A STEM Project: A Dancing Leprechaun Using a MakerPort
In my previous blog posting, I used a Makerport to animate a clown. In this posting, I animate a Leprechaun to do a little jig for St. Patrick's Day.
Here is a video of the MakerPort in action.
There are three touch sensors which animate the leprechaun. Starting on the left, the first one is a servo which moves the leprechaun legs back and forth. The middle touch sensor plays an Irish jig and the right touch sensor plays a recording of my voice of the lyrics, hen Irish Eyes Are Smiling. It is a tribute to Ireland. A green LED flashes on and off to brighten the scene.
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
When Irish eyes are smiling Sure, 'tis like a morn' in Spring In the lilt of Irish laughter You can hear the angels sing When Irish hearts are happy All the world seems bright and gay And when Irish eyes are smiling Sure, they steal your heart away
I made a paper box for the Makerport to contain the components necessary to operate this project. I made my box using a Silhouette Cameo, an electronic paper cutting machine. I have included three different files where you can make this box.
You can print and cut the box and clown with scissors or use the files for an electronic paper cutter. I used 65 lb. white cardstock and Glue Dots/adhesive dots for the design.
Crease the side piece without the wing tabs as shown above and apply glue to the tab.
Please note: the photos are from a previous project but the concept of putting the box together is the same.
Adhere the glue by pressing down on the side piece to flatten it. Once the glue is adhered, form the piece into a block. Repeat for the other side piece without the wing tabs.
Crease and apply glue to the tab as shown above for the side piece with the wing tabs. Flatten the piece as before to adhere the glue. Form the piece into a block. Repeat for the remaining piece.
Apply glue to the wing tabs. There are four of them, one on each side of the winged piece. Insert the tabs into the side without the winged tabs.
A mitered corner is then created. Make sure that each corner is at a 90 degree angle to one another. I used a book to make sure that I made a right angle.
Repeat gluing and inserting the winged tabs for the other sides. Above is the last side which is inserted. I applied glue on three sides of the winged tabs and then inserted both sides together.
I turned over the frame. I made sure the corners were aligned. I then glued the last two winged tabs of the mitered corner.
I glued on the two box bottoms (they are sandwiched together) to the frame to make a sturdy box.
The box bottom is to the left. The box top is made by gluing the side tabs together as shown on the left.
Glue one side of the box top to the interior of the box and the other side to the exterior. This will create a sturdy box top.
Make the LED Light Assembly
Using a red LED light, (please note, the longer wire is positive), I made a holder for this LED light by using the following instructions in this YouTube video. https://youtu.be/jmsu__UYTl8?si=dS8hfbSRW0h7QUfb
A blue alligator clip was used for the connecting the ground side of the light to pin GND of the MakerPort and the yellow alligator clip is connected to Pin 1.
I added two adhesive strips, shown on the left, to the front of the LED so that I could attach it to the box top.
The front of the box has three gold flowers with an earring back which is threaded through the hole to the back. Three wire connectors are used to connect these touch sensors to the MakerPort. The pins on the first row are all odd numbered pins. The pins on the second row are all even number pins. Since I am using only three pins and I placed it on the bottom left, the pins I used are pins 1, 3 and 5.
A servo is attached to the Makerport at Pin 14.
I added two adhesive strips to the front of the Servo so that I could attach it to the box top.
I added a MakerPort power supply.
The MakerPort and its power supply were placed into the box bottom.
I added a post to the bow tie.
The clown face and bow tie were added to the front of the box .
Program The MakerPort
Here is the MicroBlocks program that I used to operate my MakerPort.
The program does a few things. I say "Welcome to the Circus" when the center touch sensor is pressed. When the left button is pressed, the bow tie moves back and forth. When the right button is pressed, the circus song is played.
I recorded my voice by using the online program, https://online-voice-recorder.com/. It was easy to use. Click on the red button to start recording and record whatever you would like to say. Once completed, the sound bite can be appended by moving the blue vertical lines on either side of the sound bite. Save the sound bite to your computer. Change the name of the sound bite to a three digit number, like 001greeting.mp3. Copy this file from your computer to the MakerPort file. The Maker Port file is opened by moving the slider on the side of the MakerPort from "Code" to "File". You can find the Makerport files in the Finder menu. The name of the files is MPFILES. Once in the files, paste the sound bite to a folder, I made a new folder and I named it 003. I then pasted the sound bite to this folder. With each subsequent sound bite, I change the value of the voice recording to the next number and placed all of my sound bites here...for example, 002song...003poem, etc.
