Light Up Pyramid by Ice, Lanie, and Sheena

So this past week, we decided to create a three-dimensional light-up paper pyramid. This group was made up of Sheena, Ice, and Lanie. We originally thought that a pyramid would be a simple shape to create and add an electronic component/circuitry to, but it was much more complicated than we expected! However, we figured all of our problems out and completed the project very successfully.

First, we started by creating the pyramid template to ultimately fold into the 3-dimensional pyramid shape. We researched different sizes and designs, but we decided on a simple, small three-dimensional pyramid template. We researched many different sizes online, and then copied one we found onto paper, measuring so the lines would all match up as you can see below:

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We also decided to print out an already created template, and use that as a practice pyramid to see what ours would look like in the end (you can see Sheena cutting that out in the first image). However, we created our own template from our research, and I traced it out in Illustrator, so someone could recreate it again with the vinyl cutter if they wanted to.

We cut out a geometric pattern to add a little flair to the simple pyramid, and here you can see Sheena cutting out the shapes:

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And here is the Illustrator (screenshot) of the reproduce-able template I created in Illustrator with fold marks in purple:Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 10.36.28 PM

 

So, after we sketched out our pyramid design, we created the circuit pattern to connect the battery to light up our LED in the pyramid. We used copper tape in the interior of the pyramid, connecting the power source (battery) to the light (LED).

Here’s Sheena and Ice figuring out where everything should be placed:

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Once we figured out a successful design for the LED, we soldered:

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So we soldered the LED and the battery onto the copper tape in order to complete the circuit. You can see this above and below Sheena is soldering the copper tape together to complete the circuit.

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So, we soldered the copper tape together, and created a switch with the copper tape and the battery was then soldered on the left side (where there are two pieces of copper tape sticking up in the picture) and then the LED was attached where it says “LED”.

So in the end, after soldering and folding it back to the three-dimensional pyramid shape, this is the final pyramid (in the dark to emphasize the LED aspect):

 

ePaper and Origami – Black Lighting Diamond – Eden

This is the process I’ve been through to create this Black Diamond ePaper.

First step: The realisation of the origami as a test to check if the idea I had in mind could work.

I’ve laser cut it to get perfect lines.

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Second step: Do the same with the actual paper which is thicker and black.

I added these illustrations in order to let the light come out from the origami.

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This is the materials I used to create the circuit.

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Third step: Solder the circuit

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Forth step: connect the generator to check if the circuit is correctly done

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This is the final result :

Daylight:

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Nightlight:

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3D LED circuit. Dasha

For my 3D circuit, I decided to make an origami vase, so i used a tutorial and this is what I ended up with:

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When I started thinking about how I’m going to create a circuit in the vase I realized that it would be very difficult to do what I wanted with just one vase. I could do it but it wouldn’t look good because the copper tape would be everywhere, so I decided to make another vase and put it on top of the first one, so that one vase would have the copper tape and the battery, and another would just have the LED.

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So the bottom piece had the battery in it and I had solder all of the copper tape:

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This is what the top part looks like from the inside:

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Here is a picture of the bottom part, where you can see the space in which the battery went:

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How it works:

All you have to do is push two sides of the bottom part of the vase together to make the top part light up!

 

Superman for a while_Eden Tartour

Superman for a while

I decided to hack the key space of the keyboard I had, and I connected it to this red blanket which made me think of Superman’s mantle. To make it work the way I wanted, I create a code that would play the soundtrack of Superman original film and will show a picture of him. When the circuit isn’t closed, the song stops playing and the image disappear.

 

This video show the process I went through, and there’s a few images too.

click here

 

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BowlFlix: Bowl that controls Netflix with a keyboard circuit board

 

I started off this project by opening a keyboard to get out the circuit board that I would eventually use to create a bowl that would pause and play netflix.

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Once I opened the keyboard I had to sand the circuit board to then attach cables to it.

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I used a plate and a fork to test out whether the connection would work.

