9 ms·

Induction powered LED lit engagement ring

771 points by bcl 13y ago

will_brown 13y ago
This is really awesome. Funny enough there was a post and on going discussion on HN recently regarding the social pressure on women to have a traditional diamond ring. I refrained from commenting, very unlike me, but I wanted to make the point at the time that if a women presented her friends with a small brown stone, but the back story was how her partner mined the diamond and shaped it himself, no store bought diamond or social norms could compare.
nine_k 13y ago
If I ever saw a work of love, this is it.
caycep 13y ago
but does it bind all the other rings of power?
- oneandoneis2 13y ago
  The Nine, Seven and the Three each had their proper gem, not so the One.
TERTEWRT 13y ago
ShareDeleteLikeReply leopoldolopez 4 hours ago NANO COMPUTER IN LATIN AMERICA FOOD. SEND IT TO ALL HACKERS. HANDLING HUMAN WITH SATELLITES COLAPS THEORY FOR ACCUMULATION BITS 0 BITS PER SECOND. SATELLITE CONTROL CENTERS FOR HANDLING OF VENEZUELAN CITIZEN. EXPEDINTS THEFT NOT KNOW FOR CRIMES MADE WITH SATELLITE - SATELLITE IN HARASSMENT ELETRONICO VENEZUELA. SATELLITE FOR DAMAGE radiation GENTICOS, DETERIROS BIOBOLOGICOS, CRIMES BY HANDLING. CHECKED THE FORUM IN THE FORUMS BUTTON. http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=70.0#postid-70 http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtop... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT CASE OF SPAIN, KINGS AND RECEIVING MONEY STEALING CRIMES AND GENOCIDE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI
TERTEWRT 13y ago
ShareDeleteLikeReply leopoldolopez 4 hours ago NANO COMPUTER IN LATIN AMERICA FOOD. SEND IT TO ALL HACKERS. HANDLING HUMAN WITH SATELLITES COLAPS THEORY FOR ACCUMULATION BITS 0 BITS PER SECOND. SATELLITE CONTROL CENTERS FOR HANDLING OF VENEZUELAN CITIZEN. EXPEDINTES THEFT NOT KNOW FOR CRIMES MADE WITH SATELLITE - SATELLITE IN HARASSMENT ELETRONICO VENEZUAL. SATELLITE FOR DAMAGE radiation GENTICOS, DETERIROS BIOBOLOGICOS, CRIMES BY HANDLING. CHECKED THE FORUM IN THE FORUMS BUTTON. http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=70.0#postid-70 http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtop... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT CASE OF SPAIN, KINGS AND RECEIVING MONEY STEALING CRIMES AND GENOCIDE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI EXPLANATION OF WHAT IS IN VOICE TO SKULL - VOICES IN THE BRAIN ESQUSOFRENIA SATELIES TRANSMITTED FROM SYNTHETIC - POLITICIANS WHO WANT WE BELIEVE THAT THINK that stain PATHOLOGY - EXPEDINTES THEFT NOT KNOW FOR CRIMES. DO BELIEVE MEANS THERE HANDLED AS POLITICAL ESQUISOFRENICOS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHfzBkaPYk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHfzBkaPYk Greg Szymanski interview with J. McKinney 1de3 Sub http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFifLT1WLe0&list=PLBF94757E4C770ED5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFifLT1WLe0&list=PLBF9475... "The Program", explained (The Takedown Program) Subtitled http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYy62kbNNNQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYy62kbNNNQ CASES IN ENGLAND. MODELS THAT PAID TO HANDLE A POLITICAL - CAPRILES EYE!!! VERY IMPORTANT DECISIONS WITH TAKING Construct FARADAY BOX. Electronic Harassment: Voices in My Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmE4oTXYmf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmE4oTXYmf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw ORGANIZED HARASSMENT ESTALKERANETAS USA EUROPE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e0JEPkmyJQ&list=PL17CE4A1D72DDB699 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e0JEPkmyJQ&list=PL17CE4A... cahnel history Vatican Organized Crime and the Mafia in Sicily (History Channel Documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMfNtwXupoE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMfNtwXupoE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw NEUROSKI AUDIFONOS PARA QUE HABLES CON TU PENSAMIENTO. LOS COMPRAS AQUI. www.neuroski.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tr4CjtGtvg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tr4CjtGtvg CASO DE ACOSO ELECTRONICO ESTADOS UNIDOS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkJTWENwkI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkJTWENwkI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw
monsterix 13y ago
Cool piece of work! How about making the ring glow in a particular color when the guy is in proximity? Imagine how awesome it'd be for the girl to get up and say "well, my boyfriend is here..." And on another note I figured that this is exactly how machines creep into our lives - emotional pitch. Live example!
- D9u 13y ago
