For our final, we submitted the blink blink building circuits guide which walks blink blink makers through an introduction to circuits and how to build 4 arts, crafts, and fashion projects with the blink blink kit (i.e. soft-circuits and electronics). Below are some images from the tutorial -

We are going to post 4 instructables over the next month.  You find the first one on how to make DIY Light-up Tassel decorations here.  Future post can be found on our make it page at blinkblink.cc/make-it.

Learn how to make your own light up scarf by following my instructables here.

Concept: A scarf that lights up, so that you can make yourself visible while walking at night in the dark.

Design Goals:

DIY

Accessible

Least amount of materials

Safety

Precedents:

Imagined Body by Yuchen Zhang

No contact jacket that sends 80,000 volts if touched.

Saflet allows you to send messages to the police and

Kinetic Mechanical Purse

Materials:

When you’re missing your partner or your roomies, use this to send them a message to come home!

Watch videos below

MOV_8418.MOV MOV_5312.MOV MOV_6349.MOV

I tested making flex sensors with paper, copper tape, and velostat.  I tested how the number of rows of copper tape effected the sensitivity of the sensor.

Hypothesis:  (1) Increasing the number of rows of copper tape on one side of the paper will make the flex sensor more sensitive.  (2) If you wrap the rows around to both sides of the paper, it will decrease the sensitivity.

Results:

Tape on both needs of the paper made the sensor more sensitivity; therefore, the user does not need to bend or squeeze the sensor very much to see the full brightness of the LED.

Tape on one side of the paper created the best sensor in terms of not being too sensitive and not sensitive enough.

One row of tape was the least sensitive sensor, and the user needed to bend the sensor a lot.  Even if the sensor was bent in half, the sensor did not .  However, you could squeeze the sensor very tightly to see the full brightness of the LED.

For the first sensor, I created a flex sensor using paper, copper tape, and velostat.

For the second, I created a simple pressure sensor using foam and copper fabric.

Read the article here.

The three mechanics for the switches I made are: (1) pinching, (2) grabbing, and (3) squeezing.

Pinching Switch:

I wanted to explore pop-up structures and created this pop-up tent with a simple switch.  Check out my intractable here.

Grabbing Switch:

This is a superhero shield, and the switch is built into the handle.  When you grab the handle, the switch is triggered and the LEDs light up.

Squeezing Switch:

This is a lightning bolt (again, superhero theme).  When you squeeze the top of the lightning bolt, the switch is trigged, and the LEDs light up.

Story for shield:

This shied is used by a superhero to protect her/him from evil.  When he or she grabs the handle of the shield, the LEDs light up and create a save environment around her/him.

In honor of back to school season, I wanted to make a book cover that lights up with LEDs and soft-circuits. I started off with the Oliver Wilde quote, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”, and used LEDs and soft-circuits to illustrate the quote. Check out my instructables here.

Nicole Yi Messier

Post: Joselyn McDonald & Nicole Messier