Author: Hannah Rudin

MFA Candidate in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Currently pursuing a thesis project on merging design and team-building practices to counter social and political polarization in America.

Opposite of Huzzah :( + ideas

After attempting the exercises this week, I think my board is broken 🙁 I got the basic LED blink exercise, but when it came to connecting the board to wifi, I got this nonsense:

At Becky’s suggestion, I submitted the problem to the Adafruit customer service forum and got one quick followup asking for more information, but haven’t heard back since I sent them the code and output. So we’ll see…

It was my first time using the board, so I’m not sure if I broke it somehow or if it was a manufacturing error. Maybe they’ll be nice to me and replace it?

Anyway, here are my three final project ideas:

Growing Plant Interval Timer

I’ve had this vision for awhile now of a timer with no numbers in the shape of a plant. The plant would be composed of LEDs behind diffusive panels. As time on your “on” intervals increases, the plant will “grow”, and on your “off” intervals it will “shrink”. Ideally, this product would be wifi- or bluetooth-enabled to make it easy for the user to set their time intervals.

IMG_0759-ANIMATION.gif

Amplified Noise Interference

You know those cool fancy noise canceling headphones? Well I want to take those and essentially make them worse. By having a speaker that emits destructive interference signals for only specific audio inputs (like sirens, construction noises, or semi trucks), workplaces could be made quieter but not too quiet, homes might not worry as much about early-morning construction, and walking around in the city might not feel as much like an assault on your ears.

This project would require a (better?) microphone and a speaker, but it would be awesome if it could use your phone speaker or even your normal headphones.

Swiss Army Jacket

It would be awesome to create a wearable for outdoor safety. I am envisioning some sort of jacket with built-in lights and warmers, powered safely somehow by batteries (and maybe solar powered?) It would also be wonderful if the jacket could send an emergency signal if the user is in distress.

The jacket would require some combination of the following components: switches and buttons, white and red LEDs, electric hand warmer, an accelerometer to sense falls, a pulse sensor to sense drops in pulse, an impact sensor (especially near the head and neck), and perhaps a meteorology set (thermometer and/or barometer and/or humidity) if I get really excited about feature creep.

Shhhhhhhhhh! ambient sound sensor

Team: Xuan, Rhea, Hannah, Micah

Update

The code is working and the lights are reactive to sound. Unfortunately, the fill lights in the background are not working, there may be a wiring issue. It will have to be looked into later.

Previous

It doesn’t quite work, but it will soon! We were pretty ambitious with the design of this project and perhaps aimed a bit too high for the “rough prototype” level. But it’s just so pretty and we’re pretty proud. Below are the pictures of the prototype of the model:

box_nolight.jpg

Continue reading “Shhhhhhhhhh! ambient sound sensor”

Hannah’s neopixels

In retrospect I should have done something less lame with this. Tomorrow I want to try doing it with user input where you can put in the pixel number and the color and the neopixel will respond.

void loop() {

  pulseRed(5);
  pulseGreen(5);
  pulseBlue(5);

}

void pulseRed(uint8_t wait) {
  for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,0,0) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

  for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,j,0) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

  for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {           
strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,255,j) );          }          
delay(wait);          
strip.show();        }    
for(int j = 255; j >= 0 ; j--){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,j,j) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }
}

void pulseGreen(uint8_t wait) {
  for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(0,j,0) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(0,255,j) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {           
strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,255,255) );          }         
 delay(wait);          
strip.show();        }    
for(int j = 255; j >= 0 ; j--){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,j,j) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }
}

void pulseBlue(uint8_t wait) {
  
for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(0,0,j) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,0,255) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }

for(int j = 0; j < 256 ; j++){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {           
strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(255,j,255) );          }           
delay(wait);           
strip.show();       }     
for(int j = 255; j >= 0 ; j--){
      for(uint16_t i=0; i<strip.numPixels(); i++) {
          strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(j,j,j) );
        }
        delay(wait);
        strip.show();
      }
}

Analog Input by Hannah

Analog Input with one LED was pretty fun, but with only two additional lines of code I could get TWO LEDs to alternate brightening and fading in response to the pot. Wayyyy more fun!

I wasn’t trying to go so slowly in the video but it was kind of hard to turn the pot (stir the pot?). Hope you like it!

Starshine Plush Night Light

Here it is: the Starshine Pillow.

For anyone (like me) who feels a rush of exhilaration when they look up at the infinite patterns of stars in a clear night sky. For anyone who misses that when living in brightly-lit urban places.

For anyone attracted to star-signs, constellations, and the rustic-modern aesthetic. Or anyone looking for a great birthday gift.

I poured a lot more of my heart and soul into this thing than I even expected. I hope others like it as well. Here it is from start to finish:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Starlight Prototyping by Hannah

Hi there! Well, my fabric exploration earlier this week did nothing to help me narrow down what type I should use to actually diffuse my starlight… but here is my circuit digram and my pillow pattern tests.

circuit diagram.JPG

I am using a battery pack with three AAA batteries at 1.5V each and an external switch, as well as nine white LEDs in parallel with 3.0V typical forward voltage, each coupled in series with a 1k ohm resistor.

pillow front_v1.JPG

For the pillow I wanted a mix of purple and blue patterns and found almost exactly what I was looking for in a little fabric pack from Michael’s. This was my first attempt at the pillow front, which I want to have a quilted look on the outside. The LEDs will shine through a constellation pattern in the square in the center. I used the sewing machine.

Screen Shot 2017-10-04 at 7.57.46 PM.png

This was my first attempt for the back of the pillow. It’s not quite finished yet, but it already looks a lot better than the front and I think the rest of it will go well. I plan to stuff it with the same fluff we used in class last week, and possibly embroider some swirls on it in a different color (I practiced that today on the sewing machine with some scrap, but forgot to take a picture).

Some fabric light tests for collective benefit

Hey friends! I was struggling with how to even figure out which fabrics to buy based on how I want to diffuse the light in my plush toy, so I grabbed a bunch of samples of sheer fabrics from the VFL and did this light study with a set of clear white LEDs. I don’t necessarily know what each type of fabric is but I plan to find out soon (if you know one, please let me know), so if one of them interests you just let me know which sample number it is. From there, I’m sure we can figure out the type of fabric 🙂

This is not my prototype or anything, but I felt like other people might be interested.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Sample 4

Sample 5

Sample 6

Sample 7: Felt (I know this one)

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or comments.