Holiday Project: LED Flip Light

The original idea for this project came from David Bakker at draailampje.nl ("draailampje" means "flip light" in Dutch) via Make: - I've modified it slightly.  My kids both like to solder, so I wanted a project which my youngest could do mostly by herself.



Parts:

• Batteries: http://amzn.to/2gQYk9P
• Battery holders: http://amzn.to/2enJDbT
• Switches: http://amzn.to/2gWmzpN
• 10mm LEDs: http://amzn.to/2g0AOoY
• 1.5 oz jars: http://amzn.to/2gDZjME

The idea of the flip light is very simple: parts needed are a CR2032 battery, a coin battery holder, a tilt switch, and a 10mm diffused LED.












This assembly is mounted into the lid of a small hexagonal glass jar with hot glue.  We built 20 of them in assembly-line fashion, with me acting as safety observer and occasionally suggesting that she re-solder some joints.

Operation is dumb simple; flip the light over to turn it on, back again to turn it off.

The CR2032 battery drives the LED directly - no current-limiting resistor is needed.  You have to make a choice about orientation - David Bakker's original design is to have the light on when the lid is up.

My daughter decided to have it on when the lid is down, with the LED pointing up when on, so that the light comes out the bottom of the jar.  She felt this was more "pretty".

The end result was really nice - she tossed a few on the mantle, put some on the dining room table, and gave a few away as gifts.

The most expensive parts of the project were the glass jars.  You can get them for about $1 each if you buy a box of 24.  Parts list above.

Kids and Amateur Radio

Did we manage to get a half dozen elementary school kids to pay attention to amateur radio?  Yes, yes we did.  How?

1. We arranged to set up a demo table at their school Science Fair.
2. We arranged to have young hams in nearby areas be on the air at that time, and had two young hams (one who attends the host school) run the radio.  We used a club callsign for the non-ham guests.
3. We booked our local repeater system and set a NO ADULTS policy for the operation.  Kids would only have to talk to kids.  

Myself and another adult ham were nearby monitoring with HTs to ensure Part 97 rules were followed.  Was there silliness?  Yep.  Poop jokes?  Yup.  At one point they all made up tactical callsigns for each other like "Cheeseburger" and "Side Salad".  It was great to see them having fun like this.  I think I'm going to start calling myself "Fish Sandwich" on the air.

Did they sometimes forget to identify w/ callsigns?  Yes, and when they were gently reminded about the rules they towed the line.  And then we backed off and let them continue by themselves.

Result: I now have two 5th graders asking to get their licenses.  One kid came over, initially immersed in his smartphone, and ended up on the air - phone off to the side, forgotten.

Why did this work?  Because instead of trying to entice kids into our adult interpretation of amateur radio, we created an environment where they could encounter amateur radio on their terms.  It's simply not true that kids aren't drawn to amateur radio.  They're just not big on hanging out with adults.

Big thanks to +Beric Dunn for his support with this.

Pacificon 2012 : Club is a Four Letter Word

Had a great time at Pacificon 2012 today.  This was the first year I brought the kids.  It may have been a bit over Tara's head, but Nora enjoyed hearing from NASA Astronaut Lee Morin about life aboard the International Space Station, and soldering her own Morse Code Sounder at the ARRL's Youth Program area. 

My presentation this year was on organizing in the 21st century, and how to reorganize existing organizations to attract and retain people born after 1980 (termed "Millennials").  I think it was well received, and in fact the audience started asking so many questions that I didn't get through all my slides.  For anyone interested here's the presentation.

Kids and Morse Code

About three years ago my youngest daughter Tara took an interest in Morse Code.  I think she just liked the sound it made, but the way she sat there so intent when she was pretending to send was cute, so I took a video and posted it to YouTube.  It got picked up by a few amateur radio blogs, worked its way around the world, and as of today has just under 10,000 views.  In fact, it's my most watched video.  Not exactly the Dramatic Chipmunk, but still...  I had no idea it would be so popular.