THE TINKERING STUDIO

THE TINKERING STUDIO

 

Solenoid machines
21

Jan / 20

21 Jan / 20

Posted by Ryoko
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A solenoid is a type of electromagnet which does a push or pull motion.  I used to think controlling a solenoid would be complicated because it would require an advanced micro controller such as Arduino, jump wires, breadboard, soldering, text based coding, etc. 

But when we hosted an artist-in-residence Maywa Denki, Tosa-san, the leader of the group, showed us how easy it is now to control the solenoids.  He showed us a 5v solenoid that you could simply plug into a USB port and program with Scratch via micro:bit. All of this was made possible by a micro:bit shield called "Solekit" made by a company Takaha in collaboration with Maywa Denki. I was very excited. 

Earlier this month, when we hosted a BAME meetup (a gathering of local maker educators: Bay Area Maker Educators meetups), we took the opportunity to try out this new idea and tools. This blog post recaps what we shared and learned during the BAME event. There is lots of information here: 1) Preparing for the workshop, 2) During the workshop, and 3) Reflections. Bear with me :)

 

(Here is one example of what you can do with Solekit and Solenoids)

 

1. Preparing for the workshop

1.1 Collect the materials

Here is the minimum* list of electronic components. *One set was used for each group of 1 to 3 people. Since you can connect up to three solenoids with one Solekit controller, we prepared this 8 sets for the event (each with 3 solenoids).

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1.2 Connect Solekit and micro:bit

Next connect a micro:bit with a Solekit with #4 machine screws. The pictures below show the orientation and which pins to connect. You will need a tiny screw driver, 4 screws, 4 nuts, and 4 spacers for this step. The Solekit board was designed to have hole positioned perfectly to make the connections from the miro:bit’s Pins 0, 1, and 2 and GND (Ground).

    

1.3 Download a hex file and Scratch Link: 

1) To download a hex file to your micro:bit, connect a micro:bit to your computer with a USB cable. 

Go to this page: https://makecode.microbit.org/14589-45297-35891-62754

Click the purple “Edit” button. After the project has loaded, Click the purple “Download” button. (See screenshots below.)

  

Download "Micro:bit more" HEX file onto your computer. Then drag and drop the HEX file onto your micro:bit. Your micro:bit will ask you to "Tilt to fill the screen." Tilt your micro:bit in all directions until the LED screen is filled. When done, a smiley face will be displayed. Your micro:bit is ready!

2) To download Scratch Link: 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/scratch-link/id1408863490

3) Go to a Scratch extension site to get started!

We used an experimental Scratch extension “Micro:bit more” created by Koji Yokokawa.

https://yokobond.github.io/scratch-ext/microbit-more/

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In addition to the standard Micro:bit extension blocks, these blocks are available for the Micro:bit More extension. For the push-pull motion of the solenoids, we used the block “Set digital 0/1/2 Low/High” enclosed in the red box in the picture.  Each digital pin 0, 1, and 2 corresponds to a different solenoid that you will be connecting to the Solekit.  

 

2. During the workshop:

We had done all the steps above in preparation for the BAME event, so the participants actually started from here: connecting each component.

2.1 Connect the components:

1) Connect the solenoid to the Solekit. Insert the USB cord into the USB port adjacent to the red, yellow, or green button (blue* is not addressable in this interface). *It is addressable with other micro-controllers such as Arduino and RaspberryPi.

2) Provide power to the solenoid control board by connecting one of the two mini USB power connectors to a USB power source. It could be a computer or a USB hub. A green LED on the Solekit board will light up. 

3) Micro:bit also needs power. Flip over the Solekit board and plug a 2-AA battery pack into the micro:bit board to power it. You will see the five-character micro:bit name scroll across the LED array (e.g. 'zutiz’).

4) Pair up your computer with your micro:bit via bluetooth. Click on the orange icon next to the “micro:bit more” header (Make sure your Scratch Link is running when doing this). In the pop-up window, you will see your micro:bit name listed. The orange icon will turn into a green circle with a white check mark when it is connected. 

 

 

 

2.2 Prepare other materials:

We prepared these materials and tools so that the participants could build all kinds of whimsical machines using the linear push-pull motion of solenoids, such as marble machines or sound machines. 

