Author: John Xu

Concept

In this Wearable Electronics final open project. I want to make a piece that is closely related to my major, Jewelry. A brooch design had stayed in my mind since the moment I took this course. To keep the design simpler, I chose a flower pattern to incorporate with one of my previous expressive wearable assignments, the Pleasant Shaker. This brooch will be worn on my working apron as the medal shows the completion of this Wearable Electronic Course, my last elective course in OCAD.

Objective

Start from high school, my favourite course is called metal design, a very simple course teaches basic metalworking skills, such as fabricating, soldering, and casting, etc… When it comes to picking a post-graduation institute, I went straight to OCAD because its MAAD program had a branch call Jewelry. The very first class in OCAD was the Intro to Jewelry course. This course teaches the same staff just like what I learned in high school. So that I put more attention around the classroom. The most attractive thing in the class is the brooch pins where our instructors hang on their apron. The brooches are not very shiny but hang like medals from their career. So that I want to make something showing the graduation of this course.

Process

Take the case out from the Pleasant Shaker assignment.

It reserved the opening for the power cord on the bottom.

Create the repeat pattern for the lid.

Reangle the patterns and place into the right height.

Make two branch to place the brooch pin back.

Print it out with clear resin and remove the sprues.

Glue the pins with super glue.

Final Image

Not activate

Activate

Part List

• CPX
• Power cable
• Power Bank
• Pin Back
• LCD 3D Printer
• Transparent Resin

Code

https://makecode.com/_EeA94J1E823X

Reflection and Next step

For the power cord, I tried to remove the protective rubber layer on the type-c cord. But it makes the connection weaker to work with. Unfortunately, the power cord breaks when I tried to insert it into the case. In the future, I will try to show some of the electronics rather than put them all in the case. If the design in the proper way some of the electronic units can be more attractive than the outer case. To simplify the design in the future work will be considered more like only make a frame to hold the electronic units like gemstones. Even though the CPX is a powerful unit to work with, I will still try to incorporate more other electronic units in the future. After working through this course, I had learned a lot about how the electronic unit can be incorporated in the form of jewelry. I started building the basic knowledge around wearable electronics and will keep developing it with jewelry in the future.

Reference

Blaine, E. (2020, September 17). New Guide: Glowing Wire Wrap Necklace Tutorial – Programmable with USB Charging. Adafruit Industries – Makers, Hackers, Artists, Designers and Engineers! https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/09/17/new-guide-glowing-wire-wrap-necklace-tutorial-programmable-with-usb-charging/

Skill Sharing workshop – Fruit Piano

 

Group 5:

Ivy Sun

Rhepa Kamal

John Xu

Ethan Griffin

Intro 

In this skill-sharing workshop, we will be making a fruit piano. The fruit piano will consist of real fruits attached to the circuit playground express and will play a tune when the fruits are touched. We followed a tutorial online, then implemented our own personalization to it which the other group will follow. This tutorial is unusual since we are using fruits as a capacitive touch which is why we chose this. 

Materials required

• 1x Circuit Playground Express
• 6x Fruits. (in our case we used oranges, kiwi, lemon and apples.)
• 6x Alligator clips
• 1x USB cable

 

Where to buy materials

Fruits 

• Any grocery stores either local or big.
• Supermarkets.
• Food marts…etc.

Circuit playground express 

• Digikey
• Amazon
• Creaton(if living in Toronto).

Alligator clips

• Digikey
• Amazon
• Michaels
• Walmart
• Creaton(if living in Toronto)…etc.

Micro USB data

• Amazon.
• Digikey.
• Best Buy.
• The source.
• Any local or electric store…etc.

Link to the tutorial video

Group 5 Fruit Piano Tutorial

Circuit Diagrams (if used) 

Step by step documentation of the workshop process with images.

Making The Code

1. The first step is to put the “On Start” block and add the “Set Volume” to 255.

2. Add an “If” statement block. That is where we will create our events. Then drag in the “Input is pressed” block in the “if” statement true section in order for the capacitive touch to work. Proceed to add a tone with any choice of the keys that will play the sound.

3. Add a rest block of half a beat. This is necessary and important because it delays half a second to avoid repeating sounds.

4. Add any color of your choice and a clear block. The clear block will clear the sound after triggering it. Proceed to copy and paste the whole “If” statement blocks.  Make sure to change the colors, the tone and the “Input is pressed” block for each section. 

