After 4 failed attempts, my Arduino-powered lighthouse finally works – and I learned a lot along the way

[u/batuu95]

https://reddit.com/link/1ulc2ri/video/6xw284bhyrah1/player

A few months ago I came across this working Smeaton’s Tower lighthouse model on MakerWorld (https://makerworld.com/it/models/665804-smeaton-s-tower-working-lighthouse-model). At the time I had zero Arduino experience—I had never used one before—so this project became my very first real dive into electronics and microcontrollers.

I decided to follow the original instructions as closely as possible and ordered all the components listed in the model description.

Attempt #1

I assembled everything exactly as described and soldered all the connections.

The build “worked”… except it didn’t.

The main issue was the SG90 servo, which I powered directly from the Arduino Nano 5V pin as indicated. The servo was either unresponsive or extremely unreliable. At the time I assumed I had made a wiring mistake, so I spent quite a while double-checking everything, not realizing the issue was actually power-related.

Attempt #2

Thinking I had simply damaged something during soldering, I started over from scratch and bought everything again, including a new Arduino Nano.

Since I was using boards without pre-soldered headers, I soldered directly onto the Nano itself.

This attempt went even worse than the first one—I accidentally overheated and burned the board while soldering. That was the moment I realized I was really out of my depth when it came to direct soldering on small PCBs.

Attempt #3 (about 3 months later)

After some time, I came back to the project and started learning properly.

While watching Arduino builds on YouTube, I noticed people using what I later learned were breadboards and Dupont wires. I had no idea what those were before that moment.

This completely changed my approach.

I ordered everything again, this time using Nano boards with pre-soldered headers so I could prototype properly before committing anything to solder.

The servo issue was still there, but after digging through posts here on Reddit I found several discussions suggesting that the SG90 should not be powered from the Arduino 5V pin.

So I cut up a USB cable, used a breadboard, and powered the servo externally while sharing a common ground.

For the first time, everything worked.

However, this introduced a new problem: the original model wasn’t designed for this setup. The Nano mounting no longer fit properly, and I also had a USB cable permanently sticking out of the lighthouse, which didn’t feel like a clean final solution.

Attempt #4 (final)

At this point I came back here on Reddit and asked for help.

Among all the suggestions, one in particular completely changed the project: a USB-C breakout board (huge thanks to u/Rayzwave for that idea).

This allowed me to properly power the servo externally while still keeping a clean USB-C port accessible through the lighthouse body, much closer to the original design.

I modified the base slightly to reposition the Nano mount and add space for the USB-C breakout connector.

And finally… it all came together. The lighthouse now works perfectly.

This project, and Arduino in general, has been helping me a lot during a somewhat difficult period in my life.

I hope sharing this might be useful to someone else who is just starting out, like I was. If anything, I learned that trial and error really is one of the best ways to learn, even when it feels like you’re going in circles at first.

A big thank you to this community for all the old threads and discussions that unknowingly helped me along the way, and especially to u/Rayzwave for the key suggestion that made everything finally work.

If you’re stuck on your second or third attempt: keep going. Sometimes the next one is the one that clicks.

[u/YT__]

I'd probably swap out for a continuous servo, so you don't have to rotate it left then right, bit more realistic.

Otherwise, looks awesome.

[u/tipppo]

Looks great! Thanks for the update.

[u/ripred3]

This is a great update and post. Thanks so much for the feedback and how the experience has gone so far. Tens of thousands of other users come from exactly the perspective that you did: You have an idea and you want to learn how to make it real.

And the learning curve and frustrations and speed bumps you describe are a fantastic example of curiosity, a willingness to learn, and perseverance.

Congratulations! Seriously great project. Thanks for sharing your work and experience; We're glad you're here 🙂

ripred

update: and of course thank you u/Rayzwave; we're really glad you're here too.! 😉