Make: Online: MAKE Projects Archives

Archive: MAKE Projects

August 22, 2009

How-To: Quick, cheap soldering stand

Teach your family to solder! Take a few pictures tagged as "MAKEcation" and put them in the MAKE Flickr pool by September 9th to enter to win a $100 Maker Shed gift certifiate!

If you are looking to introduce soldering to your classes this school year, you should consider having students use a soldering vise or other holder to secure the circuit board. Keeping the components in place will help students get the hang of soldering quicker than if the board and parts are loose on the table or held by hand. I've been messing with this idea more since using the PanaVise my brother employed to solder the boards for his HeathKit amateur radio back in the day. While super nice to use, a well-made vise like this is too expensive and too easily broken for classroom use. This design can be easily made from readily available supplies from the supply cabinet and a few pieces from either maintenance or home.

My first iteration of the design was pretty simple, a scrap of 1"x3" strapping placed onto a scrap of 3/4" plywood. On the strapping, I screwed down a binder clip with a washer to help the sheet rock screw hold down the handle of the clip. I had some ideas of using water bottles from the recycling bin to hold parts, but plastic near hot iron is a bad combination. There were a few problems with the design, so I made another run at it. The idea behind this project is to create a functional tool, which should be something that kids could make themselves for use at home, or a teacher could bang out a bunch of them pretty quickly and inexpensively to set up several soldering stations.

Skills in this project (you can pick which ones you want to focus on):

Measuring for a cut
Cutting with a handsaw
Cutting with a power saw like a miter box
Designing with CAD (extrusions, assembly, or if you want to get hard core, you can even design the screws with a revolve and put threads on them too)
Making and following drawings for manufacturing
Manufacturing processes
Mass production of a single design

Materials you will need:

2 Binder clips
6" Scrap of 2"x4"
6"x9" Plywood, 1/2" or 3/4"
5 Sheetrock screws 1 1/4" or longer
2 Washers to fit the screws

Tools:

Ruler or tape measure
Pencil to mark your cuts
Saw (hand or power)
Screwdriver or screw gun
Safety goggles/glasses

Process
Start with a scrap of plywood. 6 inches by 9 inches should be plenty, but you can make it bigger.
Measure for your cuts and mark them on the wood in pencil.
Cut the 2"x4" to fit the short dimension of the plywood.
Align the 2"x4" so that it is about 2 1/2" from one end and mark the plywood. This will allow you to attach a holder such as a mint tin for solder and other supplies later.
Flip the plywood over, ideally, put the 2"x4" in a vise to keep it secure and screw the plywood to the 2"x4" with three screws.
Flip it over and place the two binder clips on the 2"x4" so that they are evenly spaced.
Place the washers on the screws and secure the binder clips in place.
Your soldering stand is ready for action!

Extensions
Storage
You may want to screw a mint tin or two on the board. This will allow you to hold things like short lengths of desoldering braid, solder, LEDs, switches, resistors etc. You will need screws that are at least 1/8" shorter than the thickness of the wood you are screwing into.
Soldering iron holder
You could make an iron holder with a 3/4" screw eye on the side of the upright. Making sure the heat from the business end of the iron is shielded should be part of your design, this could probably be done with a soda can, which can be cut with scissors and held with a short screw or two.
Soldering iron cleaner
Brass or copper pot scrubbers make good tip cleaners. Use a short screw with a wide fender washer (small hole, wide disk) to secure it to the plywood. Steel wool should not be used for a couple of reasons, apparently it scratches up the tip of the iron, and sooner or later, kids will discover that it is flammable, which could invite a visit from the local fire department or its' representatives.
Computer Aided Design
You can introduce students to the powerful ideas around CAD by having them make a virtual model of the stand either before or after building.

For well under $5, you can have a soldering station for your students to hold their work. If they use this as a way to also learn about manufacturing and computer aided design, you can wake up some other useful interests as they get ready to explore electronics.

More:

In the Maker Shed:

Discoverelectronics Kit Crop

DIY Design Electronics Kit

August 14, 2009

Make: Projects - Bottle cutting

There are lots of ways to do this particular trick. You may have seen bottles "cut" using a bucket of ice water, a string soaked in fuel and set alight, a hot narrow gauge resistive wire, or some combination of the above. I've tried all of these ways, at one point or another, with varying degrees of success, and I'm reporting here the method that gives most consistent results for me. But if you're interested in trying some other way, by all means experiment. Glass bottles are freely available just about everywhere, and you can always recycle your mistakes.

