
   -i "img/*.JPG" \
   -i "star_wars_style_march.mp3" \
   -s:v 1920x1080 \
   -c:a libopus \
   -c:v vp9 \
   -shortest \
   deathstar_timelapse.webm