  Reading the article, it appears that the ring only lights up when near the device worn on the man's forearm, but I'm not sure at what distance the illumination occurs.
  - monsterix 13y ago
    Yes, glowing when hands are close suggests that the two are 'zinged'. Triggering a color when the partner is close within a few feet after a period of absence would mean 'he is here'.
- dmix 13y ago
  ^ this is a great business opportunity.
- Void_ 13y ago
  "The blade glows blue when orcs are close."
- BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
  > "well, my boyfriend is here... I believe you meant "fiancé"!
- carlob 13y ago
  You could use the proximity sensor when cheating on your partner to know when to hide your lover under the bed.
  - reeses 13y ago
    Or when to jump out the window. I'm thinking a Logan's Run type implant is a good idea.
hkmurakami 13y ago
Haha I used to work with Ben (the OP) a few years ago and saw this on his FB over the weekend. He is an awesome and hilarious guy on top of being an amazing hacker (especially in hardware). It was a pleasure working with him for the few months before he left the company.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Awesome ring! At some point someone will make flex circuits for this type of application. And it certainly puts the old one-button rings from Dallas Semiconductor to shame :-)
- xradionut 13y ago
  Most of the button wasn't circuitry and the one wire chips were packaged in various formats depended on the use. There were some nifty amazing prototypes that never made it to the public. (I can neither confirm nor deny previous employment at DS or TI.) :P
D9u 13y ago
There's more "hacking" that went into this ring than most of the usual HN front page articles. This is truly an impressive bit of work, and I hope the author and his beloved share a happy and healthy life together for the rest of their days.
notatoad 13y ago
So the problem of attaching the stones was never really solved? that section seemed to be leading up to a moment of genius and a thrilling conclusion, but it looked like it was just epoxy in the end.
- VLM 13y ago
  By him, not really. Professionally the term to google for is stonesetting techniques. Its a pity titanium is an unholy pain to solder, otherwise he'd have been a perfect candidate for bezel mounting (basically think of how glass pieces are held in stained glass windows, wrap the edges with foil, more or less, and solder the foil). He has the same Polish made 5C collet chuck on his lathe as I have on mine in the basement.
Chocolator 13y ago
I still love my husband's grandmother's ring...but damn, this is cool.
Turing_Machine 13y ago
"Well, she insists that I change the design on this ring to make it more permanent and forgo a professionally made ring." You have a keeper here. I made a (low-tech) engagement ring for my late wife, years ago. She would never have dreamed of replacing it.
- hndude 13y ago
  I'm sorry for your loss
quackerhacker 13y ago
>There was a small hitch...i[t']s a really tight fit for her Definitely the Homer Simpson D'oh moment. Could you have shaved the inside to make the adjustments?
codex 13y ago
Impressive--but likely uncomfortable to wear because of the thickness and square edges. Perhaps a comfort fit finish on the interior, with rounded corners, and a third less thick.
steven2012 13y ago
What an awesome idea! You should have patented it!
- rcfox 13y ago
  Nikola Tesla might have something to say about that...
  - TimCinel 13y ago
    Do you mean Faraday?
    - tripzilch 13y ago
      No, for 70 years.
  - jameswyse 13y ago
    I doubt it, he has been dead for 70 years..
jcampbell1 13y ago
As a person who made his own titanium wedding ring, I have to laugh a bit. It appears this ring is chamfered on only one side. That makes it a bit of a chinese finger trap, easy to put on, uncomfortable to remove. A good metaphor. Don't tell my wife, but cutting a round chamfer on the back side of a ring is really hard. I built a custom chock and ground a tool to do just that. Assuming the diamonds are all recessed, cutting a backside chamfer shouldn't be impossible. Just chock, indicate, and re-chock, repeat, until you get it aligned. This is a brilliant piece of art. The only thing I would add is that titanium is a PITA, but while I have no experience, apparently most of the problems go away when you have coolant. I have seen production cutting tools at GE Aircraft and they rough cut like it is butter.
- omegant 13y ago
  It seems that feeding and cuting speeds are quite different from aluminium or steel. Also if it overheats it's like if you heat treat it, it becomes almost impossible to cut. That's why you must use coolant if you want to have some good results.
  - varjag 13y ago
