Making a Nightlight #MakerEd #Makerspaces

As a Dremel Idea Builder Ambassador, I wanted to share a fun and easy project that would be great in any Makerspace or home.
Supplies:

Arduino Nano
3D Printed Box - I used my Dremel 3D40
LED Lights (2)
Wire
220 ohm Resistor
Soldering Iron
Yoda Bust
Micro USB Charger
Crazy Glue
Drill

The first thing you want to do is get your box ready. I designed a box where the lid will snap into place. Take a look at the Tinkercad file. I was able to take the file and drop it into the Dremel printing software by Autodesk, Print Studio.

This works really well because you can actually size the box however you want with the software. If you decide that you want a larger box or a smaller box, you can just adjust the size.

After you have the box, you will need to print your Yoda Bust. You can actually use any bust that you want as long as you adjust the size to match the size of the box. It is also important to print the bust using a translucent filament so the light can glow properly.

Next, you need to use program the Arduino. Make sure you have downloaded the Arduino IDE so that you can upload the Blink sketch. Follow these directions on how to wire the LED to the Arduino and upload the sketch. To make sure the LED does not blink, you need to change the number 1000 to 10. This actually makes it blink so fast that it appears on to the naked eye.

It shows you how to connect just one LED, but you can always add more LEDs if you want by adding pins to the code or connecting another LED to the one wire.

Once you have the Arduino wired, you will need to create holes in the box and hollow out the bust. You can create the holes and hollow out the bust with a drill. Make sure that you drill deep and wide enough in the bust so that you can fit the LEDs.

Once you have everything wired and the holes created, you can assemble the project. I used Crazy Glue to keep the bust on the lid and then around the edges of the lid so it will stay closed. You can plug the micro USB into the computer or you can use any wall charger and plug it into the wall. Here is a shot of my completed project.

As someone who has been doing lots of Making, I had all of these supplies around the house. If you are brand new to Making, this is a great entry project to get you started.

Just a quick Yoda nightlight project for my nephew. I used an @arduinoorg Nano and two blue LEDs. I tried multiple green ones, but they were not bright enough. I used my @dremel 3D40 for the box and Yoda. Yoda by slavikk from @thingiverse. The script was the example Blink code agh used to be on when plugged in. #MakerEd #Makerspaces #MakersGonnaMake

A photo posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Jul 31, 2016 at 1:55pm PDT

The Rule You Room Kit from @littleBits Is Amazing

The Rule Your Room Kit from littleBits is the perfect entry into the world of making with littleBits. At $99, this kit is a fun way for kids to get engaged with very interesting bits. The best part of this kit is that it comes with a Makey Makey bit, so there are so many possibilities with this kit. I dove into the kit with my 5 year old son Leo and he was ready to Make.

The first thing we wanted to do was create our own sound activated scary eyes. This is straight from the littleBits Rule Your Room guide.

The kit provides you with all of the bits needed and the creepy eyes. Leo and I added some color to the eyes by coloring some paper and taping it on the inside. After adjusting the sound sensor's sensitivity, Leo tried to creep into his room. 

A video posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Aug 9, 2016 at 2:06pm PDT

After this project, Leo wanted to make sure that his piggy bank would be safe from any robbers that might come into the house looking for a collection of loose change. Luckily, there was a great guide on how to keep the piggy bank safe.

A photo posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Aug 8, 2016 at 9:51am PDT

Here is how I tested out the project with Leo as the cameraman. He has a great eye with that phone.

A video posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Aug 8, 2016 at 9:55am PDT

There are other projects that can be found in the littleBits guide and online. The Rule Your Room kit is a fun entry to the world of littleBits and can inspire the young and old makers around the world. You can order yours today!

littleBits sent me a kit for the purpose of a review, but that doesn't mean it is not as awesome as I said.

Photo Booth Fun with #RaspberryPi #MakerEd

Over the past week, I've become a bit obsessed with creating a photo booth. I saw this very cool article in Make: Magazine and thought I could do that. Well, it turned out that that I could not do that. For whatever reason, I was having serious trouble getting the code to work and it was becoming a headache. So, I turned to The Google to find a different approach to creating a photo booth.

Materials:

Raspberry Pi 3
Micro SD card - The larger the GB, the more pics it can hold.
Monitor - I used the 7" Raspberry Pi Touchscreen, but any screen will do.
Tactile button
Wire to connect Pi to button
PiCamera

I found some interesting resources and wonderfully helpful people online and they helped me put together a slightly different photo booth. I settled on a great code written by jallwine that was shared on Github. This was a great starting point for me to see what the photo booth could be and I could tweak the code to add different things. Not only did he have amazing code, but he helped me when I got stuck trying to tweak his code. Jallwine is the perfect example of how awesome the Maker community can be. He didn't have to help me with his code that was a few years old, but he did it anyway. 

I added a button line so the photo booth would work with the press of a button. I found a version I could use on Raspberry Pi's website that was helpful. The idea of using stop motion as the trigger for the camera made sense to me, so I dropped that in there. 

I also wanted to add a countdown clock so people know when to expect the picture. I really struggled with this because I was approaching the problem from the wrong angle. I was looking for a code to create a timer, but that was overly complicated. Instead, I used the camera.annotate_text line to create text over the picture. For the text, I used numbers that lasted for one second. That created the timer for me. It worked great!

I didn't use the the next parts in the final code, but I figured out how to use random effects on the pictures so they could be really silly photos. The regular photo is currently in, but I could quickly drop it in. You can find out how to do that on Raspberry Pi's website.

Next, I wanted the pictures uploaded to the Cloud so I could grab the when I wanted and share them with others easily. I found a great code for DropboxUploader on Adafruit. I took the code for something different from a photo booth and was able to spin it into a nice addition to my project. I felt super cool being able to put this together. 

