Fresh Air Fun Day & littleBits donation!

After my DIY littleBits Instructable won the "Supercharged Contest", littleBits donated more than enough modules for me to give a workshop for 20 Fresh Air Fund kids this summer!  Truly they stand behind their mission to democratize electronics.  We already had a spring event to celebrate "Fresh Air Fund Day"; here's how it went.

On Saturday, March 15, 2014, volunteers and neighbors came together to celebrate “Fresh Air Fund Day.”  The festivities included a circuit building workshop led by FAF local chairperson and host parent, Judith Brisson (me), and a science teacher from the Dalton School, Glenn Simonelli.  Parents and kids worked together to experiment and build with an assortment of modules provided by littleBits.  It was so much fun to kick off our spring celebration with this littleBits workshop; hopefully more people will volunteer with the Fresh Air Fund to host a NYC child for a week or two this summer!

Everyone had a lot of fun building circuits, even without prior experience. Visit the Fresh Air Fund to learn more about how to help NYC kids enjoy summer.  We'd like to give a big shout out of thanks to littleBits for their generous donation of modules; our visiting kids this summer will certainly ENJOY! A last minute surprise was that RadioShack donated 9 volt batteries - thank you! Finally, thanks to Instructables and to all who voted for DIY littleBits and to our volunteer science teacher for the day, Glenn Simonelli.

Mickey and Minnie's Mansion:

Father and daughter team Brett and Ta’lia created a castle themed birdhouse which she called, “Mickey and Minnie’s Mansion.” At the entrace of the mansion is a pipe-cleaner with a happy face bead that pops out of the door to welcome visitors who press the doorbell.  At the top is their “entertainment,” which consists of a DC motor with a foam ball and feathers illuminated by a UV LED. She colored the foam ball with a yellow highlighter, so it glows bright in the UV light.  Her circuit included power + dimmer + wire + DC motor + UV LED.  Click the video on the right to see her masterpiece in action. During the workshop, Ta’lia also had time to construct a prank handshake and a motion detector circuit that sounded off a buzzer and lit up some LED modules.

Home alarm system with a simulated smartphone interface:

 

Wesley equipped a birdhouse with a fire/intruder alarm. When the circuit detects motion, the lights go on in the house and a buzzer sounds an alarm to alert the authorities. His circuit was created by snapping together power + motion trigger + buzzer + wire + bargraph + LED.  Wesley also made a graphical user interface with his smartphone to simulate a touch-pad for the alarm system – so cool! See his creation in the video on the left.