This week our little creators built their Draailampje (Dutch for "flip light"). Inspired by this make magazine article, we gathered our materials to build this cool, decorative light that turns on only when the jar is placed upright. When upside down, the tilt switch disengages and therefore breaks the circuit.
Materials and tools:
Given the age level of this group (3rd through 6th grade) I opted to do the soldering myself. However, over time I can see this task being taken on by students with proper training and practice.
The build is fairly simple. The coin cell battery, LED and tilt switch make up a simple circuit. I pre-soldered the tilt switch and battery holder before class and waited until students chose an LED color before completing the soldering points. Here's what the final circuit looks like, taped to the underside of the baby jar. While the tilt switch has two leads, I used one to attach the LED, but bent the other back and soldered the bottom of the switch to the battery holder instead. The bottom of the switch, therefore, functions as the other lead.
Materials and tools:
- Baby jar
- LED (varying colors and sizes)
- Coin cell battery (CR2032)
- Battery holder
- Tilt switch (we found our tilt switch at Adafruit)
- Double stick tape
- Soldering iron and solder
Given the age level of this group (3rd through 6th grade) I opted to do the soldering myself. However, over time I can see this task being taken on by students with proper training and practice.
The build is fairly simple. The coin cell battery, LED and tilt switch make up a simple circuit. I pre-soldered the tilt switch and battery holder before class and waited until students chose an LED color before completing the soldering points. Here's what the final circuit looks like, taped to the underside of the baby jar. While the tilt switch has two leads, I used one to attach the LED, but bent the other back and soldered the bottom of the switch to the battery holder instead. The bottom of the switch, therefore, functions as the other lead.
Prior to soldering in the LEDs, we all tested the directionality of the tilt switch so that we could understand which position was necessary to turn the light on and off. Once we were ready, we completed the soldering, and assembled our draailampje. Below are some pictures of the final outcome. In the future, I'd like the soldering to be done by the students, even if just a few of them were to man the stations and have the others go through an assembly line.
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