Zine

Assignment

Two 2,5D molds and one 3D mold manufactured by a 3D printer.

Concept

First we're thinking about making a mold with a pattern. We were looking for patterns on Pinterest to inspire us, we saw a lot of fur patterns of tigers and panthers. That's when we came with the idea to make it more like a (fake) animal rug, to make the 3D print a bit more interesting. In the results trying to find a (fake) animal rug we saw a picture a rug of the parts of a crocodile that are above the water surface, so it looks like there's a crocodile swimming in the living room floor. That sparked the idea of our whole concept of building three different designs for every mold. A mold for a crocodile skeleton/fossil, a swimming crocodile and the eye of a crocodile.

At first we wanted to make a crocodile's body instead of only the eye, but making a mold for this would be pretty hard to extract the crocodile out of the mold. So we sticked with an eye, the rest of the molds were challenging enough to make since it's the first time 3D modeling in Fusion.

3D modeling in Fusion

2,5D mold — Crocodile fossil

Together with Sander, from the Makerslab, I spent at least an hour looking for a replacement for the sculpt tool. The sculpt tool was very useful for extruding shapes, but then you have the option to adjust the shape yourself how you want it. It is very similar to claying.

After spending a lot of time making the mold, and spending a lot of time in the sweep tool, I found the new version of the sculpt tool. The tool is not called Create Form. Very frustrating to find out just when you are ready.

3D mold — Crocodile eye

3D printing

2,5D mold — Crocodile fossil

While the 3D printer was busy printing my second mold, I realized that I had not made any oblique surfaces on the sides of the box. Fortunately, I only made the sides of the box 1 millimeter thick, so the sides could still give a little.

Because there are three 3D printers in the Makerslab, you had to fine-tune when which two will 3D print. For this reason, the 2.5D molds of Andrei and me were printed together with the 2.5D molds of Desiree and Thijs. Desiree was the first of us to be at school that day and sent our molds to the 3D printer.

3D mold — Crocodile eye

Exporting mold

From Fusion 360 we exported the 3D model as two separate .stl files. This allowed us to place the models in Cura the way we wanted to print them. For these models, the ideal plane to 3D print from is the largest flat plane.

3D printing mold

Because the filament was tangled, we stopped printing. Actually, this was a kind of luck in an accident. With the first settings, the molds would jointly take around 36 hours to 3D print. Because we thought it was really crazy that it took so long, we looked at the settings together and made some adjustments, after which Ultimaker Cura indicated that printing with these settings would take about 13 hours.

This was beneficial for both the amount of material used and the time it took to print. That does not mean that the quality of the 3D models is slightly less, but in this case it does not matter. So keep that in mind if you want a neatly finished 3D model.

3D printing tips

• Make sure the filament isn't stuck, like for instance in a knot

• Check how much filament you need, so it doesn't run out of filament. The 3D printer will continue even without filament, so you won't be able to start where at the point that it ran out of filament.

• Make sure the plate is stuck in its place. Otherwise it will move and it won't look nothing near the 3D model you made.

Vacuum forming

We used

• Black PS of 1 mm thick

• Transparent PET of 0,75 mm thick

Before being able to use the vacuum former, it first needed to heat up for 15 minutes.

After making 2 molds with the vacuum former, we noticed that our 3D print started to bend. This is due to the heat of the vacuum former.

References

Tutorial for building a 3D mold in Fusion: https://youtu.be/vKZx9eHEL6o

Ohm's Law

Ohm's law is a physical law that establishes a relationship between voltage (V), resistance (R) and amperage (I).

Ohm's law reads as follows: The current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference between the ends.

(To keep it a bit more simple we used V for voltage, in the original Ohm's law formula they use U.)

With this knowledge you're also able to use the formula to calculate the amperage in a circuit.

Or to calculate the resistance in a circuit.

Zine

Moodboard

To illustrate what I think the two extremes, organic and geometric are, I made a moodboard. When I think of geometric I think of shapes that have sharp edges and are symmetric. When I think of organic I think of shapes that have fluid wavy edges and asymmetric.