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For building:

 - Cardboard sheets and scraps

 - Wooden blocks/dowels

 - Glue guns

 - Saws

 - Power drills

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For sound explorations:

 - bells

 - xylophones

 - shakers

 - drums

 - percussive beads / balls / marbles

 - any sound makers​​​​​

    

We also prepared several housings or structures for solenoids to support a specific movement that each sound maker would require: (left) an up & down motion for a mallet, (center) a vertical linear motion for pounding a drum, (right) a horizontal linear motion to ring a bell. Making some solenoids available in secure housings allowed a few participants to get started immediately with sound play and coding. 

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To secure solenoids:

But of course, for some parcitipants who wanted to build their own solenoid mechanisms from scratch, we also had many "bare" solenoids available. When building a solenoid machine, it was critical to secure the solenoid so it wouldn't move, but at the same time you'd want it to be able to tweak and modify the position many times. For that purpose, we found 3M 4910 VHB Double-Sided Tape worked pretty well. The tape is super strong and yet it peels very neatly to allow for easy repositioning.

 

 

 

3. Reflections:

Participants created many more different kinds of solenoid machines than I expected. Some people decided to build their own structure to hold a solenoid, others started playing the instruments immediately using the solenoid housing that we had prepared. Participants all appreciated that solenoids were able to perform such a precise and fast push-pull motion, and such instanteneous motion made it possible to play musical instruments such as bells, drums, and xylophones very nicely, with greater precision than with motors or servos.  

One teacher thought that solenoids could offer a good conceptual bridge for her robotics students. Motors, she shared, are easy for students to use because whether they attach them one way or another, the motor spins. If the rotation is in an unexpected direction, the students switch the wires. She recalled the difficulty her students face using servos, because it has not just two but three wires. The solenoids in the Solekit would be a convenient step between motors and servos as the students explore different kinds of motion.

We also noticed that the solenoids we used could push but they couldn’t pull back. In order to return the plunger to the initial position, we needed to introduce a returning force, using a spring or a rubber band. In some cases, we could just rely on gravity to reset the plunger.

 

 

Here is my favorite instrument that came out during the event. A simple & delightful shaker :) 

Ryan decided to create a marble release mechanism using the push motion of the solenoid. It was very interesting to think about what could be the input since many different sensors were available with the Micro:bit More extension (in this video, Ryan was using a "Shake" sensor)

 

Another great thing about these solenoids is that they come with a little switch that you can use to activate the push-pull motion. It allowed us to work with the movement of the solenoid without programming, which felt like very rich tinkering time for us, especially when figuring out the mechanism. 

 

All in all, working with solenoids was really fun. You can think of many different forms of output: various musical instruments, simple moving toys, and marble machine mechanisms. It will be even more fun if we think of some interesting inputs using the micro:bit sensors. I'm excited to imagine how we may further develop this activity. 

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This work was supported by a grant from Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation

507 Mechanical Movements
13

Jan / 20

13 Jan / 20

Posted by Steph

replace this textA curved cabinet of curiosities curls around the Tinkering Studio. We use it to share our work, showcasing everything from classic tinkering activities to areas of active investigation; from raw materials and tools to finished works by artists; and from visitor creations to inspiring projects made by Tinkering Explainers. We treat it as an active space that can flexibly adapt to whatever is happening on the museum floor. 

The Exploratorium's Curious Contraptions exhibition, for example, brings together whimsical moving mechanical sculptures around the theme "Flights of Fancy." To complement the idea of movement and mechanisms, we transformed the Tinkering Studio cabinet of curiosities accordingly:

  

We filled it with pieces created by artists, visitors, and team members (shoutout to Ryoko's wire automata). Riffing on the theme of flights and movement, we curated the cabinets with the following question in mind: how do you move from dreaming to doing?

I started by sketching out ideas for what automata, artists, and materials to collect into or communicate about through our cabinets. This included dedicating one cabinet to a set of mechanisms to convey our core question in a whimsical way by replacing each letter "o" in the question "how do you move from..." with a mechanical movement. 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose the set of mechanisms to make physical and functional from a book called 507 Mechanical Movements, which declares in all caps on its title page that it contains, "five hundred and seven mechanical movements, all those which are most important in dynamics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, penumatics, steam engines, mill and other gearing, presses, horology, and miscellaneous machinery; and including many movements never before published and several which have only recently come into use." Published in 1868 by Henry T. Brown, the book includes sketches of each mechanism with notes about its use or construction. Many of these sketched mechanisms were made real and are on display in the the Museum of Science's Clark Collection of Mechanical Movement Models, which was a major source of inspiration. I selected the following mechanisms to build out because I wanted to include an interesting gear (#69) and a cam (#138), and I loved the swoop of movement in #100.  

