Create a Tool (continued)

I went through some old clothes I had at home and found an old shirt jacket that looks somewhat like a bicycle jacket. First I decided where to place the lights. So I took 6 yellow LED lights and poked them through the front layer of the jacket. I also poked 6 red LED lights in the back layer of the jacket.

Before I connected the lights with the wires, I made sure where to connect the negative and positive wires. I tried to connect one light to the battery source and it worked. I decided to stay with my original idea of creating a parallel circuit. Then I tried with two lights, sometimes only one light would turn on or they wouldn't turn on at all. There was a problem in the way the current was following from the batteries to the lights and back. To make sure that the wires didn't detach, I used electric tape to keep everything from moving.

Unfortunately at this point, the problem has nothing to do with the current or the battery, it is some of the lights that stopped working. That explains why not all the lights would light up or none of them would. So I had to keep detaching the wires and put in new lights. I noticed that two red lights in the back weren't working, now I had to use 4 lights instead of 6 lights. Even the all the yellow lights on one side stopped working but not the ones on the other side. I just had to get rid of those yellow lights that didn't work. I went through a lot of lights at this point so I just decided to leave the jacket the way it was.

I made two separate circuits for the red lights and the yellow lights, later attaching them together with clip wires. Then I used more clip wires to clip them to the new big circuit and a switch. Electric tape had to be used in order for the circuit to work when using the switch. On the first attempt to use the switch to power the circuit, it didn't work until I discovered that the electric tape wasn't sticking to the wire properly. The second attempt worked but only for half the circuit because of the electric tape detaching every time something would move. Also, the batteries should be taken out of the holder because somehow they are still hot even when the switch is off. This is obviously a fragile tool.

When I tested it out in the dark, I was happy that the lights were visible. The red ones shined brighter than the yellow ones though. Instead of putting a layer of material to keep everything together I decided not to because I wouldn't be able to demonstrate how it works in class. I took a picture of the lights shining in the dark just in case it doesn't work in class. I also took a video of how it looks like in the dark.

Create A Tool (in progress)

I wasn't exactly sure at first if I wanted to create a tool or a toy. I don't want to created something too simple. I would like to create something with a motor, some wires, some lights, a battery and I would also need a switch. I would like to create a design just for a creative touch. The main idea is to create something that is powered or moves by a circuit. I want to build a parallel circuit so if one light breaks, the circuit will still work. If one light in a series circuit breaks, it will be completely useless.

After proposing my idea to the class, my teacher said that you can sew wires into clothing or something like that. I remember someone created clothing that changed color with heated wires in the clothing. Later on, I got the idea of putting lights in clothing.

After talking about this to a friend, she suggested to create a jacket for people who ride their bicycles at night. At night you can see the reflectors of the bicycle, but you can barely see the person riding it. I already had an idea in my head of what a jacket with lights would look like, so I created a sketch of how I want the jacket to look like. I also sketched what kind of materials I should use to create the circuit and how to keep the circuit from moving in the jacket. This could be a useful tool for the people who ride their bicycles at night. *(I am sorry that the image is upside down, there are flip options).

This week I tried to get started on the project and went out to buy materials. I already had some batteries at home, so I decided to use those for the project. I went to a store where they sell electrical parts and asked someone who worked there for the parts I was looking for to create my circuit. The man who worked there showed me some wires that already have lights on them. I bought some different color lights just in case the ones with the wire weren't bright enough. I also bought two switches, an on/off switch and a push button switch. My idea is to see which switch will work better with the circuit and I also want it not to stick out to much, just to blend in with the jacket almost. I told him that I wanted to make a battery powered circuit and he suggested I should get a holder for the battery. He also suggested to be careful what kind of battery I choose because the voltage might be too powerful and might explode. When I asked him for advice on putting wires into clothing, he suggested that I use longer wires so the circuit extends to the sleeves of the jacket too. I wanted to sew the circuit wires to the jacket but I was advised to use electrical tape instead.

Since the circuit is going to be in the jacket, I was thinking of adding an extra layer of material just so that the circuit doesn't scratch or heat the person's back/arms. The lights should be seen outside the jacket, so I was thinking of cutting out small holes and have the lights stick out of the jacket. The lights outside the jacket should have some kind of protection so they don't fall out of the jacket and to hide the circuit on the inside if it shows. For a creative touch, I want to either design a pattern or used a material with a design pattern. I should also research what kind of material is heat resistant so that the circuit does not over heat.

I have already begun trying to build the circuit. At first everything was fine, I got the wire with the light to light up after connecting the right wires. It wasn't long after that I noticed that the battery was overheating a bit too fast. So I decided to take it apart before things got out of hand. I want to ask someone for advice on whether or not I used the right battery or wires.

The problem was the amount of volts, amps, ohms, resistance and electrical current. So I had to do further research to try to get my circuit to work. It might be better if I went with a series circuit instead of a parallel one after all.  Seven lights in a series circuit are too much for an AA battery to power. Then I tried using three lights and a double powered battery, I didn't notice that they light up until I saw the last that the last light was on but it went off. Its just a matter of trial and error with the amount of lights used and the resistance. All I know right now is that one battery might not be enough and two batteries might be too much. Unless I go back to my original idea of a parallel circuit. It might also be easier to create a vest with lights, so I don't have to make a big circuit that takes up more power. I took a picture to remind me which parts of the wires were positive and negative.

Esthetic Objects

Catherine and I took two coat hangers and we started to unbend them. We straighten one coat hanger out almost completely. For the second one we tried to bend it into a spiral shape. We put the two shapes together and tried to put a nylon over it. Putting the nylon over the two coat hanger shapes was hard. We were worried that the nylons would break while we were trying to keep them together.  So we glue gunned the two coat hangers together to keep them in place and not ruin the nylon in any kind of way. We also cut small rectangular metal sheets and bend them at the ends of our object. We did this to keep the nylon on the object and as a decorative touch.

Next Catherine had a creative idea to shape another coat hanger into a star for the next object. We managed to straighten out the coat hanger and bend the coat hanger wire into five places. We glue gunned the two tips together and were able to put the nylon over it. We used small rectangular metal sheets again in order to get the exact look of a star with the nylon over it. Finally we took a piece of string and attached our two esthetic objects together.

Vibrobot

Justine and I want to make something simple in order to have the best chance at success. We would most likely use legs and a motor in order to make it move.  Made of legs and the element it attaches to. It will just carry it self and be powered by the motor. We grabbed a bunch of random things and tried to find away to put them together.

Our first idea was to cut a styrofoam in half. We glue gunned a spring to the bottom of the cup.

After testing it with the motor we thought it could work out, it just needed more stability.
We broke two clips in two so we can use them as three legs and tape them to the cup. After testing it we realized the clips we were using for the legs were too heavy.

So we decided to glue gun three popsicle sticks to the Styrofoam cup instead, but one of the popsicle sticks wouldn't stick so we had to tape it.We decided to add sponges the the bottom of the popsicle sticks so it stays more balanced.

After testing it, it just bounced a bit but it was moving pretty well.

Body (motor):
Half a Styrofoam cup
Spring

Support:
Wires
Popsicle sticks
Glue gun glue

Hello World.

My name is Amanda. I'm 18 years old and I am a student attending Dawson College. I'm in the Arts and Culture program, and this is my 3rd semester of this two year program.

I have never had my own website or blog before, so all of this is completely new to me. I hope I have enough creativity to keep this blog going for a longtime.