Matt's Lab

Virtual reality (and augmented reality) have become major buzz words in educational technology. With inexpensive VR headsets, such as Google Cardboard , and the use of student smart phones, teachers can take their classes on virtual reality field trips - a much more preferred trip to administrators than pouring money into bus fuel. But besides immersing students in gimmicky games and field trips until the VR sickness kicks in, how else can virtual reality be leveraged as a learning tool? Building with A-Frame I attended the annual Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. I had made it my personal and professional mission to learn how virtual reality could be used as a learning tool in computer science education. On the very first day I dove into a VR workshop where I discovered one method of programming virtual reality worlds and creating interactive 3D environments. Anyone who thinks code must be developed from scratch is kidding ...

I built an Adafruit LED Sand Toy using an Adafruit Feather M0, a blue CharliePlex LED FeatherWing, and accelerometer boards. While this was an awesome project to try out, I had some bumps along the way. It forced me to think outside the box and make some minor, but helpful, modifications to the original design. 3D Printing the Case The Adafruit Learn website for this project provides a list of materials, 3D-printing files, code, and wiring diagrams. 3D-printing the toy’s casing 3D-printing internal parts Connecting the Wires I used a thicker gauge of wire than recommended which made soldering a little difficult. This was my first time using heat-shrink tubes to insulate connected wires to keep them from being exposed to other connections. It worked out well, and I highly recommend using some heat-shrink tubes on clamps to protect circuit boards. Soldering the boards at my work station - shown with helping hands, silicone mat, tweezers, solder, and solder...

I’m not really a big fan of fidget spinners. I mean the ones with LEDs in the weights are pretty cool, but outside of that I find them rather boring as a toy. Regardless, I decided to take one apart and see how these addictive things work. Then… I made one. The fidget spinner essentially consists of four parts: the case, the caps, the bearing, and three weights. Sometimes the weights can be bearings as well. This lets you do additional tricks with the fidget spinner. Model of Fidget Spinner Case and Caps I was able to create a 3D model of the casing and caps after watching a few YouTube videos on disassembling fidget spinners to learn about their designs. You can find a variety of intricate models on sites like Thingiverse and Tinkercad , but I chose to make a simple one for my first try. 3D model of case and caps Download or modify a 3D version of the solid model I created. 3D Printing My Design I used a Tinkerine Ditto Pro 3D printer to create the ca...

Brighten up your shoes with LEDs! Stay safe when walking outside in the dark. Show off your light-up shoes while trick-or-treating. Upgrading My Shoes Adding some illumination to my shoes seemed like a great upgrade. Sewable LED ribbons come in various colors and number of LEDs per interval. I chose ribbons with 25 blue LEDs from SparkFun Electronics . These are great for sewing, but I thought there might be a faster approach to attaching my LEDs to the soles of my shoes. Sewable LED Ribbon Lit with 3 AA Batteries NOTE: One thing you need to consider with any wearable tech project is the power source. I chose to use AA batteries to power 4.5V of electricity through each shoe’s LED ribbon. This was probably a poor choice, but worked well. Smaller batteries or even a lithium ion battery would be a better choice for this project, but make sure you don’t over-power your LEDs. Some Supplies AA Batteries, Battery Holder, Snap Connector, Shoes (don’t forget those) ...

Soldering is a great skill for anyone wanting to work with electronics - and it can be fun! Whether you’re a beginner at soldering or not quite sure how to even get started, this quick guide will get you up and soldering in no time. I’ve included the tools I use for soldering and a list of some basic kits to play with for practice. I’ve also outlined some tips and tricks to get those good, solid connections. Types of Soldering Before we jump into the materials, let’s discuss the different types of soldering. In this post I share tips for doing through-hole soldering, sometimes called plated through-hole (PTH) soldering. This involves a printed circuit board (PCB) where electrical components, such as LEDs and resistors, can be inserted through the hole connectors and soldered. Bottom and top of a PCB with some soldered components The other type of soldering, surface mount, doesn’t have holes in the PCB. This type of soldering involves soldering paste. We won’t get into ...

Jumping into Arduino microcontrollers can be a bit overwhelming at first. Many first-time coders may want to start with an intricate, complex algorithm, but it’s usually best to start out small - like placing a toe in the pool before diving in. The schematic above shows a basic parallel circuit using three LEDs. Each LED is connected using a breadboard and resistors. The resistors restrict the flow of electricity to the LEDs - otherwise the voltage would cause the LED to blow. Yikes! Each blue line on the schematic is a wire that connects to holes in the breadboard or pins on the Arduino UNO. Using the schematic, you can create a similar system using these hardware components. When the hardware is ready to roll, the program below brings the LEDs to life. This “blink” program can be used to test out your hardware and process for downloading a .ino file to an Arduino UNO microcontroller. Blinking LEDs Code /* Blinking LEDs - test program to run 3 LEDs in a pattern of blink...