Introducing the ATtiny85 DIY littleBit and the "counter bit".
I programmed the ATtiny85 chip using MIT's Hi Low Tech post. I plan to figure out how to program it with the Arduino bit, which is a Leonardo, and I'll post that project on the littleBits page. I currently use the ATtiny85 with one input and four outputs, all in littleBits style (VCC, Signal, GND). Here is a clip showing a program that blinks led's in sequence at the touch of a button:
Today, partly in response to a dreamBit request by a user on the littleBits website, I coded the ATtiny85 to count inputs in binary with 3 led's up to the number 5. I could have counted up to 7, but I like the number 5. When the counter reaches 5, it sends an output to the fourth output for a couple seconds. I used a buzzer to demonstrate.
Today my "Emailing Bunny" Instructable got featured, probably because it showcases the brand new cloud module from littleBits! Here are some pictures of Cadburry sending me an email...
Bunny? Would you like some kale?
(Here I am testing the circuit with her help.)
Yes, please!
After setting up a simple circuit, which includes the cloud Bit, I used IFFT for the first time to create recipes. Now every time Cadburry begs for kale, I get an email. I collect that data in a Google calendar. I can see very clearly the times and frequency she tends to ask for kale. After about 10 requests in my inbox, I can't forget to restock her favorite food. She is SO HAPPY we don't run out anymore!
This is a breakout board for kids or for sewing. I made it with an 8 pin dip socket, snaps, and pre-printed pcb board from RadioShack.
Snappy Cat's nose is a chip. Today I used a 555 chip, and I can use any 8 pin chip such as ATtiny85 or the ATtiny13.
The video demonstrates that the snaps are conductive and the design works by blinking an led with a 555 timer for a nose.
I didn't originally intend to make this breakout board a cat, but the wires looked so much like whiskers! A puppy, bunny, octopus, and a lot of other cute designs would also work. Below on the left is the cat's socket, waiting for any 8 pin chip/nose. On the bottom right is a wiring diagram sketch (resistors not drawn).
I did it! I combined littleBits and Squishy Circuits without getting dough in all the places I should not! The answer was in a plastic gum container. It was green and round, so it became a turtle.
If you are looking for a fun indoor activity, I highly recommend making your own "Squishy Circuits". The conductive and insulating dough's were developed by AnnMarie Thomas et. al. at the University of St. Thomas. YOU AND YOUR KIDS CAN DO THIS! Snag a buzzer and a variety pack of led's from Radio Shack and harvest a small motor from a broken toy or toothbrush. The rest of the ingredients are likely already in your kitchen.
(This just in ... Check out Squishy Circuits + littleBits on my next post!)
Before I exposed our #FreshAirFund visitor, Rohan, to more complicated circuits, I gave him the how to instructions for making squishy circuits. We used lemon juice for the conductive dough and sugar for the insulating dough. It was a PERFECT warm up to using electronics and exercised his following instructions "muscle". Here he is cooking the green conductive dough - he had to stir continuously!
Here he is pushing various led's into the dough. We used led's, buzzers, and a motor that Rohan smashed free from an old toothbrush. He said he felt like he was conducting experiments like a real scientist, and he told me he would like to either be a teacher or a scientist.
They say squishy circuits dough can last in the refrigerator for weeks, so we kept in in there for a few days and then took our dough on the road. Some moms and dads in my town let me spread the love with their kids. There was lots of learning going on! Polarity! Buzzing! Tasting! (not tasty, btw)...
After a complete clean up of place mats and hands, we did lots more cause and effect learning with littleBits. YAY littleBits!
To prepare for these lessons with Rohan and a subsequent workshop I did with 7 children from ages 6 to 9, I relied especially on this video demonstration by AnnMarie Thomas:
Sam and the Firefly is one of Jack's favorite books. He especially likes the page where the mischievous firefly writes over the hot dog man's sign to read "COLD Dogs".
I made this light up pencil for Jack before he entered first grade. When he holds it correctly to write, the firefly's led blinks in different colors. Of course, Jack had to have fun. He immediately started making Pizza Hut signs, which he crossed out and changed to read "Pizza COLD".