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                  Mechanism 69
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                  Mechanism 138
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              Mechanism 100

 

I started by creating vector files to closely match the sketched versions of each mechanism (below) so that I could laser cut the majority of parts. Laser cutting allowed me to make quick and precise adjustments and try out different materials. I found that I liked the familiarity and the look of plywood, but acrylic was a better choice for specific areas that needed to slip and move more easily. 

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I used dowels, the lasercut parts, scrap wood, and a couple of rubber bands to make the prototypes. They evolved from being hand-powered for testing to being attached to the same slow-moving motors that we use in light play. 

One iteration from the initial version was replacing a LEGO technic part that was acting as the umbrella stem with a duron rod because I needed a more rigid material (thanks to Sebastian on our team and Peter in the shop for the consults). Here is the original (left) and the updated version with the more rigid rod (right). 

Building the set of mechanisms was a way of tying our work at the Tinkering Studio into the Curious Contraptions show, incorporating delight and movement into our cabinet of curiosities, and demonstrating my own process of moving from dreaming something up to actually doing it. 

Tinkering with STEAM in Early Childhood Settings
06

Jan / 20

06 Jan / 20

Posted by Lianna

Last month I had the privilege of presenting at the annual California STEAM Symposium with our colleauges Ihuoma and Holly on the findings of our first round of STEAM Starters - a project focused on supporting young learners and early childhood educators through tinkering. Our session, titled Tinkering with STEAM in Early Childhood Settings, invited participants to engage with hands-on tinkering experiences and learn about our collaborative process between the Tinkering Studio and two local preschools. The session started with an introductory exploration of Light Play. We set up three different stations around the room with curated materials sets where folks could engage with light and shadow related phenomena.

Image description: two long tables against a wall displaying light play materials including colorful acrylic shapes and filters, dyed water bottles, 3D figurines, slow moving motor platforms, and lights embedded in wood blocks. There are four white screens propped between the tables and the walls.

We always learn something new when facilitating workshops offsite. At this workshop we tried portable pop-up diffusers (typically used by photographers) as projection screens and they worked great! We'll definitely use these at future workshops. Inevitably, there are complications along the way as well. The morning of the workshop we learned that we couldn't turn off the lights in the room without impacting all of our neighboring sessions as well. Although this activity works better in the dark, the participants still had fun investigating and making observations. (In fact, I was so busy facilitating the group I forgot to take photos of the workshop in action!)

 

After the light play session, Ihuoma, Holly, and I delved into sharing about the STEAM Starters project. I gave a brief introduction to tinkering as a playful, inquiry-driven process and shared the trajectory of the collaborative arc. Since the project involved several different groups coming together, it was important for us to include both hands-on leanring and time to get on the same page with our goals and values. Our process of activity testing, documentation and iteration, and reflection was a cyclical process that we revisited throughout the course of our 16 weeks of programming. 

 

Next, Ihuoma and Holly shared their experiences of our collaboration. They focused on their schools' respective starting points and comfort with STEAM, important stories of student growth and learning, and the impact of reflection and documentation. Some teachers at the start of the project felt very comfortable with open-ended exploration and STEAM-related content, whereas others felt nervousness and that science wasn't for them. Across both schools, the children were able to engage deeply with materials-based investigations, ask questions, make observations, connect to past expereinces, and document their work. The educators who were most nervous about science experienced important changes in their teaching practice as well. They were able to make a mental shift from feeling they needed to be an "expert" on a topic to being a co-learner alongside their students, and grew in confidence of being able to identify and support moments of STEAM learning.

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We ended the presentation with a brief Q&A session for participants. Folks were interested in learning more about how documentation can support assessment, how tinkering as an approach could support learners of different ages, and where they can find the light blocks for their own classrooms (Instructable coming soon!). It's always a joy to share our work with colleagues and make connections with others in the field working in this realm.   

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This project is supported through a generous grant from the Early Learning and Care Division at the California Department of Education. 

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