 

 

 

Code Link

https://makecode.com/_5EzV81A5D8Cv

 

 

Building The Piano

1. Attach the alligator clips onto the CPX touchpads. We used A1,A2,A3,A4,A5 and A6.

2. Attach the other end of the alligator clip onto the lemon.

3. Connect your micro USB data onto the CPX and power source and that should be the overall look. Do not arrange them too close to each other, or it will cause interference!

 

 

Bonus & Reflection

This was a fun project to do. Besides experimenting with fruits, we also experimented with vegetables and got interesting results! We tested out by using carrots, cabbage, potato, tomato, mushroom, pumpkin avocado and Taro.

Potato, tomato, mushroom, avocado and taro, worked. Pumpkin was the only one that didn’t work. With carrots and cabbage, it was really weird because it kept triggering. We’re not sure why, but it could be affected by the water and acid in the fruits. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to experiment with this project with various ranges of fruits and vegetables. 

 

Related tutorials & works cited in APA.

Inspired by:

Nelson, C. (2016, November 15). Circuit Playground Fruit Drums. Retrieved March 14, 2021, from https://learn.adafruit.com/circuit-playground-fruit-drums

Park, J. (2017, December 11). FruitBox Sequencer: Musically Delicious Step Pattern Generator. Retrieved March 14, 2021, from https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-fruitbox-sequencer-musically-delicious-step-pattern-generator

The lime tutorial we mainly absorbed:

Rembor, K. (2020, July 1). Circuit Playground Express: Piano in the Key of Lime. Retrieved March 14, 2021, from https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/projects/circuit-playground-express-piano-in-the-key-of-lime/00fa9517033d464a90836581abddf2fc

 

For this expressive wearable, I want to make something to react with the movement of shaking legs. The piece will mount on a shoe with a shoelace. A CPX will be placed inside the designed case. Through my observation, shaking leg is a common action that can reflect one’s psychological reaction to certain things. This initial idea was coming from a Texas poker game experience with my friends. When holding a good pair of hole cards (two cards in hand), he shakes his leg in a higher than usual frequency. While with a plain pair of cards, he stops shaking his leg and may fold his cards within the first two rounds. Also with a good pair of cards but other players are raising the bet, he will step his feet in a low frequency which means he is calculating the chance of winning. In a poker game, players are more focused on the face of their opponents.  Experienced players can guess their opponent’s card by watching the micro-expressions on their faces. With good control on their faces, they may have less control over their lower body.

Inspired by this poker experience and previous shoe customization experience, I have gained the idea of making an add-on device on the shoe. This pleasant shaker shows the tiny expressions of happiness through habits people rarely pay attention to. A straw shows which way the wind blows. A small detail can change something really big.

The CPX is programmed in three modes: constant sparking mode when no motion detected, an animation loop of LEDs when shaking legs, a circle of light blue colour LEDs with stepping (triggered while walking or stamp).

Sparkling LEDs in a loop represent quiet and calm thinking.

Animation LEDs represent excitement.

Light blue LEDs represent thinking in progress.

Objective

By making this project, I want to make myself pay more attention to the small behaviours. Body language can reflect more pieces of information about a person than simply using oral language. Take good control of my own body helps me organized the body and take the initiative in certain things.

Process

Start case prototype trying to fit the CPX.

 

Second prototype. Resizing the mould.

 

Third Prototype. Adding pattern to the lid. (Printing horizontally. Failed)

 

Fourth Prototype. Soften the edges and print vertically.

 

Fifth Prototype. Chang to Black resin for lower transparency.

(Not perfect with the lid)

Sixth Prototype. FINALLY!!!

Assemble on the shoe.

Sparkling Mode

Sparkling

Shaking Mode

Animation LEDs

Sramp Mode

Light Blue LEDs

Material list

The CPX

USB-C Cord

LCD 3D Printer

LCD Transparent/Black Resin

Girlfriend’s Nike Air Force 1

Code

Reflection & Next Step

The final result turns out better than I expected. In my first four moulds, I was planned to add a battery in the back of the case. However, I have tried a few methods to connect the CPX and battery, but it doesn’t work. It is a good inspired project which I can develop further with more sizes of the circuit board. For future development, I will definitely optimize the code for a more accurate reaction to the movement.

References

Prior, O. (2021). MakeCode Introduction [Online Lecture]. Retrieved from https://canvascloud.ocadu.ca/courses/1271/pages/makecode-introduction-45-minutes?module_item_id=109475

Prior, O. (2021). Basic Circuits & Circuit Demonstration [Online Lecture]. Retrieved from https://canvascloud.ocadu.ca/courses/1271/pages/basic-circuits-and-circuit-demonstration-~30-min?module_item_id=108562