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Then I figured out what combination made a the “enter” button and soldered the cables to it.  IMG_4678

Finally I attached the cables to the plate and fork for a test run.

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Then I used a bowl and a spoon and it all worked!

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Here’s a video of how BowlFlix works without any contents in it:

Here is the final version of BowlFlix with cereal:

 

 

Party Shuffler ~ keyboard hack project

So this week, Sheena, Ice, and I (Lanie) hacked a keyboard (well, three technically, between all of us) and decided to create a party shuffle player for music. Essentially, one would tap the enter button to play the song, and then the shuffle button to play the next song.

So first, we first took apart our keyboards, and then tested the wire on the board through trial and error, trying different combinations with wire. We tried so many, and it took very long, but eventually we did find what we wanted. We went through a few different projects-first we were going to do a video game, and use the up and down keys, but that seemed way too complicated, so we decided to do a music player. In the end, we went through three different circuit boards. We soldered every time, burnt many pins, but eventually, our third one was the most successful, with 3/4 pins soldered (one broke in the end, unfortunately-as of right now, but it may be fixed after this post has been uploaded so I will update accordingly if so). So, every time we had a new board, we had to find the keys that matched with the pins. It was definitely arduous, but we really just tried our best.

So for this music player, we used fabric, sponges, and the wire and circuit board. We created it so that when you press the sponges, you either play a song, or move onto the next one. We did this through finding the keys from the hacked keyboard. It’s a simple idea, but we put so much work into making it work successfully.

Here are the two fabric pieces that would be pressed to either play a song or play the next song

Here are the two fabric pieces that would be pressed to either play a song or play the next song.

So, we sewed together the fabric, soldered the pieces together, and incorporated copper tape to stick the wires together to complete the circuit and allow for the board to work. In order for it to work the USB must be plugged into the computer, and when the sponge is pressed, the music is played or skipped, as previously mentioned.

Here is our process in images:

We first tested the pins to see what matched with what key:

Once we figured out the pattern of keys, we started soldering:

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Then we designed our play and shuffle buttons we eventually sewed onto fabric:

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Here is a video testing our sponges and circuit:

Then we figured out where the copper tape and wire would be connected to the sponges in order to complete the circuit:

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More soldering..this time we soldered the wires to the sponges/copper tape inserts:

 

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Then we ironed the play button/shuffle pattern, sewed the copper tape and circuit wires into the fabric:

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And did some more sewing of the copper tape component to complete the circuit:

 

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This was the best video of our circuitry working before the solder broke off of our board:

So, we tried really hard overall to get this to work, and we learned so much from this project; soldering, circuitry, and most importantly, how to hack three different keyboards (in this case). It may not be as complete as we wanted, but we put an immense amount of work in, and tried our absolute best on this project.

That’s it for this week!

Reading Glove

Reading Glove

I wanted to make a glove which allowed you to read in bed without having to use the effort to hold up a book or a computer, allowing you to fall asleep while reading.  Theoretically, you could connect your computer to a projector and lay in bed with your book projected onto the ceiling, using the glove to turn the pages.

materials: keyboard with usb connection, gloves, wires, aluminium foil, soldering iron and tin

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After hours of testing with a wire which key was which with the switchboard, I began by soldering the keys for space bar

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Burnt through the copper traces, almost had to start over. However, luckily I was just able to change my key from SPACE to (–>) and it serves the same function in iBooks.

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bringing the wire through the gloves

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used aluminium foil to create conductive fingers.  You tap your fingers together to turn the pages.

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<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/141026737″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/141026737″>Reading Glove</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user38490563″>Amanda Lewis</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

all done!

 

Epaper

Making a table tealight

Materials: paper, copper tape, small battery,

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I drew where I would place the circuit on the inside of the paper

 

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placing the copper tape — the LED will go in the middle

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I cut a slit to the outside of the tea light so that I could make a switch with one of the folds on the outside, because you cant turn the switch on the inside

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looking at how I’m going to place the LED before soldering

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soldered the LED

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taped the battery in place and finished soldering the connections

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it works!

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the switch on the outside