SparkFun Electronics: Pop-up Paper Engineering

Brian HuangEducation Engineer

Linz CraigEducation Outreach

Angela SheehanEducation Outreach

http://bit.ly/CentaurusPaperEng

About us...

SparkFun ElectronicsBoulder, CO

● Founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle● Focus in shortcuts to engineering design● Design / Develop Electronics for Building,

Tinkering, Making● Rooted in Open Source Hardware

Community

Today

You will learn what makes a circuit work and apply this to create/make something novel and unique.

You will apply the engineering design process you’ve practiced in school on today’s design task.

Basic Circuits

Circuit → Circle

+`

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are simple, low-cost semiconductor devices that produce light when voltage is applied in the correct polarity.

Modifications to the LED

Using Copper Tape on Paper

Copper Tape is Conductive...but sticky stuff isn’t!!!

Try to use one continuous piece of tape for each section (grey parts).

Fold, crease through each corner.

Or - make sure shiny part is touching shiny.

Adhesive is non-conductive…Making Corners with one piece of tape

Try to keep the piece of tape continuous across corners and through-out the circuit.

FOLDFOLD FORWARD to CREASE(Sticky side exposed)

DONE!

FOLD DIAGONAL TO MAKE A CORNER

But, what about when you run out of tape??Joining Traces

Joining by touching the SHINY-SIDE to the SHINY-SIDE of each section. Secure with Clear Tape.

FOLD BACK FOLD

1/2 AGAIN

BREAK

JOINING PIECE

Overlap Shiny-side to Shiny-

side

We said copper tape is conductive, but the sticky stuff is not.

Define the word conductive.

A few definitions...

The flap is down, and shiny is touching shiny. This is called a closed circuit.

And a few more...

This is called an open-circuit.

Define “open-circuit”

The flap is up.

A few template ideasPush button

Drawings and designs courtesy of Jie Qi at MIT Media Lab: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2505

A few template ideasPull-Tab Switch

Drawings and designs courtesy of Jie Qi at MIT Media Lab: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2505

How else can you make a switch?

A little inspiration??

Draw, sketch, make something unique!Your turn...

Design ProcessProblem Statement

Design ProcessPlanning….Sketch, write, doodle… think about the following:

•WHO IS IT FOR?•WHAT SHOULD IT DO?•WHAT SHOULD IT LOOK LIKE?

Phase II -- Adding pop-up Paper Engineering to Paper Circuits

Pop-up CutsV-Mouth Cut

Place a dot near the center of the new rectangle.

Draw a perpendicular line to the folded edge of the cardstock.

Folded Edge

Pop-up CutsV-Mouth Cut

Cut along the line to the dot.

Folded Edge

Pop-up CutsV-Mouth Cut

Fold the right-hand side to form a triangular flap and crease.

Flip the card over and crease the triangle over on the other side as well.

Pop-up CutsV-Mouth Cut

Repeat for the left flap. Fold the left-hand side to form a triangular flap and crease.

Flip the card over and crease the triangle over on the other side.

Opening the Mouth

Open the card up like a tent.

Using your thumb or fingers, push the top triangle and bottom triangle through to the inside.

Finally

Close the card and press firmly.Re-open to work the mouth-action.

Variations? What other ideas do you have? Add LEDs, switches, push buttons...

Concepts, images, and credit to Robert Sabuda:http://wp.robertsabuda.com/how-to-make-a-v-fold-mouth-pop-up/

Draw a jagged line instead of a straight one and you have a mouth with teeth!

Resources, Credits, and Thank yous

Thank you to Jie Qi and the High-Low Tech Lab at MIT for the concepts, designs, and artwork for these paper circuits.

Thank you to Robert Sabuda for his pivotal work in pop-up books and pop-up art.

Full-scale templates can be downloaded as a PowerPoint file here. If you need a PDF, please e-mail me at brian.huang@sparkfun.com

Thank you!

Thanks!

Brian HuangEducation Engineer

Linz CraigEducation Outreach

Angela SheehanEducation Outreach

http://bit.ly/CentaurusPaperEng

email: education@sparkfun.com