    It depends on alloy. Commercial grade pure titanium and grade 5 alloy (probably 90% of Ti stock out there) are easy to machine. Harder than aluminium, sure, but not anywhere close to hardened steel. Titanium can be heat treated to an extent it doesn't gain that much. Also you really need a furnace for that kind of temperatures. You need coolant if you use high cutting speeds, it also helps to remove swarf. It's still possible to machine titanium dry with appropriately formed cutter and get a fine surface. (Source: I also turned two titanium rings)
    - KMag 13y ago
      Yes, the grandparent is probably misattributing annealing of the cutting tool to hardening of the Titanium. Titanium has a very high melting point and very low heat conductivity (for a metal). Using a hardened steel tool to cut Titanium too fast without sufficient cooling will heat up the tool hot enough to anneal the tool. It appears the Titanium has become harder, but in fact the steel tool has become less hard. Note, I'm talking about cutting rates that you'll achieve by hand or by conventional CNC machine tools. At very high cutting rates, the chip (discarded metal) carries away significant amounts of heat, and in some cases increasing cutting rate actually reduces tool temperature and prolongs tool life. This was an active area of research in the late 1990s.
kaeawc 13y ago
Ridiculously cool. Thanks for posting this!
shmerl 13y ago
Next project, the ring of power with glowing inscription?-)
tlrobinson 13y ago
"the stone would fracture along pre-existing crack lines." "The failure mechanism is that it CRUSHES the stone to dust" Presumably these weren't diamonds then...? Those would be expensive mistakes.
- ars 13y ago
  Small diamonds aren't all that expensive, especially if you get them with flaws (which are usually invisible anyway), and off colors (which can't be seen if the stone is mounted). Little ones (about the size on this ring) can be had for $5-$20.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
etrautmann 13y ago
Awesome idea! I was thinking of doing something similar using an energy scavenging IC with the coil and only pulsing the LED for brief flashes when enough charge is stored.
maximem 13y ago
Next step: the OAuth Ring ;)
- arethuza 13y ago
  There was a Java Ring back in '98: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/javaring-wearable-computer/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/javaring-wearable-computer/ I would imagine much smarter (and nicer looking) devices must be available, or at least possible, these days.
  - maximem 13y ago
    Awesome! ;) Access your cloud with your NFC OAuth ring. Maybe it could need a little bit more security in case you loose it (a DNA checker... just kidding).
  - codereflection 13y ago
    Creepy. The ring _and_ the picture. :)
  - adamio 13y ago
    You mean the iButton http://www.maximintegrated.com/products/ibutton/ http://www.maximintegrated.com/products/ibutton/
- skeletonjelly 13y ago
  Let's hope nobody makes a Token Ring
bjpirt 13y ago
Fantastic project! My wife and I spent the day making rings for each other here: http://www.weddingringworkshop.co.uk/cms.php?pageid=2 http://www.weddingringworkshop.co.uk/cms.php?pageid=2 which is highly recommended, but sadly we didn't have the option to add an inductively powered LED lighting element to them :-)
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
DanBC 13y ago
This is lovely! It's really interesting to see all the metal work stuff that went into making this ring. I love seeing the failures of mounting the stones. Seeing a product from start to finish is good, but seeing the problems encountered during the process is a better opportunity for me to learn. A gentle note of warning: if you ever have a problem with your finger please take off your titanium ring before your finger starts to swell. It's tricky for clinicians to cut off titanium rings. Gold and silver are much softer and much easier to cut off.
nicholassmith 13y ago
I really enjoy reading hardware write ups, because it's such a completely different set of skills and seems fascinating. Plus look at how awesome the finished product is, it's a clever combination of components and I'm not surprised his fiance said to just make it more polished.
sp332 13y ago
Figure 37 at the bottom reminds me of Iron Man :)
primo44 13y ago
This title is really difficult to parse as it is: "Induction powered LED lit engagement ring" mostly because it should be: "Induction-powered, LED-lit engagement ring"
- qu4z-2 13y ago
  I agree with "Induction-powered" and "LED-lit" but I think the comma is going too far. Then again I'm a comma minimalist ('though I do like the oxford comma for some reason).
jenius 13y ago