Inflatables

Sam showed a few different types of ways of creating a 3D object from a flat surface. One of those ways was an inflatable object made of TPU. As soon as I saw that I wanted to experiment it. In the presentation I noticed that there weren't examples of inflatables that inflate like a Rotational Erection System (RES). More about Rotational Erection Systems further on in my documentation.

I used

Material

• Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)

• Baking paper

Tools

• Scissors

• Iron + ironing board

Preparing before melting the TPU in

1. Cut a shape out of the baking paper. These become the air chambers of the inflatable unit

2. Grab two pieces of the same size TPU. Or a format that if you make that double mistake, at least both fall over the baking paper

3. First put a layer of baking paper on the ironing board. The TPU heats up quickly and melts, otherwise it will probably stick to the ironing board

4. Place the TPU on it

5. Place the shape you cut out of the baking paper on the TPU

6. Place the same size piece of TPU on top. Or fold the other piece of TPU over it if you have a large enough piece of TPU. As long as you make sure that there is enough TPU around the baking paper that can melt together

7. On top of this you put another piece of baking paper. You need this layer of baking paper so that the latex does not stick to the iron. So now you have a total of 5 layers: Baking paper, TPU, baking paper, TPU, baking paper

Rotational Erection System (RES): Origami Extended with Cuts

I stumbled upon some Rotational Erection System's (RES) and eventually found a design I really liked to make. So I did some research and tried to find a 2D template to lasercut this myself. While searching for tutorials and templates I ended up on looking at a Flickr page, of professor Yoshinobu Miyamoto, with a bunch of different RES pictures. One of those pictures was a screenshot of a software that creates 2D templates for RES. I clicked on the picture and saw that it was a screenshot of a video. I watched the video and it created a much better understanding of how RES works.

I used

• Adobe Illustrator

• Polypropylene (PP) 0,8 mm thick

• Lasercutter

Bauhaus spiral

Josef Albers - Three dimensional piece of paper (from his course at the Bauhaus), photo taken 1928-29, printed later, gelatin silver print

Lasercutter

Andrei Motian, a classmate of mine, already found out a few things before I started lasercutting my designs. Andrei already noticed that the matte side of the PP plate faced upwards created better results.

Computer

1. Make sure there you don't have multiple lines beneath each other. The lasercutter traces every line. So if you got multiple lines beneath each other it will cut multiple times at the same spot.

2. Save as illustrator 8 file, the lasercutter software doesn't support newer versions

3. Open lasercutter software

4. Import illustrator 8 file

5. Adjust settings of the speed, power, output (some lines you don't want to lasercut), dotted line/cut/scan.

6. Download file to lasercutter

Lasercutter

1. Open lasercutter software > import

2. ...

3. Place material and make sure the material is correctly lined up and heightened if necessary.

4. Check if the laser is at the right height.

5. File > Enter >

6. Move laser to startpoint where you want to cut. And click on origin, the new position is now saved. Otherwise the lasercutter will start at its previous saved position.

7. Click on frame if you want to see a demonstration of the area the lasercutter uses to cut.

I lasercutted this material facing the matte surface facing upwards. With these settings it doesn’t fully cut through the material. Afterwards I used a knife to cut it out of the PP. I was really surprised that the cuts made a really flexible RES.

The laser can sometimes cause sparks on the bottom. It is therefore always smart to increase your design, otherwise you will get dirty spots in your design. Unless you want this, it is good to raise your design before cutting.

You can put some weight, on the parts that are not cut in the material, on the material. Some material may shift during cutting.

Creating book sample book

There's three things you need to create a book: a format, the content and bookbinding.

Format

I chose to create a sample book with 15 x 15 cm pages. All the Rotational Erection Systems I made were created on 15 x 15 cm squares so that was the easiest solution to fit the Rotational Erection Systems, without needing to lasercut new ones.