Regardless of which of these methods you favor, "bottle cutting" is generally a misnomer, as what's really going on is a process of controlled breakage. (Unless, of course, you're actually using a tile saw or something similar, in which case I'm prepared to agree it's really "cutting.")

Anyway. Glass, molecularly, is mostly silicon dioxide, but it's distinct from crystalline solids like ice or table salt in that the molecules are not well-ordered in space. You may have heard some balderdash about how glass is really a liquid with practically infinite viscosity; generally the swelling of ancient cathedral windows at the bottom is sited as evidence to that effect. Well, it's not true: There is, to my knowledge, no reliable evidence that glass will flow at room temperature regardless of how long you wait. Turns out cathedral glaziers made their windows thicker at the bottom on purpose.

But as an analogy, "infinitely viscous liquid" is not a bad way to understand the random molecular ordering of bulk glass. The upshot of this anisotropy is that glass does not cleave in orderly ways: Cracks tend to wander off in random, unpredictable directions, and shattering can easily occur due to internal stresses. There is, therefor, an element of luck involved in the bottle cutting operation, but with a bit of practice and good technique you can make it work most of the time.

Read full story

August 12, 2009

Intern's Corner: Chladni Plate, the alternate build

MAKE: Intern's Corner
Every other week, MAKE's awesome interns tell about the projects they're building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they'll make next.

By Meara O'Reilly, projects intern

I'd been wanting to make a Chladni plate for years, and testing out Edwin Wise's Chladni plate project for MAKE, Volume 16, was just the jump-start I needed to start tinkering around with making my own voice coils and drivers, like this one:

One of my heroes, David Tudor (an experimental music pioneer and John Cage collaborator), used drivers as the basis of his famous Rainforest installations, turning ordinary household objects into speakers and creating suspended "forests" of whispering resonant frequencies.

The transducers that Tudor often used to drive these objects are still available today (Rolen-Star transducers from Stockton, Calif.), and I built a plate reverb a few years ago using a drum cymbal as the plate, driven by a Rolen-Star, and picked up and amplified by a contact microphone.

Read full story

August 7, 2009

Make: Projects - Giant snow globe

What's that you say? You don't need an 8-inch diameter snow globe? Especially not one featuring a vignette of Al Pacino as Tony Montana in the climactic battle scene from Brian De Palma's Scarface? I say you're wrong: You need one of these. You need one so badly you don't even know it yet.

This project began when I, myself, realized that need; that deep need that every man knows sooner or later, in his life, which can only be satisfied by a say-hello-to-my-little-friend snow globe. I scoured the tubes looking for a suitable Tony Montana figurine, and though I found several, the only one featuring suitable full-auto-enraged-coke-frenzy action was MezCo Toys' Tony Montana ("The Fall" version), which is 7" tall. That's way too big for even the largest empty snow globe I could find. (It turns out, incidentally, that sourcing empty snow globes online is a bit of a trick. There a couple of crappy kits on Amazon, and a predictable selection of snow-globe photo frames, but for the real stuff you have to go to snowdomes.com.)

So I was forced to consider other options. Then one day at the hardware store I looked at a shelf full of glass lamp globes and the light bulb went on. And although the round, perfectly clear variety is a bit harder to find, I was able to run one down on eBay without spending too much time on it. The globe I used is made of glass, 8" in diameter, and features a 3.5" opening, which are ideal dimensions for the MezCo Tony Montana. Turns out the same globe is available in clear acrylic, and frankly that would be a better choice because of the reduced weight and danger of breakage.

Next I had to figure out how to seal the opening. It wasn't long before I remembered seeing, in some lab that I worked in at some point, a really giant black rubber stopper. It took a bit of research, but it turns out the biggest rubber stopper manufactured, which is #15, fits very well into a 3.5" globe opening. These stoppers are commonly available in natural (i.e. off-white) and black rubber. I found a black #15 rubber stopper on eBay for not too much, and was able to figure out a clever way to seal it tightly into the neck of the globe without having to use adhesive, sealant, or tape.

The final problem was the snow itself. Turns out the composition of snow globe snow is a closely-guarded trade secret, and although you can buy small packets of it as part of commercial snow globe kits, I couldn't find anyone selling it in bulk. Glitter can be used for this purpose, but it was totally inappropriate to serve as snow in the context of my vignette. A craft site put me on to the idea of using crushed eggshells, but it took some experimentation to figure out how to treat, clean, and grind them to make good snow.