This is insane and very impressive, but I have to ask -- how does he have access to all these tools, and all this expertise? Is this a product of his job as an engineer? These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools and some seriously in-depth domain knowledge. Really impressive either way.
- nrivadeneira 13y ago
  At the bottom he mentions that he'd gotten some help from friends, however a lot of this is knowledge gained over time as an engineer and wisdom passed on from more senior engineers. Some engineers have their own metalworking equipment at home, but it's also possible he did this at his place of employment.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    He also mentions TechShop. Maybe after an edit? They sell access to machine tools and such: http://www.techshop.ws/ http://www.techshop.ws/
- HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
  A lot of people (self included) find machining to be a fun hobby.
- VLM 13y ago
  "These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools" A lathe like he has cost about what I paid for my wife's ring long ago. In retrospect I should have bought more tools and made her a ring with them. There is a HUGE impedance bump when talking about machinery like this with typical HN participants in that there is no/little evolution (aside from CNC) and depreciation is very slow, near zero. Its not impossible for depreciation rate to drop below inflation rate in some situations... Its not like video cards or CPUs at all. What I'm getting at is probably 95% of the money I've spent in computers since 1981 is in a dumpster right now, but roughly 95% of what I've spent on tools since then is still perfectly usable and in my basement. That, plus extensive trading up, is how old guys end up with amazing gear... no way they could afford to throw it all away and buy new every 5 years like computers, but they don't have to...
outworlder 13y ago
Now, this is the sort of stuff I expect to find on Hacker News. Awesome work. Since electronics are getting smaller, perhaps we are going to see more "useful" rings. RFID rings for identification, anyone?
- asciimo 13y ago
  You might enjoy http://hackaday.com/ http://hackaday.com/, if you don't already.
  - outworlder 13y ago
    Thank you for the link! I had seen that site before, but my brain's garbage collector removed it for some reason. Must be a bug :)
benjamincburns 13y ago
The ring I bought for my wife has a highly fluorescent solitary diamond. If you can find enough of these to fit your final version, and if you can find LEDs of a sufficient wavelength to trigger fluorescence, the result might be quite nice.
drone 13y ago
Excellent job, it reminds me a lot of the effort and creativity involved with the Gir Proposal Robot[1]. Kudos to the OP for taking the time, and effort, to create something unique while learning a lot in the process. You've set the bar higher for creative proposals =) Regarding stone-setting, a quick thought on that -- since you have to mount material (and fill) on the inside of the ring, could you not have made the holes larger on the inside than the outside, and fixed their positions from the filler?
- drone 13y ago
  FYI, to do this, you could use a back spot-facing tool.
- twrkit 13y ago
  link for the robot?
  - drone 13y ago
    Sorry, I failed to add that in: http://rangerx52.weebly.com/ http://rangerx52.weebly.com/
BostX 13y ago
Good luck at airport security checks :)
rdrey 13y ago
Now build a USB-powered mousepad to make her ring glow all day at work!
splendidfailure 13y ago
This is one of the most heartwarming things I've read on HN, thank you for posting details of how you did it!
codereflection 13y ago
This is awesome. I'm not sure my non-geek wife would like it, but I would have. Many people wear their rings in the shower, or even just washing their hands. I wonder how it stands up to water damage.
mickcartwright 13y ago
As neither a mechanic nor a photographer, thank you for the clear explanation. I learned a lot and was, at the same time, smiling... was your (now) fiance berating you during the development process for spending all of your time in the workshop/start up office or did she know what she is getting in to. Let's be honest, with your skill level on fabrication combined with curiosity I don't suppose this is the last project... Meanwhile a (long and rambling) question. With some friends we bought a friend a quality lathe for their birthday. I was involved in sneaking it in to their basement, and holy * was that thing heavy! During the write up you make use of various tools - some seem appear to be professional level, base mounted etc, then at the end you mention the dremel... right place/right time... does it do the job you expect of it? As an Englishman that moved to the US, 15 years later I am still trying to decipher infomercials, advertisements, brand names & US/Europe preconceptions, all comment welcome!

