Matt's Lab

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) ...

My daughter enjoys inventing and creating. For a summer project, she designed and built a carrot cutting machine. Using littleBits and some household materials, I helped her construct a prototype based on her design. Lindsey's Original Design Mechanism Concept Sketch Materials dowel rods duct tape littleBits modules plastic knives cardboard box paperclip plastic carrots littleBits Schematic Modules 1 push button 1 servo motor (set to swing) 2 wire modules 1 power module 1 long LED Lever System Test Internal Components Test It Pushing the button on top of the box causes the LED to light up, showing that the machine is operating. Meanwhile, the servo pulls and pushes the lever system that causes the plastic knives to move up and down. The plastic carrots are sliced and diced!