Category: LEDs

Hot Dog Robot for Colin Furze

This year I’ve been invited to join YouTube Makers Secret Santa, where we all make each other personalized gifts. And the name I drew at random is the inimitable Colin Furze.

I want to give Colin a truly American gift, something that transports him across the pond to right here in New York City. And now that Colin’s been a food judge on British TV, what better way than to share a local culinary tradition– the sidewalk hotdog cart. So for Colin, I’m building a New York Hot Dog Experience Machine. Also: Estefannie and Ruth helped me come up with the idea.

I found some “hot dog robots” online but all they did was pick up the dog, never put the toppings on, which is mostly what you see happening at a NYC hot dog cart. So I started my quest to build a toppings machine, and figured it might as well look the part too.

Now I know we were supposed to stick to a small materials budget for this project, but sponsored parts don’t count and this project is sponsored by Digi-Key. I was able to easily source all the electronics parts for this build and they ship super fast.

Electronics supplies (also available as a saved cart on Digi-Key):

Other materials and tools:

Check out all my favorite electronics tools and supplies.

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Record Authentic NYC Audio

I wanted to help Colin feel like he was really in New York City, so I went to some different spots in Manhattan to record some audio. I’ve attached the edited OGG file, which is compatible with the audio FX sound board.

T02HOLDL.oggDownload

Electronics

The electronics for this project are based around a motor driver board to control all three servos, hooked up to a microcontroller that is also reading the photoresistor to detect the hotdog and also two manual control buttons for loading/unloading the mustard bottle.

The LED matrix is made from three smaller panels, and the LEDs are dotstars. It has its own little microcontroller so I didn’t have to worry about integrating the LED animations with the motors or switches up top. The code is easier that way.

Power is shared between this main circuit and the sound board controlling the audio, as well as the LED and its dedicated microcontroller.

I’ve attached the Arduino code for this project.

nyc_hotdog_experience.zipDownload

Mustard Squeezer

Now, mechanical engineering isn’t usually my strongest subject, and I really didn’t want to mess up this awesome idea, so I called on my friend Ruby Zoom for help– she helped design the mechanisms, and it was a blast working with her on this project. Please go check out her channel.

The mustard squeezer and onion dumper are 3D printed and have servo motors controlling their movement.

I used bits of aluminum extrusion I had kicking around to make a simple gantry for the mustard.

The squeezer has two motors. One to wiggle the bottle back and forth, and one to squeeze out the mustard.

Onion Sauce Plopper

The onion sauce plopper has one motor that spins the sauce trough to dump out the sauce.

Mini Sabrett Umbrella

Fittingly enough, the umbrella that ended up being the right scale for this project is an American Girl doll umbrella. I fitted it with some blue and yellow fabric to make it look more like the ones at the hot dog carts. I used some iron-on t-shirt vinyl and my cnc vinyl cutter to make the graphics.

Polymer Clay Pretzels

I made some polymer clay pretzels to go with the experience, but by the time it was ready to ship to Colin, my studio was such a mess I couldn’t find them. They turned up when I cleaned up, so I’ll put them on the second version of the machine I made to keep for myself.

Maker Secret Santa 2021!

All that was left to do was send Colin’s gift to him in the UK. I included the mustard, onion sauce, UK power adapter, and some instructions. Head over to Colin’s channel to watch him open it and try it out.

Zodiac Embroidery

Here’s an easy beginner embroidery project that celebrates your favorite constellation. Follow along to see how I made this classic constellation and also this glowing version made with LEDs and conductive thread.

Supplies

For this project, you will need:

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Glowing Birthday Cake Embroidery for Estefannie

Here’s a birthday present I made for my friend and fellow YouTuber Estefannie. It’s an embroidery I designed with some of her favorite things, as well as some electronics to play sound and light up the birthday candles.

Last year Estefannie and I found out our birthdays are only a day apart, so naturally, we decided to do a youtube collab to celebrate and make each other gifts. I knew Estefannie moved into a house not too long ago, so I decided to make something to help decorate all that new wall space. Embroidery is a natural choice for me, but this time I used a computerized embroidery machine instead of doing it by hand.