771 points by bcl 13y ago

This is really awesome. Funny enough there was a post and on going discussion on HN recently regarding the social pressure on women to have a traditional diamond ring. I refrained from commenting, very unlike me, but I wanted to make the point at the time that if a women presented her friends with a small brown stone, but the back story was how her partner mined the diamond and shaped it himself, no store bought diamond or social norms could compare.

nine_k 13y ago

If I ever saw a work of love, this is it.

caycep 13y ago

but does it bind all the other rings of power?

oneandoneis2 13y ago
The Nine, Seven and the Three each had their proper gem, not so the One.

TERTEWRT 13y ago

ShareDeleteLikeReply leopoldolopez 4 hours ago NANO COMPUTER IN LATIN AMERICA FOOD. SEND IT TO ALL HACKERS. HANDLING HUMAN WITH SATELLITES COLAPS THEORY FOR ACCUMULATION BITS 0 BITS PER SECOND. SATELLITE CONTROL CENTERS FOR HANDLING OF VENEZUELAN CITIZEN. EXPEDINTES THEFT NOT KNOW FOR CRIMES MADE WITH SATELLITE - SATELLITE IN HARASSMENT ELETRONICO VENEZUAL. SATELLITE FOR DAMAGE radiation GENTICOS, DETERIROS BIOBOLOGICOS, CRIMES BY HANDLING. CHECKED THE FORUM IN THE FORUMS BUTTON. http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=70.0#postid-70 http://www.liberenlosya.com/foros/?mingleforumaction=viewtop... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT CASE OF SPAIN, KINGS AND RECEIVING MONEY STEALING CRIMES AND GENOCIDE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MneBehy7atI EXPLANATION OF WHAT IS IN VOICE TO SKULL - VOICES IN THE BRAIN ESQUSOFRENIA SATELIES TRANSMITTED FROM SYNTHETIC - POLITICIANS WHO WANT WE BELIEVE THAT THINK that stain PATHOLOGY - EXPEDINTES THEFT NOT KNOW FOR CRIMES. DO BELIEVE MEANS THERE HANDLED AS POLITICAL ESQUISOFRENICOS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHfzBkaPYk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itHfzBkaPYk Greg Szymanski interview with J. McKinney 1de3 Sub http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFifLT1WLe0&list=PLBF94757E4C770ED5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFifLT1WLe0&list=PLBF9475... "The Program", explained (The Takedown Program) Subtitled http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYy62kbNNNQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYy62kbNNNQ CASES IN ENGLAND. MODELS THAT PAID TO HANDLE A POLITICAL - CAPRILES EYE!!! VERY IMPORTANT DECISIONS WITH TAKING Construct FARADAY BOX. Electronic Harassment: Voices in My Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmE4oTXYmf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmE4oTXYmf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw ORGANIZED HARASSMENT ESTALKERANETAS USA EUROPE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e0JEPkmyJQ&list=PL17CE4A1D72DDB699 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e0JEPkmyJQ&list=PL17CE4A... cahnel history Vatican Organized Crime and the Mafia in Sicily (History Channel Documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMfNtwXupoE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMfNtwXupoE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw NEUROSKI AUDIFONOS PARA QUE HABLES CON TU PENSAMIENTO. LOS COMPRAS AQUI. www.neuroski.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tr4CjtGtvg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tr4CjtGtvg CASO DE ACOSO ELECTRONICO ESTADOS UNIDOS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkJTWENwkI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkJTWENwkI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNOvF9iMhw

monsterix 13y ago

Cool piece of work! How about making the ring glow in a particular color when the guy is in proximity? Imagine how awesome it'd be for the girl to get up and say "well, my boyfriend is here..." And on another note I figured that this is exactly how machines creep into our lives - emotional pitch. Live example!