Read full story

July 31, 2009

Make: Projects - Mold concrete pots in scrap styrofoam

About a year ago Marc linked to the original version of this tutorial on my personal page. This is a revised version with more detailed and user-friendly instructions.

The idea here is to use a simple, inexpensive concrete mixture to cast decorative containers using common trash items as sacrificial mold elements. Styrofoam packing inserts, in particular, are available in an endless variety of shapes; the trick is to cultivate an eye for the negative spaces that are molded into these inserts, and set aside the interesting ones to use as outer forms. Inner forms, obviously, should be simpler, because the inside of the pot is not going to be visible.

Tools:

Wheelbarrow or other mixing bin
Shovel or other mixing tool
Tamping rod, e.g. 1.5" wooden dowel or closet rod, about 12" long
Knife or other metal straightedge
Old towel, preferably undyed
Saw or plastic pipe cutter
Hammer
Punch

Materials:

Styrofoam packing insert with interesting negative space
Beverage cup, food container, or other suitable inner mold
Play sand
Portland cement
Water
Plastic garbage bag
Short section(s) 1" pipe or other suitable drainage hole mandrel

Step 1: Gather your mold elements

I used a Styrofoam block I found discarded in a hallway in the UT chemistry department as an outer mold. It contains four identical cylindrical recesses and was originally used to package 4L glass solvent bottles. The inner forms are nested polyethylene tubs of the type provided at many grocery stores to package bulk dry goods.

Read full story

July 30, 2009

How-To: Build BEAM vibrobots

The following article is reprinted from my old personal-tech website, Street Tech. I thought these vibrobots would make perfect family projects for the "Teach Your Family to Solder" MAKEcation. If you have kids too young to solder, you could build a mint-tin vibrobot [PDF] with them (which doesn't require soldering) and these solar-powered vibrobots with the rest of the makers in your family. - Gareth

In MAKE, Volume 08, I wrote a piece on pummers, a type of solar-powered robotic plant life. I've known about pummers for years, but my inspiration for the MAKE article was finding Zach Debord's gorgeous pummer set on Flickr. Being an artist and designer, Zach understands the value of making miniature robots that are as beautiful as they are functional. Mark Tilden, the "Big God" of BEAM robotics, has a wonderful adage that a human is a way that a robot makes a better robot. One "evolutionary strategy" here is centered on aesthetics. Aesthetics help drive human interest. The pummer piece is a prime example. I saw Zach's bots, I was wowed by their beautiful designs, and I wanted others to see them. The piece got published, and now, if you search on pummer in the MAKE Flickr pool, you see other people are making them. The robots are replicating themselves.

In the realm of behavior-based robotics, BEAM, bio-mimics, and other bottom-up, bug-brained approaches to robotic design, nearly every conceivable form of motility has been explored. There are bots on wheels, two-, four-, six-, eight-legged bots, bots with whegs (wheel/leg crossbreeds), snakebots, spinnerbots, swimmers, fliers, climbers. You name it. One of the less documented types of robotic motility is found in the vibrobot, a type of robot that gets around by shimmying, shaking, and scooting. It's not the most graceful or accurate way to explore the world, but it's very easy to build a vibrobot and they're really fun (and funny) to watch.

Read full story

July 24, 2009

Make: Projects - Cord curling

I really heart coiled cords. I think coiling is a very elegant way of dealing with the problem of unsightly slack cables, and often I find myself wishing that this or that appliance had come with a coiled cord. Replacement cords that are factory-coiled can usually be purchased and installed (if necessary), but that may be an unnecessary expense because, with some simple tools, it is easy to coil a straight cord yourself.

Tools:

Pipe or other metal mandrel
Heat gun
Sink with sprayer (or other source of cooling water)

Materials:

Duct tape
Aluminum foil
Water
Cord to be curled

Read full story

July 17, 2009

Make: Projects - Collapsible trashbag frame

Several months ago, Becky covered my remake of a low quality trash bag holder I bought through a SkyMall-esque catalog. This is how I explained the project at the time:

Trash cans have always sort of annoyed me. They take up so much space, especially if, like me, you favor large cans to minimize the number of trips to the dumpster each week. There's no practical way to pack a large trash can for storage or transport. If you're moving, of course, you can fill the can with lightweight stuff like dirty clothes or something, but only if you're willing to expose your linen to the inside of your trashcan. I always use trash bags, anyway, and for my money if you use a bag the only major function of the can is to hold the bag open. Well, it's possible to achieve that same function with a much cheaper, lighter, and compact device.