The circus music is a ringtone that I got from the website, Zedge. https://www.zedge.net/ringtones/73d26539-c713-46a7-8590-dd51ccd3e003 I followed the same procedure, as I explained above, to add the ringtone to my MakerPort files. With each subsequent sound bite, I change the value of the recording to the next number and placed all of my sound bites in the folder.
Once the files has been added to the MakerPort, the slider on the MakerPort needs to be moved from "File" to "Code". The MakerPort needs to be in "Code" mode in order for it to connect to the MicroBlocks software. MicroBlocks, https://microblocks.fun is a block programming language which is dynamic. When your MakerPort is connected to MicroBlocks, the code is automatically updated in the MakerPort. This is a great time saver because it eliminates the step of copying and transferring the code manually from your computer to the MakerPort.
A Clover Cottage With Gnomes - A Rubber Band Pop-Up - Side View #1
Side View #2
Here is a video of the pop-up in action.
This rubber band pop-up card is an engineering marvel. It combines a rubber band mechanism with a house which pops-up when removed from an A4 envelope. An A4 envelope is 4 1/4 in. x 6 1/4 in. The recipient of this card will be astonished when the flat card opens into this amazing three dimensional Clover Cottage.
The rubber band expands when the base is pressed down at the seam that is opposite to the internal diagonal. When the side pressure is released, the expansion tension on the rubber band is released and the rubber band returns to its natural state This phenomenon allows the form to deploy and become three dimensional.
The Clover cottage was coded in TurtleStitch and then opened in the Silhouette program for cutting. Here is the TurtleStitch code if you would like to see how it was coded.
A one inch rubber band is required for the pop-up base. (The rubber band is similar to the rubber band used on a Rainbow Loom.) I also used one glue dot. I used 65 lb. pink and white cardstock, pink foil cardstock, vellum and pink glitter cardstock.
A Valentine Cottage With Gnomes - A Rubber Band Pop-Up - Side View #1
Side View #2
Here is a video of the pop-up in action.
This rubber band pop-up card is an engineering marvel. It combines a rubber band mechanism with a house which pops-up when removed from an A4 envelope. An A4 envelope is 4 1/4 in. x 6 1/4 in. The recipient of this card will be astonished when the flat card opens into this amazing three dimensional Valentine Cottage.
The rubber band expands when the base is pressed down at the seam that is opposite to the internal diagonal. When the side pressure is released, the expansion tension on the rubber band is released and the rubber band returns to its natural state This phenomenon allows the form to deploy and become three dimensional.
A one inch rubber band is required for the pop-up base. (The rubber band is similar to the rubber band used on a Rainbow Loom.) I also used one glue dot. I used 65 lb. pink and white cardstock, pink foil cardstock, vellum and pink glitter cardstock.
Using A MakerPort To Animate a Valentine's Gnome Tree
Here is a video of my Valentine's Gnome Tree
This Valentine's box is animated by the MakerPort. The MakerPort,https://makerport.fun/shop/makerport-basic-kit/ is a basic kit which provides the capability to bring a paper project alive. I used an additional component of an Adafruit neopixel ring light to illuminate the project.
Valentine's Day is near and I animated my Valentine's Gnome Tree to add to the festivities of the day. My Valentine's tree is surrounded by Gnomes who are handing out their Valentine's wishes with letters and hearts. By pushing one of the colored Valentine's hearts at the base of the tree, different actions are produced by the MakerPort such as wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day, two different Valentine poems a love song, That's Amore and different color configurations of the neopixel ring light based on the touch sensor which was pressed. You can print and cut this design with scissors or use the files for an electronic paper cutter. I used 65 lb. white, pink, pink glitter and pink foil cardstock.
You can print and cut this design with scissors or use the files for an electronic paper cutter. I used 65 lb. white, pink, pink glitter and pink foil cardstock.
The tree is made up of two sides which slide into one another. Each side of the tree is three ply. The outer two plies have tabs at the bottom. Glue the three plies together to form the one side by aligning the designs. Do not apply glue to the bottom tabs. Repeat for the other side.
Glue on the flowers to each side of the trees. There are three sizes of pink flowers. Three or four big flowers, five medium and five small flowers on each side of the tree. There are also eight or nine hearts on each side of the tree.
Slide the cherry tree pieces together to form a 3D tree.
Make the gnomes by gluing two gnome pieces together. Do not glue the tabs as these tabs will be splayed to form a stand for the gnomes as seen in the photo to the right. Glue on the embellishments to both sides of the gnomes.
Insert the tabs of the gnome into the gear with the set of four small holes.
Splay the tabs and glue them down. Repeat for all of the remaining gnomes.
Insert the tabs of the cherry tree into the gear axle with the four slits.