Content

Ofcourse you got the front cover. Then I used the first spread for a moodboard illustrating my interpretation of the material properties a geometric shape has. After that five spreads with the five Rotational Erection Systems in the different gradations from geometric to organic. On the left page the info about the material (thickness/weight, price and where I bought it), settings of the machine, (unforeseen) insights / tips. On the right page the Rotational Erection System, it's nice to be able to also feel the samples. And the last spread for a moodboard illustrating my interpretation of the material properties a organic shape has.

Choise of bookbinding

A big part of producing a book is choosing the right of bookbinding technique that fits the content. For my content I thought the bookbinding technique Leporello fits perfectly. You can read it like a book but if you want you can extend it to a really wide book. That reminds me of a RES.

Besides that I think it's cool to be able to see the different gradations between the two extremes organic and geometric. To be able to line them up and really compare them. And having two sides to showcase the two different types of productions separately.

Producing the sample book

Lasercutting book out of paper sheets

The book turned out to be 15 cm high and because it's so wide I had to split it up into multiple less wider rows which I had to tape together. I used two 50 x 70 cm sized paper (290 gr) sheets.

Assembling the book

Putting content in the book

I used transparent double-sided tape to tape the polypropylene on the pages. That's because glue and polypropylene and glue aren't a great match. To glue the paper RES and other content together I used Pritt.

What I learned

• That it's important to make sure you don't have multiple lines beneath each other before sending it to the lasercutter. Especially important tip when you're lasercutting easily melting material.

• I sometimes forgot to make a square cut around my design. So I had to cut it by hand or I could have also made a square afterwards. It just saves a lot of hassle to draw a square around your design so you don't have cut afterwards by yourself.

• A bunch of new bookbinding techniques and the influence these techniques have on the quality of reading and the lifetime of the book.

• Polypropylene doesn't work well with glue.

References

Prof. Yoshinobu Miyamoto's Single Sheet Structure Rotational Erection Systems: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yoshinobu_miyamoto/albums/72157626010136184/

Prof. Yoshinobu Miyamoto's RES-flat demo: https://vimeo.com/124077480

How to Duplicate Objects Around a Circle | Illustrator Tutorial: https://youtu.be/eUdw9-8wctc

Soldering

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the soldering process. As I'm a bit new to documenting my process I forgot to take pictures while soldering the parts.

Voice coil

I was interested to see if the sound would be effected by the design if the coil is thicker on the outside than the inner part, and the other way around. To test this I made two spirals, that's because the it has to have two ends. To connect the + and -, so the electricity can get from one end to the other.

Designing

Building the first voice coil

Choosing material

Now I got to the point where I had to choose with what material I could build my design. Because my two spirals both have parts that are very thin my choice of material was influenced by what types of tools I could make such thin lines with. I chose to cut my design out of a sticker sheet with a vinylcutter. If I had done this with a lasercutter some of the thinner parts would have probably been messed up because of the heat that a lasercutter produces to cut through material. A vinylcutter uses a thin knife to cut in the material and adjust the speed and force.

I chose to cut the design out of a sticker sheet. To then remove the spiral from the sticker sheet and use the rest of the sticker sheet to stick on something so I could paint with a wire glue to make the spiral. Then remove the sticker sheet. So beforehand I chose a material that I thought the wire glue would stick onto and the sticker sheet could easily be removed from.

Placing coil on material

Step 1: Removing spiral from sticker sheet

Removing spiral from sticker sheet

Making wire glue spiral

As you can see the material started to wrinkle because of the wire glue. Unfortunately that also caused to glue to work its way under the sticker. So some of the lines were now glued together. Electricity takes the shortest route. Because of that it wouldn't follow the spiral, but instead will use the shortest route via the unintended spilled glue.

Result

Conclusion

Wire glue gives too much resistance and therefore it isn't a great material for a coil in a speaker. I should've first painted a bit a wire glue on a piece of paper to test how much resistance it creates. If I had done that before putting a few hours building this voice coil I could have spend more hours building a voice coil that would be able to work in the first place.