This how-to covers a slightly refined version of my original design, with one of its three legs removed in order to facilitate removing a full bag of trash from the frame. Also, some of the joints have been selectively glued in order to prevent annoying pop-outs without sacrificing collapsibility, and a simpler means of attaching the retaining clips has been devised.

Read full story

July 10, 2009

Make: Projects - No-holes poster hanger

I'm a great admirer of Jørgen Møller's Posterhänger design. It's great for those in-between prints that are too valuable to put thumbtacks through, but not valuable enough to have framed. Plus it's considerably cheaper than framing, and looks a lot better than thumbtacks. And it's easier on your walls, requiring only a single hole to hang a poster of any size. I own six of them, myself.

But they're not perfect. The black rubber end-caps are easy to lose and hard to replace, as are the white plastic clamps that actually grip the poster and slide into the aluminum tubes. What's more, I have one poster which, due to whatever combination of size, weight, and thickness, a posterhänger will not support. I came home three times to find it lying on the floor. The problem, I realized, was that the plastic clamps did not grip the poster hard enough, and it was slipping out.

It eventually occurred to me to replace the plastic clamps with binder clips with the wire handles removed, which have much greater gripping power owing to their spring steel construction. My balloon rapidly deflated, however, when I realized that even if I used the smallest binder clips available (3/4"), they would not fit into the aluminum tube that came with my posterhänger. Using binder clips would require remaking the whole system. Too bad, so sad. Maybe someday, right?

Now fast forward to last week, when my Moms presented me with this nifty quilted portrait of, ah, myself. Normally I wouldn't hang pictures of me on my own walls, but hey, it's from my Moms, and I want to display it, preferably without damaging it in any way. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at DIY posterhängering. Here's what I did:

Read full story

July 7, 2009

How-To Tuesday: Arduino 101 & the PING))) ultrasonic sensor

The PING))) ultrasonic sensor is a really easy way to measure distance with a micro-controller. All you have to do is hook up 3 wires and upload some code. These sensors are great for robots, alarm systems, or any other application that requires some type of measurement or obstacle avoidance. Don't forget to check out our other Arduino 101 videos!

Subscribe to the MAKE podcast | Download for iTunes

In the Maker Shed:

More about the PING))) Ultrasonic Sensor

July 3, 2009

Make: Projects - Outlet-mount device charging pocket

Most cell phones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or something where the cell phone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant--it can be totally impractical. It's also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords strung out across the furniture.

A similar product is for sale at ThinkGeek, and that's where I got the idea. The nice thing about my version is that it requires no tools to mount or demount, being suspended by the plug on the charger itself. So you can quickly move it around to whatever outlet you want or take it with you when you travel. Plus it costs all of nothing to build.

Read full story

July 1, 2009

Make: Projects - More on making Light Bricks

By Alden Hart

The "LED Light Brick" project in MAKE, Volume 18 has generated lots of good feedback for us, so we went back and asked Alden to explore a few variations on the theme of the brick casting itself, how you might be creative with it. This article is the result. Be sure to check out the original piece in MAKE, Volume 18, and also the on-line supplement containing specific casting instructions. --SMR

From the pages of MAKE

Some Experiments in Mold Making

A lot of the fun of the Light Brick is trying out different molds. Some very different effects can be achieved depending on the mold you make. This post explores some mold making options and experiments.

Read full story

June 28, 2009

Make: Projects - Magnetic toolbox

My Dad got a shiny new red tractor the week before Father's Day, which created a great opportunity for an easy, inexpensive, handmade gift: I bought a classic little red toolbox, to match the tractor, and fitted it with eight 3/4" ring supermagnets on the bottom to make it stick to the fender. There's a rubber washer between each magnet and the bottom of the toolbox, to cushion the magnets, each of which is secured using a 3/4" automotive panel fastener--basically a barbed plastic push fastener.

Inserted through the hole in the magnet, through the rubber washer, and through a 1/4" hole drilled in the bottom of the toolbox, the panel fastener secures everything in place. The head of the fastener also makes a nice black plastic "foot" on the bottom of each magnet, which protects the finish on the tractor from marring against the magnet, without being so thick as to block magnetic attraction.