Supplies

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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LED Cylon Scooter – 80s Larson Scanner

This project is a very 80s upgrade to a very 80s scooter– I’m putting an LED strip in the grill of my boyfriend Smokey’s Honda Elite to create a larson scanner animation effect while teaching him how to solder.

Supplies

For this project I used a strip of WS2812b LED strip, also known as NeoPixels. I chose the densest variety to pack as many LEDs in as possible for a nice smooth animation effect.

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Easy LED Circuit

Today I’m going to show you how to create a simple yet customizable LED and battery circuit that’s perfect for putting inside your next project. This is a great first soldering project! Follow along with the video to practice your technique.

The most basic LED circuit can be made by sandwiching the legs around a coincell battery. This is also a good way to identify the positive and negative legs of the LED since it will only light up one way. That’s because LEDs are diodes, which allow electricity to flow one way, but not the other. The positive side of the battery should be touching the positive, usually longer, leg of the LED.

Put a little tape on it, and you can enjoy the glow for about a day before it gradually dies out. This is a hacky way to add LEDs to projects that only need to work for a short time, like costumes and props.

If you want to create a durable circuit, it’s time to bust out that soldering iron. In addition to your LEDs, you’ll also need resistors, some wire, some heat shrink tubing, a three-cell battery holder, either triple-A or double-A, and a switch, if your battery holder doesn’t have one already.

Supplies:

For this project, you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Electronic Affirmation Mirror

Written for HackSpace magazine issue 30

When you look in the mirror, who couldn’t use a few words of encouragement? Build a display inside a mirror to scroll custom affirmations you can read over your own reflection. This polished project comes together easily with a store-bought shadow box frame and some see-through mirror material. You can build a simple version with a basic Arduino or compatible, or level it up using a NodeMCU (ESP8266 WiFi board) in order to add more positive quotes to the mirror over the internet.

For this project, you will need:

Read the full tutorial on HackSpace.

Affirmation mirror v1 Arduino codeDownload
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Glowing Eyes Costume

Twin Jawas! Double Orko! Two ghost wizards from Bubble-Bobble! This costume hood can be any LED-eyed creature you choose just by changing the colors. I first made this project in 2015 with a very simple circuit and code, but this year I wanted to create an upgraded version with simultaneous animation control across two costumes. This circuit uses one simple, close-range RF remote to control two receivers on the same frequency, and Arduino code employing interrupts to achieve responsive animation changes, based on Bill Earl’s tutorial code.

For this project, you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Scooter Underglow

Join me in creating ground effect lighting for my scooter using a bluetooth microcontroller and addressable LED strip.

For this project I’m recycling two bits of pixel strip leftover from my old POV bike project tutorial. These are APA102s or DotStars, but you could totally use Neopixels for this project, I just happened to have this set of two strips wired in parallel, which is perfect for sticking under my scooter.

For this project you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

Legal disclaimer! The automotive underglow lighting laws where you live may prohibit some or all colors/animations– where I live, only solid white is technically allowed, and I don’t drive with any other colors/patterns in traffic. Never use flashing lights in the colors emergency vehicles use!

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13 Ideas for LED Diffusion

This is a list of my favorite LED diffusion ideas, which I hope will provide you with some sparks of inspiration for creating your own next-level illumination. Examples and links are provided for each!

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3D Printed Glowing Flower

Create a fun light-up flower using 3D printing and Tinkercad! Optionally add some needle felting to diffuse the light from the LED at the center of the flower. The special Glow circuit assembly in Tinkercad makes it easy to put an LED and battery circuit into your 3D prints.

If you’d like to make the exact flower shown, you can download the attached STL files and get printing. You can modify the base model by clicking the “edit in 3D” button on the embedded Tinkercad model above (free Tinkercad account/login required). Or model your own unique flower in a new Tinkercad workplane using the tips in this tutorial.

flower-base-and-pedals.zip

Gather Supplies

You’ll need a 3D printer and filament to build this project. If you’re new to 3D printing, check out Jonathan Odom’s excellent free Instructables Easy 3D Printing Class to get you up to speed.

Supplies and tools list:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

IMPORTANT: Coin cell batteries can cause serious injury if swallowed. Keep coin cell batteries out of reach of small children!

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