Building the second voice coil

For the second coil I used the vinyl cutter to cut out the spiral from a copper foil tape that is sticky from the back, just like a sticker with copper on the top so its able to lead electricity. I adjusted the force to 80g and speed to 2 cm/s, because copper foil tape needs a different force and speed to cut through than a sticker sheet.

Step 1

First I had to remove the spiral from the copper foil. This time I needed the spiral and not the material around it.

Step 2

Then place the spiral on some material. In this case I just chose to place it on some piece of paper.

Step 3

And remove the paper with soft glue, that I used to nicely remove the spiral from the copper foil, from the non-sticky side of the spiral.

Step 4

I measured a resistance of 0,5 - 0,6 ohm. The goal was to have a resistance about 4 - 8 ohm, so I needed add at least another 3,4 ohm.

Sources

Zine

Capacitive sensor + RGB LED

//https://www.instructables.com/id/Capacitive-Sensing-for-Dummies/
//https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Smoothing
//https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/how-to-use-a-rgb-led-with-arduino/

#include <CapacitiveSensor.h>
// how to install libraries https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-an-arduino-library 
// download capsense lib here https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor/

//send at pin 3, receive at pin 4, 1-10M ohm resistor between
CapacitiveSensor cs_3_4 = CapacitiveSensor(3, 4); // 1-10 megohm resistor between pins 4 & 3, pin 3 is sensor pin, add wire, foil

const int numReadings = 10;     // size of array/number of readings to keep track of (higher = slower)
int readings[numReadings];      // the readings from the analog input
int readIndex = 0;              // the index of the current reading
int total = 0;                  // the running total
int average = 0;                // the average
int brightness = 0;             // initialize delay time at 0
//int ledPin = 11;
int newAverage = 0;             //store values after mapping

int redPin= 11;
int greenPin = 12;
int bluePin = 13;

void setup() {

  pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluePin, OUTPUT);

  // initialize serial communication with computer:
  SerialUSB.begin(9600);           //start serial communication via USB cable
  
  cs_3_4.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF); // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example Serial.begin(9600);

  //initatialize readings array setting all values to 0
  for (int thisReading = 0; thisReading < numReadings; thisReading++) {
    readings[thisReading] = 0;
  }  
}

void loop() {

  // subtract the last reading:
  total = total - readings[readIndex];

  // read from the sensor:
  readings[readIndex] = cs_3_4.capacitiveSensor(30);

  // add the reading to the total:
  total = total + readings[readIndex];

  // advance to the next position in the array:
  readIndex = readIndex + 1;

  // if we're at the end of the array...wrap around to the beginning
  if (readIndex >= numReadings) {
    readIndex = 0;
  }

  // calculate the average:
  average = total / numReadings;

  // map the average value to the min and max we recorded above
  newAverage = map(average, 0, 65, 0, 255);

  //set brightness of LED to sensorValue (between 0-255)
//  analogWrite(ledPin, newAverage);

  if (newAverage <= 85) {
    setColor(255, 0, 0); // Red Color
  }
  else if (newAverage > 85 && newAverage <= 170) {
    setColor(0, 255, 0); // Green Color
  }
  else if (newAverage > 170) {
    setColor(0, 0, 255); // Blue Color
  }
  
  SerialUSB.print("Old Value = ");
  SerialUSB.print(average);
  SerialUSB.print("\t");   // add a tab between the numbers
  SerialUSB.print("New Value = ");
  SerialUSB.println(newAverage);

  delay(10); // arbitrary delay to limit data to serial port
}

void setColor(int redValue, int greenValue, int blueValue) {
  analogWrite(redPin, redValue);
  analogWrite(greenPin, greenValue);
  analogWrite(bluePin, blueValue);
}

Drawing with Capacitive Sensor in Processing

I wanted to start of easy since it is my first time writing code in Processing. First I started building a circuit using a LDR, that was what the example code provided by the minor uses.

Inspiration

Code from Processing example

Pointillism by Daniel Shiffman.