I added a few more lines so that the Camera Preview would say "Ready" when it was ready to take pictures and "Processing" when it was formatting and uploading to Dropbox. 

When I was finally done, I had a full photo booth system that will take 3 pictures, duplicate them side by side, upload them to Dropbox, and start all over again. 

I used the Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen because it was easy to use everything together. You could use any HDMI connected screen you wanted. It could be cool to connect to a large TV screen at family functions are large events so people can really see the images. 

The final step for me will be to create a case to package everything together so it can easily be moved around from place to place. I have a big red button ordered from Adafruit. I can place that on the box and people can give that a push and have their pics. I was thinking of  simple box that had a dry erase or chalkboard front that would allow people to personalize the booth based on the event. 

Here are some pictures of what I was able to put together. 

A video posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Aug 8, 2016 at 1:42pm PDT

Here is my code. Feel free to use it and tweak it. 

Hugs and High Fives everyone!

Nick

Having The Tough Conversations in Class #EdChat

This Summer has seen some important events in our nation's history. Primaries, conventions, Supreme Court rulings, anger, hate speech, violence, death, and so much more. Now, there have been great things that happen every day in this great country, but how we cope and understand the worst that happens is how we grow as a nation. Tough conversations need to happen in the classroom. 

That is where teachers need to step in and step up. 

As a literature teacher, one of my many jobs is to connect our current events to the literature of the past. Asking students to make these connections is how I can drive the conversation and let them explore the value of reading these texts. As I sat and watched the conventions, I was thinking about the readings we will do in my American Literature class and I was drawn to a speech by Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". This sermon used fear to bring people back into the fold of church. It used tremendous imagery to scare believers into coming back to the church. 

"The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him."

"And you children that are unconverted, don’t you know that you are going down to hell to bear the dreadful wrath of that God that is now angry with you every day and every night?"

Questions I might ask students:

How does Edwards use fear in his sermon? 

Is it helpful in making his case?

Do speech writers still use this tactic? Can you find an example?

I also think about Patrick Henry's Speech at the Virginia Convention as well. Trying to convince a group of people that it was time to make the difficult choice and openly rebel against the Crown. 

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

Questions I might ask students:

What is the "painful truth" Henry is speaking about?

Who might give this speech today? Support your answer with text similar to this. 

I think about these passages and questions and I hope my students can make the connections to the world around them. It might take a little poking, but it is important to let the student get to where they are going on their own. 

The value of classroom conversations is when the teacher sets them up and backs away to let the student think out the connections and share their thoughts. 

To do this, it is important to establish a safe environment for all students to share their opinions. This has taken me time to master, but my students know that they can speak their mind in our class as long as they are respectful of others. 

This year, think about how you can create an environment for your students to talk about important events in our nation. 

Just Make and Have Fun! #MakerEd #ImAMaker

I've been home from my June/Early July presenting tour and it has been great. Besides the obvious awesomeness of spending time with my amazing family, I've had time to sit and think about Making things. This past week, I was able to complete two projects.

Project 1:

I was cruising eBay and I did not have a set goal. Sometimes it is just fun to window shop a bit. I stopped to look at an old rotary phone that was in a cool looking box. I was struck with the idea that I could turn the the handset into speakers that could play music. I wrote a quick post on it and shared it out.

After the phone arrived, the real work started. I had to open it up, remove the guts and see if I could figure out how to wire a headset to an earbud 3.5mm jack that would go into the Pi. I found that the wiring was pretty easy and the sound was pretty good coming from my iPhone and the speaker in the handset, but it was only one speaker and it was not very loud. I decided to strip a set of small speakers I do not use and install those speakers into the handset. It had clear sound, but it was not loud. Turns out the audio from the jack is just crappy. The Internet told me all about it. So, I ordered a USB Audio Card, installed that in the guts of the phone, and the audio was great. The other aspect of the phone I really wanted to hack was the plunger. I wanted to push the button there and turn it on and off. So, I found a push button on/off code and used an LED code as well to let me know if it is on or off. Lastly,  I needed to run code to turn the Raspberry Pi 3 into an Airplay device. I did not write these codes, but I tweaked them to fit my needs. You can take your Pi and put it anywhere and design a case around it. 

A photo posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Jul 22, 2016 at 2:08pm PDT

A photo posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Jul 22, 2016 at 2:14pm PDT

A video posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Jul 25, 2016 at 11:21am PDT

Project 2:

Nintendo announced you can buy a retro/mini NES that comes pre-loaded with 30 game for $59.99! What a deal? I had some time to kill while I was waiting for my USB Audio Card, so I took out my Raspberry Pi Zero, a Nintendo Controller themed mint can, my drill, and I got to work.

This link will cover the details of how to download the RetroPi image onto your Pi device. For me, the challenge was taking the tin and making it able to hold the Pi Zero and have openings for the two microUSB ports and the MiniHD port. Just a bit of measuring, drilling, and my Dremel to sand the rough/sharp metal edges to complete the project.

A photo posted by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Jul 24, 2016 at 9:58am PDT

I used a USB SNES controller I had from another RetroPi project and connected it to the Pi Zero. The shot of link was just an image I placed on the Pi because it would not be cool to download old games from the Internet for free. Not cool at all...

You can find tons of free games online if you just Google search things like ROMS. There are developers out there that make great games that you can find and play for free.

As I finished these two projects, I was filled with this awesome sense of accomplishment. I wanted to share it with my family and friends. I figured out how to do some tough wiring and tricky coding (It took me hours to tweak it just right). I want to share this with all of you out there because I want to encourage all of you to get out there and try and Make something. It is so much fun to do it and share with your family.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line.

Hugs and High Fives,

Nick