D9u 13y ago
Reading the article, it appears that the ring only lights up when near the device worn on the man's forearm, but I'm not sure at what distance the illumination occurs.
- monsterix 13y ago
  Yes, glowing when hands are close suggests that the two are 'zinged'. Triggering a color when the partner is close within a few feet after a period of absence would mean 'he is here'.
dmix 13y ago
^ this is a great business opportunity.
Void_ 13y ago
"The blade glows blue when orcs are close."
BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
> "well, my boyfriend is here... I believe you meant "fiancé"!
carlob 13y ago
You could use the proximity sensor when cheating on your partner to know when to hide your lover under the bed.
- reeses 13y ago
  Or when to jump out the window. I'm thinking a Logan's Run type implant is a good idea.

hkmurakami 13y ago

Haha I used to work with Ben (the OP) a few years ago and saw this on his FB over the weekend. He is an awesome and hilarious guy on top of being an amazing hacker (especially in hardware). It was a pleasure working with him for the few months before he left the company.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Awesome ring! At some point someone will make flex circuits for this type of application. And it certainly puts the old one-button rings from Dallas Semiconductor to shame :-)

xradionut 13y ago
Most of the button wasn't circuitry and the one wire chips were packaged in various formats depended on the use. There were some nifty amazing prototypes that never made it to the public. (I can neither confirm nor deny previous employment at DS or TI.) :P

D9u 13y ago

There's more "hacking" that went into this ring than most of the usual HN front page articles. This is truly an impressive bit of work, and I hope the author and his beloved share a happy and healthy life together for the rest of their days.

notatoad 13y ago

So the problem of attaching the stones was never really solved? that section seemed to be leading up to a moment of genius and a thrilling conclusion, but it looked like it was just epoxy in the end.

VLM 13y ago
By him, not really. Professionally the term to google for is stonesetting techniques. Its a pity titanium is an unholy pain to solder, otherwise he'd have been a perfect candidate for bezel mounting (basically think of how glass pieces are held in stained glass windows, wrap the edges with foil, more or less, and solder the foil). He has the same Polish made 5C collet chuck on his lathe as I have on mine in the basement.

Chocolator 13y ago

I still love my husband's grandmother's ring...but damn, this is cool.

Turing_Machine 13y ago

"Well, she insists that I change the design on this ring to make it more permanent and forgo a professionally made ring." You have a keeper here. I made a (low-tech) engagement ring for my late wife, years ago. She would never have dreamed of replacing it.

hndude 13y ago
I'm sorry for your loss

quackerhacker 13y ago

>There was a small hitch...i[t']s a really tight fit for her Definitely the Homer Simpson D'oh moment. Could you have shaved the inside to make the adjustments?

codex 13y ago

Impressive--but likely uncomfortable to wear because of the thickness and square edges. Perhaps a comfort fit finish on the interior, with rounded corners, and a third less thick.

steven2012 13y ago

What an awesome idea! You should have patented it!

rcfox 13y ago
Nikola Tesla might have something to say about that...
- TimCinel 13y ago
  Do you mean Faraday?
  - tripzilch 13y ago
    No, for 70 years.
- jameswyse 13y ago
  I doubt it, he has been dead for 70 years..

jcampbell1 13y ago

As a person who made his own titanium wedding ring, I have to laugh a bit. It appears this ring is chamfered on only one side. That makes it a bit of a chinese finger trap, easy to put on, uncomfortable to remove. A good metaphor. Don't tell my wife, but cutting a round chamfer on the back side of a ring is really hard. I built a custom chock and ground a tool to do just that. Assuming the diamonds are all recessed, cutting a backside chamfer shouldn't be impossible. Just chock, indicate, and re-chock, repeat, until you get it aligned. This is a brilliant piece of art. The only thing I would add is that titanium is a PITA, but while I have no experience, apparently most of the problems go away when you have coolant. I have seen production cutting tools at GE Aircraft and they rough cut like it is butter.