PImage img;
int smallPoint, largePoint;

void setup() {
  size(640, 360);
  img = loadImage("moonwalk.jpg");
  smallPoint = 4;
  largePoint = 40;
  imageMode(CENTER);
  noStroke();
  background(255);
}

void draw() { 
  float pointillize = map(mouseX, 0, width, smallPoint, largePoint);
  int x = int(random(img.width));
  int y = int(random(img.height));
  color pix = img.get(x, y);
  fill(pix, 128);
  ellipse(x, y, pointillize, pointillize);
}

Setup

I used a Seeeduino Lotus Cortex M0+ instead of a Arduino Uno.

Changing window size

The first thing I did was change the of the window. I wanted the window to be full screen. So I deleted the line size(600, 600); to fullScreen();.

As seen in the image above the dots were only appear in a box the exact same size as the original image used to pick the colors. So it treats the image as a canvas.

Resizing image to window size

Because the dots only appear in the image size I simply needed to resize the image to the whole window size. img.resize(width,height);

Swapping mouse position with sensor values

float pointillize = map(mouseX, 0, width, smallPoint, largePoint);

float pointillize = map(dataInput, 0, width, smallPoint, largePoint);

Fitting in with the other outputs

To make the output fit in with the others. I had to make two changes, use another picture with copper colors and use rectangles instead of ellipses to make a drawing. Both simple changes, I only had to change this line of code ellipse(x, y, pointillize, pointillize); to rect(x, y, pointillize, pointillize); and search a picture with nice black and copper colors.

Before swapping the ellipses to squares I thought I wouldn't like the squares as much as the ellipses.

End result

When seeing one of my classmates, Andrei, designs in Process I realized that my full screen design wasn't making it fit in with the other outputs. Thats when I chose to resize it to a square just like Andrei did.

So I swapped fullScreen(); back to size(600, 600); to make the window a square.

Final code

Arduino IDE

//ARDUINO CODE FOR ANALOG SENSOR
int sensorValue = 0;

void setup() {
SerialUSB.begin(9600); //needs to match processing baudrate
}

void loop() {
//SerialUSB.println(analogRead(A0)); // for debugging only
sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // store value in sensorValue
SerialUSB.write(map(sensorValue, 0,1023,255,0)); // map to processing range
delay(50);
}

Processing

/*
  DRAWING WITH CAPACITIVE SENSOR by Kaz Bison
  
  Recources:
  https://hello.processing.org/editor/             <- Nice for understanding the basics of Processing
  https://processing.org/examples/pointillism.html <- Processing example I used
*/

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;
int dataInput;
PImage img;
int smallPoint, largePoint;

void setup() {
  println(Serial.list()); //use to find list of your port addresses
  String portName = "/dev/cu.usbmodem141101";  //change to your own port address! (Arduino: Tools > Port)
  myPort = new Serial(this, portName, 9600); //needs to match arduino baudrate
  size(600, 600); // window size 600 x 600 px
  img = loadImage("copper-on-black-pattern.jpg"); //image source (I removed the bottom part): https://cdn2.vectorstock.com/i/1000x1000/09/01/copper-rose-gold-foil-florals-on-black-pattern-vector-22540901.jpg
  img.resize(width,height);
  smallPoint = 4;
  largePoint = 40;
  noStroke();
  background(255);
}

void draw() {
  float pointillize = map(dataInput*20+70, 0, width, smallPoint, largePoint);
  int x = int(random(width));
  int y = int(random(height));
  color pix = img.get(x, y);
  fill(pix, 128); //uses color for ellipse from picture
  rect(x, y, pointillize, pointillize);
  println(dataInput); // data sent from Arduino in console
}

void serialEvent(Serial myPort) {
  dataInput = myPort.read();
}

Reflection

Looking at the work of the classmates, at the show and tell, I'm able to notice some of the flaws in my design I didn't think of before. It's nice to have some fresh eyes and feedback at the show and tell, to improve my work.

I also noticed that I enjoyed coding in Processing.

