LeLamp is a robot lamp you print, wire and program yourself

Five capabilities, most of them mechanical

LeLamp is described as an open source robot lamp based on Apple's Elegnt expressive functional movement work, made by Human Computer Lab. The interesting thing about the feature list is where the ambition sits. The lamp has 5-axis articulated movement driven by servo motors, computer vision through a Pi Camera, audio interaction with a microphone and a speaker, LED expressions through 24 programmable LEDs, and a record and replay function for custom movements. Four of those five are physical capabilities, which is unusual for an open source project: this is not a software project that happens to have hardware, it is a mechanical design with a behaviour layer attached. The LED expressions and the movement are the parts that make it read as expressive rather than decorative, and the record and replay feature means a movement can be captured once and repeated, which is what makes a repeatable gesture possible in the first place.

The build is a weekend of printing and wiring

The README states the build specs plainly: a cost of roughly 260 dollars, 8 to 12 hours, and an intermediate skill level. That number is the honest entry point for deciding whether this project fits your weekend. Twelve hours of work for a 3D printed shell, a set of servos, a Raspberry Pi camera, a microphone and a speaker is a busy but bounded task, and the intermediate skill label is a warning that the assembly guide assumes you can read a wiring diagram rather than that it will hold your hand. The mechanical side of the build is well served by the repository, because the 3D print files sit in a 3D directory at the top level and the corresponding CAD is published on OnShape, so you can inspect or modify the model rather than only print the file as given. The component list with suppliers is part of the documentation rather than a file at the root, which is the right place for a list that changes with component availability.

The documentation is the actual product here

The repository is mostly a documentation set, and the structure of it is the guide to the build. There is a prerequisites and planning document covering skills, tools and the component list, then a components and 3D parts document, then a lamp assembly document for the mechanical and electrical work, then a lamp setup document for the runtime, then a lamp control document, and finally a common issues document. The links are given in that order, and they are meant to be followed in that order, with the prerequisites document also serving as the entry point for the component list and its suppliers. Support is organised in the same practical way: a troubleshooting guide for common issues, a Discord community for real time help and discussion, and GitHub issues for bugs and questions. The project asks people to check existing issues before opening new ones, which is the sort of small politeness that tells you the maintainers read them. Contributions are welcomed in a specific list of categories, and they are documentation, hardware and design contributions rather than code: bug reports and fixes, documentation improvements, design enhancements, regional supplier information, and build photos and videos.

The runtime code is a separate repository

If you are looking for the code that makes the lamp move, it is not in this repository. The README points to the LeLamp Runtime Repository, humancomputerlab/lelamp_runtime, under Software Control, and this repository holds the 3D files, the docs, the sponsors and contributors files, a simulation directory, a licence and the readme. The split is sensible, because the runtime is software that changes and the hardware is a design that changes slowly, and the documentation page for lamp setup and lamp control is where the two are joined. The simulation directory at the root is the one hint that the behaviour is being worked on outside the hardware, since you can iterate on movement and expression logic without a printed shell and a set of servos in front of you. Anyone evaluating the project should read the runtime repository first, because the amount of working behaviour there is what decides whether LeLamp is a weekend project or a season.

Early development, and a closed source version to follow

The project status section is unusually direct. It marks the work as early development, says the project is actively being developed, and explains that the team published progress early to encourage community feedback and iteration. That framing is a good sign for a hardware project, since the alternative is a repository that appears finished and then has no updates. It also comes with a catch, and the project states it in two different ways in the same file. The update note at the top says the team is working on a closed source version that will release at the end of 2027, while the project status paragraph says the closed source version will release in 2026. Those two dates do not agree, and anyone planning around the open repository needs to decide which one to believe. The project also points to social channels for behind the scenes updates, on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and X, and the main website sits at lelamp.com.

Two ways in: print it yourself or register for a kit

The README offers both routes, and the difference between them matters for the effort involved. The build yourself route is what the documentation is written for: the component list with suppliers, the 3D print files in the 3D directory, the OnShape CAD, and the assembly documents. The alternative is a kit, and the project has a registration form for it, described as registering interest rather than as an open order page. What the kit includes is not spelled out in the file, so anyone hoping the kit removes the printing and wiring step is reading the wrong document. The 3D files and the documentation are worth reading even if you buy a kit, because the design and the CAD are what the open repository is for.

GPL-3.0 on the files, no releases, one maintainer

The licence is the GNU General Public License v3.0, with the licence file at the root, and that matters here because the repository contains hardware design files rather than only prose. Anyone who prints a shell and modifies the model, or forks the documentation for their own variant, inherits the share alike obligation of that licence, which is a different conversation from the one you have about a script. The repository has no GitHub releases, so there is no versioned artefact to download and no changelog of hardware revisions to read, and the last push was on 2026-08-17. Maintenance sits with Human Computer Lab, with the roles of contributors recorded in CONTRIBUTORS.md and the sponsor acknowledgements in SPONSORS.md. For a project at this stage, the fairest summary is that the design is published and usable today, the behaviour depends on a separate repository, and the roadmap points at a commercial version rather than at a mature open one.

Editorial conclusion

LeLamp suits a maker who is comfortable with 3D printing, soldering and a Raspberry Pi, and who wants a desk lamp that reacts rather than a finished product. It does not suit someone who wants a working lamp this week, because the project labels itself early development, publishes no GitHub releases, and is the open counterpart of a closed source version the team plans for 2027. Before you spend the weekend, read the prerequisites document for the component list, check the runtime repository to see how much of the behaviour is actually implemented, and confirm that you are happy with the GPL-3.0 licence on the hardware files.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. humancomputerlab/LeLamp on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: GPL-3.0
4. Project website
5. README