ISTE Standards & NGSS Science & Engineering Practies

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Light-up Monsters: Altered Books



In the spirit of Halloween, I've created a couple of altered books with circuits built into the covers.  Glow-in-the-dark polymer clay makes up the eyes, tongues, and teeth.  To create the light-up effect, I drilled holes through the eyes, inserted LED bulbs into them from underneath, and then poked the legs through the front covers.  I used hot glue to secure the eyes to the tops of the books and to fill in the drill holes.  


My first monster model uses a 5V Trinket with a Micro-Lipo Charger soldered to it.  The two LEDs are then soldered in parallel to analog pin one.  I used Arduino sample code to achieve a creepy fading effect.  After completing this circuit, I decided that the use of the charger was overkill, adding more bulk than I wanted.


The second model substitutes a Trinket with 3V logic and a switched JST breakout board.  This method is less expensive and more compact.


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