Grafisch Werkcentrum Amsterdam

Safetyzine

Zine

Assignment

• Create an on/off switch (tact, toggle, slide, tilt or other)

• Also create an analog sensor (potentiometer, capacitive touch, other)

• Show at least 3 iterations (drawings, prototypes) before making the final paper sensor in black cardboard

• All the nodes should work as series, none can take visual supremacy

• The sensors shown in class are the point of departure for the series. You can recreate the technical circuit but not the form

• Program a Node MCU to read the values with the serial plotter

• Change an LED’s brightness depending on switch & sensor values

Seeeduino Lotus Cortex M0+

It has 14 digital I/O (input/outputs) and 6 analog I/O. All pins with a ~ in front support PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) output. Which means D3, D4, D5, D6, D8, D9, D10, D11, D12, D13, ten in total.

More info about the Seeeduino Lotus Cortex M0+ at Seeedstudio's site: http://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Seeeduino_Lotus_Cortex-M0-/

Breadboard

Digital sensor

A digital sensor has two states (on/off). When a circuit is closed it's on and when a circuit is open it's off. Because when the circuit is closed the current follows the circuit and when it's open the current is interrupted and can't go to the other side.

I've teamed up with Thijs for this week during the days we need to do the assignments at home. Thijs mainly focussed on building a digital sensor and I mainly focussed on building a capacitive sensor.

Capacitive sensor

In class, the day before the schools closed the doors because of the corona virus, we made a crystal that is conductive. Loes showed her own crystal sensor and I really wanted to make one myself. So at first I started to build a capacitive sensor with a conductive crystal, but later on I also tried different conductive materials. This setup works with every conductive object.

Conductive crystal

I just can't seem to get the setup to work. To my idea I've checked everything. I've checked if I've put USB behind every serial . I've checked if the I had connected the wires in the right way to setup the circuit. I've swapped the wires for other wires, to check if the wires are broken. After that I checked if the it works without the conductive crystal, so just with the paperclip. But the paperclip unfortunately doesn't work either, so I can't conclude that the crystal doesn't work.

The black wire looks like it isn't connected, but it is. It is connected to the same copper tape as the conductive crystal. The copper tape is one piece of tape that's also on a little bit on the back of the piece of paper. I made sure that its one piece, otherwise it wouldn't work.

//https://www.instructables.com/id/Capacitive-Sensing-for-Dummies/
//https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Smoothing

#include <CapacitiveSensor.h>
// how to install libraries https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-an-arduino-library 
// download capsense lib here https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor/

//send at pin 4, receive at pin 3, 1-10M ohm resistor between
CapacitiveSensor cs_3_4 = CapacitiveSensor(3, 4); // 1-10 megohm resistor between pins 4 & 3, pin 3 is sensor pin, add wire, foil

const int numReadings = 10;     // size of array/number of readings to keep track of (higher = slower)
int readings[numReadings];      // the readings from the analog input
int readIndex = 0;              // the index of the current reading
int total = 0;                  // the running total
int average = 0;                // the average
int brightness = 0;             // initialize delay time at 0
int ledPin = 11;
int newAverage = 0;             //store values after mapping

void setup() {

  // initialize serial communication with computer:
  SerialUSB.begin(9600);           //start serial communication via USB cable
  
  cs_3_4.set_CS_AutocaL_Millis(0xFFFFFFFF); // turn off autocalibrate on channel 1 - just as an example Serial.begin(9600);

  //initatialize readings array setting all values to 0
  for (int thisReading = 0; thisReading < numReadings; thisReading++) {
    readings[thisReading] = 0;
  }  
}

void loop() {

  // subtract the last reading:
  total = total - readings[readIndex];

  // read from the sensor:
  readings[readIndex] = cs_3_4.capacitiveSensor(30);

  // add the reading to the total:
  total = total + readings[readIndex];

  // advance to the next position in the array:
  readIndex = readIndex + 1;

  // if we're at the end of the array...wrap around to the beginning
  if (readIndex >= numReadings) {
    readIndex = 0;
  }