Splay the tabs and glue them down as shown above. Set this piece aside.
Make the bottom of the box. Crease the bottom of the box as shown above.
Glue the tabs of the sides together and apply glue to the inner tabs of the box. Adhere the bottom of the box to the tabs.
Turn the box over and apply glue to the tabs. Adhere the bottom of the box. The box is two walled to make a sturdy box.
Glue the flowers onto the outer gear casing.
Glue the three gears together to create a sturdy gear that will rotate without warping.
Stack the outer gear casing and the two box tops together. Align the holes for the neopixel ring by threading the posts through all of the holes. The four remaining holes in the center are for the touch sensors. Check to make sure that they are aligned also.
Remove the neopixel and the two box tops. Keep the orientation of all of the items the same. Remove the neopixel.
Place the gear with the gnomes on top of the outer gear casing. Place pink sparkle outer gear casing on top of the stack.
Glue the pink sparkle outer gear casing to the tabs of the outer gear casing. Repeat for all of the tabs. I like to glue the opposite tabs together so that the casing will be aligned properly.
Thread the neopixel through the holes and align them again with the box top.
Apply glue to the tabs of the box tops (as shown above) and adhere one of the box tops.
Apply glue to the tabs in the inside of box top (not shown) and adhere the other box top.
Apply glue to the top of the box as shown on the right.
Adhere the top of the box and align the neopixel. I know...we keep aligning the neopixel and then removing it. It's necessary so that everything remains in alignment.
Bend the round base of the tree so that the neopixel can sit on top of the round base.
Glue the flowers to the hearts. (I changed the sparkle hearts to white ones because the pink sparkle did not show up on the pink sparkle background.) Insert the earring back into the center hole to make a sensor.
Align the hole in the earring back and the hole in the base of the tree. I recommend placing an earring back without anything in the aligned hole. Place a sensor with a heart into the hole and add an earring back to support the sensor. Repeat for the other sensors.
Top view to show location of the flower touch sensors.
Add the connectors for the neopixel as shown above. I wrote down the location of each colored wire for the neopixel and the sensors on the back of the base. Attach the neopixel as shown in the wires above.
Attach the Neopixel to the MakerPort. The neopixel is attached to the "Extra" port with the black wire facing to the left. The black wire is the ground and that will correspond to the letter G (ground) by the word "Extra"
Remove the earring back from the sensors and replace it with a colored wire from the four wire connector. Two of the wires are connected and two more need to be connected in the photo above. Complete connecting all of the wires for the sensors. Make sure to write down a schematic of the location of each of the sensor wires. Here is my schematic.
Sensors
Pin 1 - Yellow wire - White heart with pink foil flower
Pin 3 - White wire - Pink foil heart with white flower
Pin 5 - Red wire - White heart with pink sparkle flower
Pin 7 - Black wire - Pink foil heart with pink sparkle flower
Attach the four wire connector to the Touch pins. The pins on the first row are all odd numbered pins. the pins on the second row are all even number pins. Since I am using only four pins and I placed it on the bottom left, the pins I used are pins 1, 3, 5 and 7.
I recorded my voice by using the online program, https://online-voice-recorder.com/. It was easy to use. Click on the red button to start recording and record whatever you would like to say. Once completed, the sound bite can be appended by moving the blue vertical lines on either side of the sound bite. Save the sound bite to your computer. Change the name of the sound bite to a three digit number, like 001greeting.mp3. Copy this file from your computer to the MakerPort file. The Maker Port file is opened by moving the slider on the side of the MakerPort from "Code" to "File". You can find the Makerport files in the Finder menu. The name of the files is MPFILES. Once in the files, paste the sound bite to a folder, I made a new folder and I named it 003. I then pasted the sound bite to this folder. With each subsequent sound bite, I change the value of the voice recording to the next number and placed all of my sound bites here...for example, 002song...003poem, etc.
Change the slider on the MakerPort from "File" to "Code". The MakerPort needs to be in "Code" mode in order for it to connect to the MicroBlocks software. MicroBlocks, https://microblocks.fun is a block programming language which is dynamic. When your MakerPort is connected to MicroBlocks, the code is automatically updated in the MakerPort. This is a great time saver because it eliminates the step of copying and transferring the code manually from your computer to the MakerPort.
Once the Microblocks file is coded the Makerport is ready to be in standalone mode. Your program is stored on the Makerport for use with the Valentine Gnome Tree. I used a MakerPort Power Bank to power my MakerPort.
I unplugged the MakerPort from my computer and added the MakerPort Power Bank.
I then placed the MakerPort and the PowerBank in the hexagonal base.
My Valentine Gnome Tree is now ready for Valentine's Day.