omegant 13y ago
It seems that feeding and cuting speeds are quite different from aluminium or steel. Also if it overheats it's like if you heat treat it, it becomes almost impossible to cut. That's why you must use coolant if you want to have some good results.
- varjag 13y ago
  It depends on alloy. Commercial grade pure titanium and grade 5 alloy (probably 90% of Ti stock out there) are easy to machine. Harder than aluminium, sure, but not anywhere close to hardened steel. Titanium can be heat treated to an extent it doesn't gain that much. Also you really need a furnace for that kind of temperatures. You need coolant if you use high cutting speeds, it also helps to remove swarf. It's still possible to machine titanium dry with appropriately formed cutter and get a fine surface. (Source: I also turned two titanium rings)
  - KMag 13y ago
    Yes, the grandparent is probably misattributing annealing of the cutting tool to hardening of the Titanium. Titanium has a very high melting point and very low heat conductivity (for a metal). Using a hardened steel tool to cut Titanium too fast without sufficient cooling will heat up the tool hot enough to anneal the tool. It appears the Titanium has become harder, but in fact the steel tool has become less hard. Note, I'm talking about cutting rates that you'll achieve by hand or by conventional CNC machine tools. At very high cutting rates, the chip (discarded metal) carries away significant amounts of heat, and in some cases increasing cutting rate actually reduces tool temperature and prolongs tool life. This was an active area of research in the late 1990s.

kaeawc 13y ago

Ridiculously cool. Thanks for posting this!

shmerl 13y ago

Next project, the ring of power with glowing inscription?-)

tlrobinson 13y ago

"the stone would fracture along pre-existing crack lines." "The failure mechanism is that it CRUSHES the stone to dust" Presumably these weren't diamonds then...? Those would be expensive mistakes.

ars 13y ago
Small diamonds aren't all that expensive, especially if you get them with flaws (which are usually invisible anyway), and off colors (which can't be seen if the stone is mounted). Little ones (about the size on this ring) can be had for $5-$20.
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etrautmann 13y ago

Awesome idea! I was thinking of doing something similar using an energy scavenging IC with the coil and only pulsing the LED for brief flashes when enough charge is stored.

maximem 13y ago

Next step: the OAuth Ring ;)

arethuza 13y ago
There was a Java Ring back in '98: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/javaring-wearable-computer/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/javaring-wearable-computer/ I would imagine much smarter (and nicer looking) devices must be available, or at least possible, these days.
- maximem 13y ago
  Awesome! ;) Access your cloud with your NFC OAuth ring. Maybe it could need a little bit more security in case you loose it (a DNA checker... just kidding).
- codereflection 13y ago
  Creepy. The ring _and_ the picture. :)
- adamio 13y ago
  You mean the iButton http://www.maximintegrated.com/products/ibutton/ http://www.maximintegrated.com/products/ibutton/
skeletonjelly 13y ago
Let's hope nobody makes a Token Ring

bjpirt 13y ago

Fantastic project! My wife and I spent the day making rings for each other here: http://www.weddingringworkshop.co.uk/cms.php?pageid=2 http://www.weddingringworkshop.co.uk/cms.php?pageid=2 which is highly recommended, but sadly we didn't have the option to add an inductively powered LED lighting element to them :-)

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DanBC 13y ago

This is lovely! It's really interesting to see all the metal work stuff that went into making this ring. I love seeing the failures of mounting the stones. Seeing a product from start to finish is good, but seeing the problems encountered during the process is a better opportunity for me to learn. A gentle note of warning: if you ever have a problem with your finger please take off your titanium ring before your finger starts to swell. It's tricky for clinicians to cut off titanium rings. Gold and silver are much softer and much easier to cut off.

nicholassmith 13y ago

I really enjoy reading hardware write ups, because it's such a completely different set of skills and seems fascinating. Plus look at how awesome the finished product is, it's a clever combination of components and I'm not surprised his fiance said to just make it more polished.

sp332 13y ago

Figure 37 at the bottom reminds me of Iron Man :)

primo44 13y ago

This title is really difficult to parse as it is: "Induction powered LED lit engagement ring" mostly because it should be: "Induction-powered, LED-lit engagement ring"

qu4z-2 13y ago
I agree with "Induction-powered" and "LED-lit" but I think the comma is going too far. Then again I'm a comma minimalist ('though I do like the oxford comma for some reason).