More:

June 26, 2009

Make: Projects - Shrinky-dink gaming minis

Even as we approach the cultural apocalypse of ubiquitous, fully immersive, photo-real multiplayer video game environments, there are still those of us who like to play board or tabletop games. The communal wargaming experience, for instance, is very different from playing a networked MMORPG or turn-based strategy game. Whereas WarCraft or Xbox Live is kind of like hanging out with your buds watching TV, actually getting together and playing a board game is more like a real party. There's usually music and snacks and beverages and lots of gregarious BS-ing of a type that just isn't as practical over a network line. Manipulating the physical game pieces is also satisfying in a way that virtual objects have yet to achieve, and probably won't for some time to come.

A lot of folks who are into tabletop gaming eventually end up making their own pieces, for one reason or another. They may be making a custom army to compete in a wargame with established rules, or they may be making up their own game for which no commercial pieces are available. For these folks there's an array of techniques available. The simplest, as in wargaming days of yore, is to use illustrated paper or cardboard "chits" that lay flat on the gaming surface. A step up from that involves buying or making bases so your cardboard heroes can stand upright, which not only makes them look better but makes them much easier to manipulate. If the cardboard approach is too wimpy for you, you can always purchase commercial 3D miniature figures and paint and/or customize them to suit your taste.

Polyolefin shrink film presents an intermediate approach to original miniature design, midway between cheap paper or cardboard cutouts and fully dimensional figurines. Shrinky-dinks are much more durable than card stock, and unlike store-bought figurines, they are completely customizable. Best of all, you can make all your artistic mistakes at the software level, where they're easy to fix.

Materials:

Inkjet ink
Inkjet friendly shrink film
Small binder clips, one for each mini you intend to make

Tools:

Computer with color inkjet printer and appropriate software (if you're designing your own art)
Oven
Cookie sheet with cardboard insert to fit
Paint pen
Scissors/pen knife/paper cutter to cut out dinks

Step 1: Design your dinks

The best way to determine the expected shrinkage of your film is by experiment. Print a square of known dimension, cut it out, shrink it, and measure the new size. The ratio of the "after" dimensions to the "before" dimensions gives the expected shrink percentage. Every film I've ever seen also includes an approximate shrink ratio in the directions, and if you're not an accuracy freak it's probably safe to assume it's correct. The clear film I used shrinks by about 50%, meaning that the designs as printed need to be about twice as big, in each dimension, as the desired miniature size. Note that if you intend to use bases you need to be sure to leave an empty "tab" at the bottom of each image so the base can be attached without obscuring the art. If you're using binder-clip bases (see below), I recommend the small (3/4") size. These have a real "footprint" of 3/4" x 1/2", so scaling up for 50% shrink film gives a 1.5" x 1" pre-shrink area to allow for during the design of each piece.

If you don't want to design your own minis, or you just want to experiment with the technique, I've put together a set of markers for the deluxe edition of Steve Jackson's famously awesome future war-game, OGRE. You can download a .PDF of my OGRE marker designs here, ready to print onto five 8.5" x 11" sheets of 50% shrink film.

Read full story

June 8, 2009

Make: Projects - Pedal-powered phone charger

by Alastair Bland

This winter, my dad and I took up the project of building a simple pedal-powered cell phone charger to mount on my bicycle. Cell phones are small potatoes in the big picture of energy consumption, but the apparatus we built could be a very practical concept for those on self-supported bike tours or those living temporarily in situations without electricity. Just unplug your phone from the wall, and in the time that it takes for you to rig up this gizmo your phone will be out of juice and you'll be due for a long ride!

A couple visits to the local hardware store and Radio Shack secured all the parts we needed for the job.

Read full story

June 5, 2009

Make: Projects - Thermochromic Maker's Notebook

Here's an easy hack for your Maker's Notebook that's sure to get noticed: Buy some thermochromic liquid crystal (LC) film and attach it to the cover! Originally I bought LC film from US suppliers and tried gluing it on. I tested three different adhesives (3M Super77, DAP Weldwood Contact Cement, and Elmer's Craft Glue) and ruined one notebook and several pieces of film before discovering this self-adhesive LC film available from MUTR in the United Kingdom. (The 30x45cm size is necessary.) It works great! I cut two rectangles [5 3/8" (13.65 cm) x 6 7/8" (17.46 cm)] using a swing arm paper cutter, peeled off the protective backing, and carefully smoothed the film in place on both front and back covers, first with my fingers, and then using a rolling pin. See the video for some cool thermochromic effects.

Subscribe to the MAKE podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v file.

