Matt's Lab

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...

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...

Using SparkFun’s micro:bot kit and their gamer:bit breakout board, I programmed the micro:bot to be controlled by a second micro:bit microcontroller. The two micro:bits transfer data packets over low-energy Bluetooth antennae. The micro:bot can also be programmed to follow a line using its three line sensors and has the capability to control a couple of servos that come with the kit. The SparkFun moto:bit, also in the kit, breaks out the 21 pins on the micro:bit and sets it up to control DC motors and servos. Additional power is provided through a barrel power jack and four AA batteries nicely secured on the lower level of the micro:bot. The entire bot takes about 30 minutes to assemble. Programming it can take as long as you want… A moto:bit package can be added to Microsoft’s MakeCode micro:bit code editor . I used this package to control the micro:bot’s motors. If you have the gamer:bit, micro:bot, and a couple of micro:bits lying around, feel free to download my program to ...

SparkFun’s micro:arcade kit comes with the gamer:bit breakout board and some awesome, retro, arcade-style buttons and a joystick. Sliding your micro:bit microcontroller into a breakout board gives you access to all 21 pins on the micro:bit. The gamer:bit board connects some of those pins to additional game-controller-style buttons for navigation and action commands. With Microsoft’s MakeCode micro:bit code editor , I tinkered with a drop game program. Feel free to download, edit, or just play my program. It uses the gamer:bit package. Code

I used the MicroPython editor to program a fireworks animation that controls the brightness of the LEDs as the firework explodes on the LED display. For young computer science students, this is a great introduction to text-based programming, arrays, and animating LEDs. Code # Display message and show pacman with firework option from microbit import * firework1 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00000:00200") firework2 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00200:00100") firework3 = Image("00000:00000:00200:00100:00000") firework4 = Image("00000:00000:00900:00000:00000") firework5 = Image("00000:07870:08580:07870:00000") firework6 = Image("60706:01210:72127:01210:60706") firework7 = Image("30503:00000:50005:00000:30503") firework8 = Image("10201:00000:20002:00000:10201") all_firework = [firework1, firework2, firework3, firework4, firework5, firework6, firework7, firework8] while True: if button_a.is_pressed(): ...

I attended the 2017 ISTE Conference in San Antonio where I had the privilege to explore the latest trends and movement in educational technology. New platforms for teaching computer science skills to new technologies, like virtual and augmented reality, are really taking off in education. But is that enough? Virtual & Augmented Reality Let me get these two technologies out of the way first. Virtual reality puts learners in another environment. When they put on VR goggles or use a smartphone with the popularly cost-efficient Google Cardboard , students are given access to new worlds and locations they might never get to explore in real life. Virtual reality, I believe, is still in its infancy, both in the consumer and educational markets. Currently in education, I see virtual reality used to take students on virtual field trips. They can explore national monuments, tour the Louvre in Paris, or visit animals deep in the Pacific Ocean. In addition to exploring our world, other ...

The cloudBit module allows tinkerers, kids and grownups alike, to connect their littleBit creations to a smartphone. This turns your littleBits into an IoT (Internet of Things) device. After I received my cloudBit Starter Kit, my daughter and I tried out a basic circuit to communicate with each other between the two different levels of our house. Each littleBit has magnets on both ends of the module. This makes it easy for kids to build circuits. The modules snap together when they are arranged correctly. The magnets push apart when the modules are not arranged correctly and do not snap together. Here’s the basic circuit my daughter and I created to test out our communication device idea. Connecting the cloudBit to our router was easy using a smartphone and the littleBits cloud start website . After our littleBits cloudBit was connected to the router, we set up some rules (or recipes) with triggers and events using my IFTTT (If This Then That) acco...

I had the opportunity to lead a paper circuit workshop at my daughter’s school with 3rd and 4th graders. This was a great way for them to be creative and learn about electronics. For each group of 3-4 students, I prepared a kit of hardware supplies. Students were provided instructions for using LEDs and copper tape. We briefly discussed the principles of electricity, conductivity, and circuits. Students had the option to use either LED stickers or traditional LEDs with pins. A traffic light interactive paper circuit example was shared to help students generate ideas for creating and designing their own interactive artwork. A template for this paper circuit design that can be printed for students struggling to create their own circuit is attached to this project. You can download, print, and use it as a quick circuit design to get apprehensive students started on their first paper circuit. Explaining why resistors were not necessary for this circuit can help st...