Group Members + Responsibilities:
Hedy Fu: Blog+ Video Edit
Zoe Roiati-Antonucci: Code
Vermont Urbanovich: Filming
Vaneeza Usman: Written Tutorials
Concept
Our goal is to create a simple tool that will allow people to switch diffusion materials easily. It is highly inspired by how cameras are designed with removable and switchable lens.
Materials (and where to get them)
For Constructing the circuit:
- Circuit Playground Express (CPX) (Creatron)
- 1 – 220-ohm resistor (Creatron)
- 1 – LED (Creatron)
- 1 – Photosensor (Creatron)
- 1 – 10K resistor(Creatron)
- 6 Alligator Clips (if you don’t want to sew your circuit) (Creatron)
- Conductive Thread (Creatron)
- Sewing Needle (at home or a local crafts store like Michaels)
- Thread (at home or a local crafts store like Michaels)
- Scissors (at home or a local crafts store like Michaels)
- Felt (at home or a local crafts store like Michaels)
- Paper and Pen (Sketching) (at home or a local crafts store like Michaels)
Diffusion Materials:
- Cotton balls (at home or grocery store)
- Cling Film/Saran wrap (at home or grocery store)
Circuit Diagrams
Step by Step
Sewing:
- Draw the circuit, on a piece of paper. Attach the photosensor to pin 3.3V, with the 10K resistor on the line, a connection line in between that goes to pin A5, and the LED to pin A1 with the 220-ohm resistor.
- Once you are happy with the circuit design draw the circuit on the felt.
- Sew the CPX to the felt using thread, loop through each pin.
- Sew through pin 3.3V with conductive thread, loop around 3 times then sew to where the Photosensor will be placed.
- Take the photosensor and curl the legs to form a circle that can be looped through. Loop through the first curled leg of the Photosensor and tie off the conductive thread.
- Loop through the second curled leg with a new string of conductive thread sewing till the location of the 10K resistor.
- Curl the legs of the resistor and sew the first leg down then tie off the conductive thread.
- Start again at the second leg of the Photoresistor and loop through it a few times. Next sew to the A5 pin, loop around it and tie off the thread.
- Taking a new piece of conductive thread sew the last leg down and sew to a GND (ground) pin on the CPX.
- Repeat the same process (steps 5-9 but not step 8) for the LED and the 220 ohm resistor on pin A1. But make sure to sew the long leg first, The shorter leg will be connected with the same piece of conductive thread as the 220ohm resistor.
- Connect your CPX to your computer and follow the steps to create the code. Then take different materials and cover the LED to understand what are the different ways that an LED can be diffused. Also, try and see how the light bounces off some of the materials provided.
Alligator Clips:
- Attach one alligator clip pin 3.3V, the first clip on the pin and the second on one leg of the photoresistor.
- Connect the other leg of the photosensor to another alligator clip, and then attach it to pin A5.
- Connect another alligator clip to the same leg of the photoresistor attach the other side to the 10K resistor.
- Connect an alligator clip to the 10K resistor and then to GND (ground).
- Connect an alligator clip to A1, the first clip on the pin and the second clip will connect to the long leg of the LED, the anode.
- Take another alligator clip and connect it to the short leg of the LED, connect the other side to the 220-ohm resistor.
- Connect the last alligator clip to the 220-ohm resistor and to any remaining ground pins available on the CPX.
Connect your CPX to your computer and create the code. Then take different materials and cover the LED to understand what are the different ways that an LED can be diffused. Also, try and see how the light bounces off some of the materials provided.
Make Code, Fade the LED:
- Open a new Make Code document and add an “on start” block
- Create two variables, one for max brightness and one for minimum brightness.
- Open the “set {variable} to __” from the variables folder, create two. Set the Max brightness to 180 and minimum brightness variable to 40. Put the two blocks inside “on start”.
- Create a variable called “control”.
- Set control as “analog read pin A5” and place it within the “forever” block.
- Create another to set a value to “control”.
- Take three math blocks one for multiplication, subtraction and division.
- Add the max brightness bubble to the first location of the multiplication function.
- Take the subtraction bubble and place it in the second location of the multiplication bubble.
- Set the first value of the subtraction bubble to one, drag the division function to the second location of the subtraction bubble.
- Add the control bubble to the first location of the division bubble, make the second value 1023.
- Take the multiplication bubble that holds the subtraction and the division bubbles and place it as the value of control. Place this variable block below “set control to analog pin A5”
- Create a logic statement using the conditional if statement with a comparison block of less than “<“.
- Set the comparison to “control” is less than “min brightness” and place this comparison in the conditional statement.
- If the conditional statement becomes true “set control to min brightness”.
- After the if statement “set analog write pin A1 to control.”
- Plug in your CPX and try the code.
Link to the Tutorial Video
References
Blaine, Erin St. “Steven Universe Wearable, Fusable Gem.” Adafruit Learning System, 6 Mar. 2019, learn.adafruit.com/steven-universe-wearable-fusable-gem.
Brothers, Ruiz. “Touch Tone for Circuit Playground Express.” Adafruit Learning System, 27 June 2018, learn.adafruit.com/touch-tone-for-circuit-playground-express.
“Tester Tools: Bracelets.” HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT, www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7881.
Wong, Sophy. “Con Badge with Circuit Playground Express.” Adafruit Learning System, 19 Mar. 2018, learn.adafruit.com/circuit-playground-express-con-badge.