To begin, I used some wire to make an armature. The firefly's arms and legs are quite thin. As a bonus, they are now pose-able. The wire is curled in not just to make hands and feet, but also to prevent injury by pokey wires. I left some wire dangling from the bottom so I could hot glue or jam the wires into the pencil. I didn't really have a plan. :) Then I wrapped the armature in tinfoil strips to reduce the amount of polymer clay needed for the sculpture.
I mixed equal parts of blue and green Sculpey Bake and Bend polymer clay with a little black to get the face color, and I used black for his body and hands. I conditioned the clay, rolled it flat, and wrapped the foil body with clay. Next I added features like his black smile, two white oval eyes with two little circular pupils, black eyebrows, black hands and feet (why did I forget the feet?),and two rather stubby antenna. The antenna did not have armature wires, so they needed to be stubby to stay on the sculpture. They were necessary for expression. I baked the sculpture according to the manufacturer instructions.
For the electronics portion of this project, I took apart a light up rubber ducky which stopped blinking. There were two touch points on the bottom of the duck, which I later extended with speaker wires so that when Jack holds the pen low near the tip, he is closing the circuit. This duck's water tight design left me no way to change the batteries; an autopsy was my only recourse! On the tray with the blue duck I gathered different large translucent marker caps. I was trying to find a clear plastic container that I could turn into the led holder. I could have used any one of them. I settled on a plastic tube from a marble maze construction toy. I hot glued the whole thing together and taped the wires to the pencil. Check out my YouTube video below for more info and to watch Jack writing with it. It is a heavy pen, but I made it with stuff I found around the house. If I were to redesign it, I think I would not use the plastic housing. Perhaps I would bake a blinking led directly into the clay.
My bunny has big ears, and she is such a good listener!
I made this sculpture with items I found at the shore. There are broken dishes in green, blue and white; broken glass in green and brown; there are also shells, rocks, wood, seed pods and a feather. Of course, I could not stop at hot glue, grout and acrylic paint! I just had to add lasers!!!!!
The substrate is a wooden fruit crate, which has cute round holes that were perfect for a light sensor and a speaker. I essentially made a laser communicator hidden in a bunny sculpture, which I used to wirelessly transmit music 100 feet away! I had to do it at night, because I kept losing track of the laser. In the end I taped the laser transmitter to the roof of my car and moved the receiver bunny into the laser stream on my neighbor's porch. Check out the video link below the pictures to see how I did it.
Did you know that NASA can stream video to the moon and back using lasers and satellites?
You can make a similar "Data Communicator" with infrared (IR) led's.
This is a breakout board for kids or for sewing. I made it with an 8 pin dip socket, snaps, and pre-printed pcb board from RadioShack. 
To begin, I used some wire to make an armature. The firefly's arms and legs are quite thin. As a bonus, they are now pose-able. The wire is curled in not just to make hands and feet, but also to prevent injury by pokey wires. I left some wire dangling from the bottom so I could hot glue or jam the wires into the pencil. I didn't really have a plan. :) Then I wrapped the armature in tinfoil strips to reduce the amount of polymer clay needed for the sculpture.
For the electronics portion of this project, I took apart a light up rubber ducky which stopped blinking. There were two touch points on the bottom of the duck, which I later extended with speaker wires so that when Jack holds the pen low near the tip, he is closing the circuit. This duck's water tight design left me no way to change the batteries; an autopsy was my only recourse! On the tray with the blue duck I gathered different large translucent marker caps. I was trying to find a clear plastic container that I could turn into the led holder. I could have used any one of them. I settled on a plastic tube from a marble maze construction toy. 
I hot glued the whole thing together and taped the wires to the pencil. Check out my YouTube video below for more info and to watch Jack writing with it. It is a heavy pen, but I made it with stuff I found around the house. If I were to redesign it, I think I would not use the plastic housing. Perhaps I would bake a blinking led directly into the clay.