  // calculate the average:
  average = total / numReadings;

  // USE THIS TO FIND THE SENSOR RANGE (COMMENT OUT WHEN DONE)
  // send it to the computer as ASCII digits
  SerialUSB.println(average);  // if using Arduino serial >> e.g. 0 (touch), 70 (no touch)

//  // UNCOMMENT THIS TO MAP THE VALUES TO THE LED RANGE
//  // map the average value to the min and max we recorded above
//  newAverage = map(average, 70, 0, 0, 255);
//
//  //set brightness of LED to sensorValue (between 0-255)
//  analogWrite(ledPin, newAverage);  
//
//SerialUSB.print("Old Value = ");
//SerialUSB.print(average);
//SerialUSB.print("\t");   // add a tab between the numbers
//SerialUSB.print("New Value = ");
//SerialUSB.println(newAverage);

  delay(10); // arbitrary delay to limit data to serial port
}

When I was unwiring the circuit I still had my Serial Monitor open and it suddenly showed values. After looking at the wires one last time I saw I didn't make a mistake following the instructions. I recognized a mistake, the only thing I had to do was swap the wires connected in pin 3 and 4.

//send at pin 4, receive at pin 3, 1-10M ohm resistor between

The code works, just this comment should be changed to this:

//send at pin 3, receive at pin 4, 1-10M ohm resistor between

After this the setup worked (without the conductive crystal connected, just the paperclip) I could finally conclude that the crystal doesn't work.

Copper wire

At the show and tell I showed the sensor and told all the debugging I've done in the last week. After talking with Loes at the show and tell we came to the conclusion to solder the copper wire to the copper tape. So the copper wire and copper tape have better connection. In my design the copper tape makes the connection to my sensor, the copper wire. It's important to have no flaws there.

After soldering the copper wire to the copper tape I had a bit better results, but not as great as it needs to. I completely missed the part where I had to use 1 - 10M ohm resistance. The whole time building the multiple capacitive sensors I used 40k ohm. 40k ohm was the maximal amount of resistance I could create with the resistances I took with me before the school was closed, because of the corona virus.

All iterations

Reflection

While building further and further I realized it would've been smarter to pack more. I thought I packed a bit more than I needed, but that wasn't a great estimation. In the future I need to pack more than I think is more than enough, I am too economical. I needed a lot more resistance to get decent values from my capacitive sensor. The higher the resistance the higher the values.

References

https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/CapacitiveSensor/

Alternative material resources or streams

Zine

Molding and Casting with Bioplastics

Equipment

• Balance

• Measuring cup

• Heater

• Pan

• Spoon

• Something to poor the bioplastic in or on-too, like clean glass, plastic or mold

How I prepared the bioplastics

It is the first time that I made bioplastics. That's why I first looked at how they describe in Bioplastic Cook Book how to prepare bioplastic and which ingredients I needed. From there I actually prepared all the recipes in the same way. First by mixing it cold in the pan. Then heating it up until it boils and becomes syrupy. And then pour it into a mold. After that it's a matter of waiting patiently.

#1 Agar Agar

#2 Agar Agar + Yellow Stamen

#3 Agar Agar + Blue Stamen

#4 Sawdust + Soap

#5 Gelatine + Agar

#6 Gelatine Foam (Attempt)

The bubbles were only on top of my bioplastic. It should actually be spread throughout the whole bioplastic, giving the right structure. Now you can't really call it foam.

#7 Maizena + Forest Fruit Tea

Reflection

This week I was ill, I wanted to finish this assignment before the assessments of the first block. At the end, I had a few days to finish it. And therefore wanted to make the bioplastics as quickly as possible, because bioplastics also need time to dry. Because I didn't have that much time, I didn't pay much attention to reading a lot, so I did some things slightly different from what was told in the book I used.

I would have liked to take a little more time. I only saw what I had done differently after I made them and continued reading the sources. Not intentionally different, but by accident. Which is of course not bad, but that was not my plan, because I had never made bioplastic before.