jenius 13y ago

This is insane and very impressive, but I have to ask -- how does he have access to all these tools, and all this expertise? Is this a product of his job as an engineer? These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools and some seriously in-depth domain knowledge. Really impressive either way.

nrivadeneira 13y ago
At the bottom he mentions that he'd gotten some help from friends, however a lot of this is knowledge gained over time as an engineer and wisdom passed on from more senior engineers. Some engineers have their own metalworking equipment at home, but it's also possible he did this at his place of employment.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  He also mentions TechShop. Maybe after an edit? They sell access to machine tools and such: http://www.techshop.ws/ http://www.techshop.ws/
HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
A lot of people (self included) find machining to be a fun hobby.
VLM 13y ago
"These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools" A lathe like he has cost about what I paid for my wife's ring long ago. In retrospect I should have bought more tools and made her a ring with them. There is a HUGE impedance bump when talking about machinery like this with typical HN participants in that there is no/little evolution (aside from CNC) and depreciation is very slow, near zero. Its not impossible for depreciation rate to drop below inflation rate in some situations... Its not like video cards or CPUs at all. What I'm getting at is probably 95% of the money I've spent in computers since 1981 is in a dumpster right now, but roughly 95% of what I've spent on tools since then is still perfectly usable and in my basement. That, plus extensive trading up, is how old guys end up with amazing gear... no way they could afford to throw it all away and buy new every 5 years like computers, but they don't have to...

outworlder 13y ago

Now, this is the sort of stuff I expect to find on Hacker News. Awesome work. Since electronics are getting smaller, perhaps we are going to see more "useful" rings. RFID rings for identification, anyone?

asciimo 13y ago
You might enjoy http://hackaday.com/ http://hackaday.com/, if you don't already.
- outworlder 13y ago
  Thank you for the link! I had seen that site before, but my brain's garbage collector removed it for some reason. Must be a bug :)

benjamincburns 13y ago

The ring I bought for my wife has a highly fluorescent solitary diamond. If you can find enough of these to fit your final version, and if you can find LEDs of a sufficient wavelength to trigger fluorescence, the result might be quite nice.

drone 13y ago

Excellent job, it reminds me a lot of the effort and creativity involved with the Gir Proposal Robot[1]. Kudos to the OP for taking the time, and effort, to create something unique while learning a lot in the process. You've set the bar higher for creative proposals =) Regarding stone-setting, a quick thought on that -- since you have to mount material (and fill) on the inside of the ring, could you not have made the holes larger on the inside than the outside, and fixed their positions from the filler?

drone 13y ago
FYI, to do this, you could use a back spot-facing tool.
twrkit 13y ago
link for the robot?
- drone 13y ago
  Sorry, I failed to add that in: http://rangerx52.weebly.com/ http://rangerx52.weebly.com/

BostX 13y ago

Good luck at airport security checks :)

rdrey 13y ago

Now build a USB-powered mousepad to make her ring glow all day at work!

splendidfailure 13y ago

This is one of the most heartwarming things I've read on HN, thank you for posting details of how you did it!

codereflection 13y ago

This is awesome. I'm not sure my non-geek wife would like it, but I would have. Many people wear their rings in the shower, or even just washing their hands. I wonder how it stands up to water damage.

mickcartwright 13y ago

As neither a mechanic nor a photographer, thank you for the clear explanation. I learned a lot and was, at the same time, smiling... was your (now) fiance berating you during the development process for spending all of your time in the workshop/start up office or did she know what she is getting in to. Let's be honest, with your skill level on fabrication combined with curiosity I don't suppose this is the last project... Meanwhile a (long and rambling) question. With some friends we bought a friend a quality lathe for their birthday. I was involved in sneaking it in to their basement, and holy * was that thing heavy! During the write up you make use of various tools - some seem appear to be professional level, base mounted etc, then at the end you mention the dremel... right place/right time... does it do the job you expect of it? As an Englishman that moved to the US, 15 years later I am still trying to decipher infomercials, advertisements, brand names & US/Europe preconceptions, all comment welcome!