Category: Portfolio

Novelty Synth from Recycled Vape

Today, we’re turning one of the most cursed objects of contemporary e-waste, a disposable vape, into a musical instrument. It’s like an ocarina, using your breath to activate and your fingers to control the pitch.

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Made in Shenzhen: Videos from my trip to China

Shenzhen is often described as the fastest city on Earth. In this first episode of Made In Shenzhen, Becky Stern and David Cranor travel from Hong Kong across the land border into Shenzhen, China, to explore Huaqiangbei, the world’s most famous electronics market and a physical interface to the global supply chain.

With the help of local fixer Aqua and PCBWay’s Elaine, Becky digs into what makes Shenzhen different from anywhere else: density, repair culture, and a manufacturing ecosystem where ideas can move from concept to reality with astonishing speed.

How does a sheet of copper-clad fiberglass become a printed circuit board? What goes into making an LED? In this episode of Made In Shenzhen, Becky goes inside a PCB factory to see the complex processes that go into making printed circuit boards, then tours a factory that makes LEDs– 20 million of them a day.

Episode 3 coming soon!

LED Mushrooms

Today I’m sharing a super fun project that I collaborated on with a bartender friend of mine. He asked me to make a set of illuminated mushroom drink menus inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The idea is that he presents a mushroom, and when the recipient lifts the cap, text is revealed, letting them know which drink they are about to get. I modified Wuguigui’s free mushroom desk lamp files and added a battery-powered LED circuit to create this easy glowing 3D printing project.

Supplies:

The mushroom lamp design on Printables had to be modified because it uses an incandescent light fixture, but it’s such a lovely design that I chose to build on top of it rather than recreate something similar. The white dots are printed separately from the top dome, and the two main pieces screw together with their integrated threads. 

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Simple Backpack Sewing Pattern (with video)

Here’s how to make a super functional and stylish canvas backpack from scratch. Whether you need something for everyday carry or a weekend adventure, this bag is sturdy, customizable, and beginner-friendly.

The final bag dimensions are 34cm tall by 24 cm wide by 12cm deep (13.5 inches tall by 9.5 inches wide by 5 inches deep).

Supplies

For the Ikea-specific colorway, here are the

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CGM Teardown: Dexcom G7 and FreeStyle Libre 3

Today we’re taking a look inside the two most popular continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs: The Abbott FreeStyle Libre 3 and the Dexcom 7.

Originally developed for diabetes blood sugar monitoring, CGMs are gaining wider appeal among nondiabetics looking to track their metabolic health. It feels pretty cyborg to wear a biosensor that streams data to my phone over Bluetooth.

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Beginner Tips for DIY Wearable Tech

Here’s a guide I’ve been meaning to make for a while– consider it your jumping-off point if you want to get started making your own wearable tech. I’ve published dozens of DIY wearables projects over the years, from LED costumes to Internet-connected sensor jewelry. Here are my best tips for beginners, including answers to common questions.

The first thing you need to get started is an idea. Think about solving a problem or enhancing an experience, either for yourself or someone you know. Maybe there’s a costume or cosplay you’ve always wanted to wear.

The second thing you need is the curiosity, drive, and resourcefulness to learn the skills needed for your idea, which you do not already possess. I’m hoping this guide will help with some of that.

The final thing you need is some motivation to start and/or finish your project, which may come from within, or maybe an event or contest.

It’s important to evaluate your skill level and bite off an appropriate amount of new material to chew on, so as not to get too frustrated to finish your project. Work smarter, not harder. Readymade battery-powered fairy lights, LED strips, and EL wire are perfectly acceptable materials, especially if you’re not ready to take on microcontroller programming or soldering.

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CurrentBody LED Face Mask Teardown

Welcome to another teardown! This time we’re taking a look at the CurrentBody LED red light therapy mask. Masks like these promise to improve various signs of skin aging. 

This project was a collaboration across three continents: my friend Michelle from Lab Muffin Beauty Science in Australia, my other friend Ruth Amos in the UK, and myself (in NYC). We were very curious about these devices. How do they work? What’s the science backing up the marketing claims? Is it really worth the $400 price tag? Could we make a DIY version? We all got on the horn to talk about it.

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YouTube Makers Secret Santa 2024 – PS4 controller sequencer for Look Mum No Computer

This year for YouTube Makers Secret Santa, I got Look Mum No Comupter. Sam performs with his modular synth and other cool audio equipment and collects obsolete technology for his museum in Kent UK. We share a love for hacking toys and other ways to use electronics to be creative. I built him an audio sequencer in an old PS4 controller using sounds from his museum’s sample packs.

Materials and tools:

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DIY Pen Plotter Wedding Place Cards with NextDraw

Here’s how I made the place cards for my wedding reception using my NextDraw pen plotter and the NextDraw Merge software. Not only do they welcome guests to their seats at dinner, but each one has a personal note inside from me, my new husband, or both of us. Follow along if you’re interested in making place cards or notes like this for your own wedding or other special occasion.

Event photos by Arius Photography

Overall, I’d consider this an intermediate-level project, and an ideal first project with NextDraw Merge. This was my first big project with any plotter and the whole reason I bought it in the first place. So I’m new to plotting, and was still able to pull off this project without any problems. But I’m not new to vector graphics software.

For this project, you will need:

Use code BECKYBANTAM for 10% off art machine products thru 2024.

The NextDraw plugin works within InkScape, the open-source vector graphics software, to plot your drawings. The software comes with some sample files to test out and get familiar with plotting. Admittedly I’m more familiar with Adobe Illustrator than I am with Inskcape, but the skills are transferable.

I picked some brown letter-sized paper and experimented with some different gold Gelly Roll pens.

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Sewable CR2032 Coincell Battery Holder with Switch (files included)

Today I’m making a coin cell battery holder – my first assembled PCB product.

I have been selling purple coin cell battery holders in my LED sewing kit for years. They’re perfect for making a simple circuit, and they have a handy on-off switch so you don’t have to take the battery out to power off your project. Before these boards were available, I would use a surface-mount coin cell battery holder with tiny holes in the metal tabs. I had just enough space to sew a few stitches through those holes with conductive thread. They weren’t designed for this purpose and didn’t have that handy switch, but they were better than the through-hole variety available since those don’t have holes in the tabs at all.

There are a handful of circuits like this on the market that include a coin cell battery clip, a single on/off switch on a PCB, and tabs or holes to connect it to the rest of your circuit, either by soldering to the pad or sewing through the holes with conductive thread. The design I was using in my kit was a knockoff of a SparkFun Lilypad product, an open-source design. I don’t feel great about buying the clones, but I was looking for the best price available for my kits. My version observes the open source license, which means you can download my files too.

To make my own version, I started with that same open source design for the sewable LilyPad CR2032 coin cell battery holder. I used Autodesk Fusion for this project, partially because it’s what I already know how to use, and because the design files are Eagle files, which is the previous name of the software package that was rolled into Fusion. The personal use version of Fusion is free and it has enough features to do all the things I’m going to do today.

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