Author: Anna Kaziunas France

Categories
Laser Cutting

Laser-Cut Copper Foil Graduation Cards

All my sisters are now college graduates (with at least 1 degree).  Congratulations to Sharon Kaziunas for graduating from Bryn Mahr College with her BA and to Elizabeth Kaziunas who graduated from Syracuse University with her MA in Information Science.  We now have two Masters of Information Science in the family.

I thought I would commemorate the occasion by laser cutting them each a personalized graduation card.

How The Cards Were Made

The cards were etched on the laser cutter using a “wood” setting.  This removed the paper material under the etch, leaving a cut out area for both the text and the image.  You can see in the pictures below that the paper was removed during the etch.  I had to use a x-acto knife a little to remove some bits of paper that hung on.

The cards are made of two layers of paper (shown below).  The front of the card and the inside of the card.  I put them together this way so I could sandwich the foil in the middle of the card and only have it showing through the gaps in the lettering.

I used two pieces of copper foil per card,  cut it to the dimensions of the folded card.  I put the cards together (without adhesive) with the front “congratulations” and the inside “text’.  Then,  I removed the adhesive backing and stuck the foil behind the lettering.  I then used a glue stick to adhere the two card sections together.

graduation card
graduation card
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graduation card graduation card

Categories
Fab Academy AS220 - Providence, RI Fab Academy Providence -Year II - Teaching

FabRC – Fab Academy Final Project Progress

Final Project Description

For my Fab Academy final project I have been working on a RC Car. In its final state it should:

  • Drive forward, backward and be able to stop
  • Turn left and right (forwards and backwards).
  • The car will be linked to the controller through wireless radios that communicate with modified hello Arduino boards.
  • The modified hello Arduino boards have an extra 6-pin header in order to access the analog pins on the micorcontroller (for control buttons / pots.

Items Currently Completed

  • Arduinos and servos working together
  • Radio and battery boards designed, milled and working

Completed Radio Boards


Completed Hello Arduinos

Completed Battery Connector Boards

Completed Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pin Header
There were no analog pins pulled out to a header on the hello Arduino board – I needed some for this project – so I added an analog pin header.

Hello Arduino w/ Analog Pin Header (traces & outline)

Battery Connector PNGs (traces & outline)
Radio Board PNGs (traces & outline)

Not Completed / Not Working Yet

  • The radio communication code has not been tested yet (short on the radio boards – still troubleshooting)
  • Still working on the press-fit car design – the car axels are not ready yet.
  • The servo controls are not hooked up.

Download Design Files (Eagle)

Get PNGs For Milling

Bill Of Materials

  • Coming Soon / Export from Eagle Files

Development Plans

  • Finish building the car
  • Test the radio boards
  • Hook up controls to the servos
Categories
Fab Academy AS220 - Providence, RI Fab Academy Providence -Year II - Teaching

FabRC – Project Developments

I am working towards my Fab Academy final project – a digitally fabricated RC car.

Items Completed So Far:

Radio boards have been designed (based on the JeeLabs RFM12B Board)


I designed the battery connector boards
battery_schem
battery_board

Hello Arduino boards milled, stuffed and programmed with Arduino bootloaders and tested with the servos

Tasks That Still Need to Be Completed:

  • Radio boards need to be milled and assembled.
  • Battery connector boards need to be milled and assembled.
  • Radio boards need to be tested to see if they communicate with each other
  • Car controls need to be figured out
  • Code needs to be modified / written and tested to make the radios communicate with each other.
  • Code needs to be written for the car controls.
  • Car framework (wheels, axels, body) needs to be designed and assembled

Items That Still Need to Be Resolved / Not Working Yet:

  • No analog pins on the Hello Arduino? How to hook up the controls?
  • Use Fabkit instead? (burned the bootloader, but the Arduino IDE won’t talk to the chip).
  • “Fingers crossed” that the radio boards will actually work.

Completion Schedule:

  • Planning on completing the project by the June 1 deadline . Otherwise, before the August 15 final completion date.
Categories
Fab Academy AS220 - Providence, RI Fab Academy Providence -Year II - Teaching

FabRC – Final Project Planning

This week at Fab Academy we are planning our final projects.  I am creating a digitally fabricated RC car.  First I defined my all the system components, how they would interact with each other and what the logic / voltage levels needed to be throughout that system.

Logic Levels / Radio – Functional Block Diagram

What Will It Do?

  • Drive forward / stop
  • Turn left / right
  • Use radios to control the car wirelessly.

Who’s Done What Beforehand?

  • David Mellis made pressfit cars – this one needs to be more of an enclosure to house the electronics
  • JeeLabs: http://jeelabs.org/ has created some code and designs that I plan to modify and use with the Hope RF radios.

What Materials and Components Will Be Required?

  • 2 servos
  • 2 radio boards (utilizing the Hope RF radios)
  • 1 or 2 Arduino boards (hello Arduino boards)
  • Masionite
  • LEDs (possible decoritive addition)
  • Acrylic (possible decoritive addition)
  • Possibly plastic to cast parts (possible decoritive addition)
  • Metal rods for axels?
  • copper-clad PCB stock
  • Various components already in the inventory

How Much Will It Cost?

  • $0 – $20 Most parts already in the inventory.
  • Need to purchase Hope RF radios – $12.00 for a pair.
  • Need to purchase a few additional non-standard, non-inventory components from Digikey ($10.00 + shipping).

What Parts and Systems Will Be Made?

  • Connect the radio boards to the Arduino
  • Figure out how to issue commands to control the car
  • Turn lights on and off

What Processes Will Be Used?

  • Laser-cut press fit for the car body (possibly being replaced by molded shell / parts)
  • Milled circuit boards.
  • Molded parts for wheels / accessories

What Tasks Need to Be Completed?

  • Need to investigate how to get the boards to talk to each other.
  • Control with computer keys at first.
  • Would like to eventually add a wireless joystitck control box.

What Is The Schedule?

  • This Week –> Design the car and investigate the how to talk to the radios
  • Next Week –> Troubleshoot the project, work on the control structure.

How Will It Be Evaluated?

  • Can the radios talk to each other?
  • Do the controls work?