This workshop was taught in collaboration with artist Colette Fu at the 3rd Ward workspace and education center in Brooklyn, New York. We covered basic pop-up mechanisms, LEDs and switches.

workshop page: Electronic Pop-ups workshop

Photos: Electronic Pop-ups workshop

Materials:

• paper battery holder template
• coin cell batteries (thin CR2017 and thick CR2032)
• surface mount LEDs ( red | yellow | green | blue | white )
• copper tape
• clear tape (preferred over matte Scotch tape, since clear tapes let more light through)

Tools:

• scissors (for cutting paper and copper tape)
• glue stick

This parallel workshop series took place during January at Rhode Island School of Design and at MIT. The workshops spanned four weeks and covered techniques from light and sensing, to using pre-programmed microcontrollers, to making paper move with shape-memory alloys. The series culminated in a final project presentation and a guest exhibition in the Say Something Poster Show.

week 1: LEDS and switches

Photos:
RISD session
MIT session

Materials:

• paper battery holder template
• coin cell batteries (thin CR2017 and thick CR2032)
• surface mount LEDs ( red | yellow | green | blue | white )
• copper tape
• conductive fabric tape (scroll down to “Ni/Cu/Co fabric tape”)
• clear tape (any clear tape will do)
• solder: regular or lead-free (but harder to use)

Tools:

• scissors (any scissors will do)
• tweezers (must be metal for soldering, since plastic tweezers melt)
• soldering iron (basic version or nicer version)

week 2: basic microcontrollers

Photos:
RISD session
MIT session

Materials:

• Attiny85V microcontrollers
  Preprogrammed using Arduino following this tutorial for Arduino version 0022
  Using the following programs and circuits:
  – Basic
  – Blink
  – Random
  – Fade
  – Sequence

• paper battery holder template
• coin cell batteries (thin CR2017 and thick CR2032)
• surface mount LEDs ( red | yellow | green | blue | white )
• copper tape
• conductive fabric tape (scroll down to “Ni/Cu/Co fabric tape”)
• solder: regular or lead-free (but harder to use)

Tools:

• scissors (any scissors will do)
• tweezers (must be metal for soldering, since plastic tweezers melt)
• soldering iron (basic version or nicer version)

week 3: advanced microcontrollers

Photos:
RISD session
MIT session

Materials:

• electret microphone
• 50k ohm resistor used to power the microphone (example circuit here)
• piezo buzzer
• light sensor
• Attiny85V microcontrollers
  Preprogrammed using Arduino following this tutorial for Arduino version 0022
  Using the following programs and circuits:
  – microphone
  – light-sensitive piezo buzzer (to be uploaded)

• paper battery holder template
• coin cell batteries (thin CR2017 and thick CR2032)
• surface mount LEDs ( red | yellow | green | blue | white )
• copper tape
• conductive fabric tape (scroll down to “Ni/Cu/Co fabric tape”)
• solder: regular or lead-free (but harder to use)

Tools:

• scissors (any scissors will do)
• tweezers (must be metal for soldering, since plastic tweezers melt)
• soldering iron (basic version or nicer version)

week 4: liquid crystal paint and shape memory metal

Photos:
RISD session
MIT session

Materials:
Liquid crystal paint:

• liquid crystal paint

• conductive steel thread
• crimp beads
• black paper
• masking tape for isolating the thread, any non-conductive tape will do but preferably not plastic (which might melt when soldering)
• any paintbrush to apply liquid crystal paint

Shape memory metal:

• 0.006″ high-temperature flexinol (a type of SMA wire that contracts when heated)

• crimp beads
• needle and cotton thread (for sewing the SMA wire, can withstand higher temperatures than polyester threads)
• copper tape
• solder: regular or lead-free (but harder to use)

Tools:

• 5 volt/2 amp wall powers supply
• digital multimeter (basic version)
• pliers (any pliers will do, for crimping metal beads)
• wire strippers
• scissors (any scissors will do)
• tweezers (must be metal for soldering, since plastic tweezers melt)
• soldering iron (basic version or nicer version)

FINAL RPOJECTS:

Photos:
Final Presentations
Say Something Poster Show

Poster Show webpage