April 7, 2009

How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 Accelerometers

Today, I am going to show you how easy it is to connect, and use, a Memsic 2125 Accelerometer from the Maker Shed. This sensor is able to detect tilt, acceleration, rotation, and vibration with a range of ±2 g. It can be used for making balancing robots, game controllers, musical instruments and more. I'll get you started...what you do next is up to you!

Want to learn even more about the Memsic 2125 accelerometer? You can check out all the detailed specifications on the data sheet here.

Subscribe to the MAKE podcast | Download for iTunes

Don't forget to checkout my other Arduino 101 videos:

How-To Tuesday: Arduino 101 blink an LED
How-To Tuesday: Arduino 101 the button
How-To Tuesday: Arduino 101 potentiometers and servos
How-To Tuesday: Fun with the Arduino Starter Kit

Another great resource is Becky's excellent CRAFT Video: LilyPad Arduino 101

In the Maker Shed:

The Memsic 2125 accelerometer from the Maker Shed is a low cost, dual-axis thermal accelerometer capable of measuring tilt, acceleration, rotation, and vibration with a range of ±2 g. It's a great addition to many robotic projects, and is compatible with most micro-controllers, including the Arduino.

More about the Memsic 2125 accelerometer

February 24, 2009

How-To Tuesday: Arduino 101 potentiometers and servos

This is the 3rd installment of my Aduino How-To Tuesdays. This week I am going to cover using another basic part, the potentiometer. I will also cover connecting a servo to the Arduino. Servos can be hard to control, but not with the Arduino! That's just another reason why I love this little micro-controller.

Subscribe to the MAKE podcast | Download for iTunes

Check out what people are doing with the Arduino on the MAKE website.

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Family
Make: Arduino

Related:

How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 blink an LED

February 10, 2009

How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 the button

This is the second installment of a series about programming our favorite little micro-controller, the Arduino. Last week I covered connecting and blinking an LED. This week I will discuss connecting a push button that controls the LED. This is the simplest way to use a button. However, it isn't always the best way since it doesn't account for 'debouncing'. In the next installment of this series I will talk more about 'debouncing' the button input and why it is important. Also, I will have a fun and easy project that incorporates what we have learned so far in this series.

Subscribe to the MAKE podcast | Download for iTunes

Check out what people are doing with the Arduino on the MAKE website.

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Family
Make: Arduino

Related:

How-to Tuesday: Arduino 101 blink an LED

January 20, 2009

How-to Tuesday: Valentines LED display

This week I am going to be making the Open Heart kit by Jimmie Rodgers. It's a great open source kit that uses a technique called Charliplexing for lighting up the LEDs. Why? Charlieplexing allows you to control each LED's state individually. All you need to do is create a simple program and upload it to the Arduino and you have a really cool animated LED display. Don't worry about how to generate the code, Jimmie has made a great Flash interface that does all the coding for you. All you have to do is cut/copy/paste to the Arduino IDE and the LEDs will start running the animation.

The Open Heart is an LED matrix of individually addressable LEDs. It can be used to create a broach or bag light with highly customizable animations. It can be configured so that you can temporarily attach it to fabrics with headers that you simply push through, or you can configure it to be sewn into a project using conductive fabric for a more permanent setup. I have also created a simple flash programmer that you can design animations with, and it will generate the Arduino code for you. That way you just copy, paste, upload, and enjoy.

You can pick up your own Open Heart kit in the Maker SHED. You can get your Arduino there too!

Jiimmie has a great set of instructions available on his website. One of the great things about this open source kit is the ability to hack and mod it how you like. Let's get started making my version of the Open Heart.

What you need:

The Open Heart kit comes with everything you need except for an Arduino to control the LEDs. The kit was designed for use with any Arduino compatible board, but any micro-controller with the right programming can control the LEDs.

Open Heart Kit - Available in the Maker SHED
Arduino - Available in the Maker SHED
9Volt battery pack
Brass tubing - Any small diameter metal tubing will work
Small metal box - Any small box will do.
Paper
Epoxy
Scrap wood

Tools you need:

Soldering Iron
Drill & drill bit - drill bit should be the same diameter of the tubing used
Hot glue gun
Dremel tool with cutoff wheel
Arms of Assistance - Make you own
Fume extractor - Make your own
Miscellaneous hand tools - screw driver, needle-nose pliers

Step 1: Build the Open Heart

Start by adding all the resistors. There are (6) resistors that need to be soldered to the PCB. There is plenty of space to add them all at once.