Posts with «freeform» label

Dead Bug Arduino Is Lively And Shield-Compatible

Microcontroller demo boards such as the Arduino UNO are ubiquitous on Hackaday as the brains of many a project which inevitably does something impressive or unusual. Sometime someone builds a particularly tiny demo board, or an impressively large one. In the case of the board featured here, the Arduino is a gorgeous labor of love which can’t really be called a board since there is no PCB. Instead of the traditional fiberglass, [Jiří Praus] formed brass bars into the circuitry and held it together with solder.

This kind of dedication to a project leaves an impression. His notes show he saw the barest way to operate an ATMega328, built it, tested, and moved on to the power supply to make it self-sustaining, then onto the communication circuit, and finally the lights. The video below shows a fully-functional Arduino happily running the blink program. He plans to encase the brass portion in resin to toughen it up and presumably keep every bump from causing a short circuit. The components are in the same position due to a custom jig which means a standard shield will fit right into place.

The Arduino started far less flashy yet nearly as fragile, and it has grown. And shrunk.

Hack a Day 09 Jun 21:00
arduino  arduino hacks  art  brass  dead bug  deadbug  free-form  freeform  solder  

Mechanical tulip is a glowing work of Valentine’s Day art

Tulips come in all shapes and sizes, but Jirí Praus has created a mechanical version like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s masterfully crafted as a gift for his wife, using bent wire to form its six petals and stem. 

In order to make this present truly amazing, however, a servo-driven linkage system opens up the tulip when touched, exposing seven programmable LEDs in the center, along with 30 bright white SMD LEDs on the petals themselves.

Control for the freeform flower is accomplished via an Arduino Nano, hidden inside its wooden base. It’s a truly spectacular build, shown below illuminating the surrounding area with a brilliant light and shadow pattern.

It’s done! Mechanical tulip as a present for my wife. When caressed it blooms into various colors. And will never fade. #freeform #jewelry #arduino pic.twitter.com/yDePeURXXd

— Ji?í Praus (@jipraus) February 12, 2019


Arduino Blog 14 Feb 20:56
arduino  decoration  featured  freeform  freeform tulip  mechanical tulip  nano  

Freeform Arduino Bliss

Designer Kimio Kosaka soldered together an entire Arduino using the difficult freeform method.

Read the full article on MAKE

MAKE » Arduino 09 Nov 21:30
arduino  circuits  freeform  metaboard  soldering  

3D Circuit Construction

Rupert Hirst's amazing resin-encased headphone amplifier is a work of art and shows a novel (to me) way of building a circuit without any mounting board. His buildlog shares many great details, especially about the casting process.

Mats Engstrom has shown a few 3D circuits lately too: a Little Wire programmer circuit built boardless with SMD components (at left) and encased in resin, and a Freeformed Nixie Tube clock with a beautiful radial design inside a box-like frame.

Kimio Kosaka files his incredible "Arduino Skeleton" board under "O'baka Project" which he says: "means a stupid project. This project is to make things which is not art and which is not usable. Now, I am making Arduino skeleton by using steel wires." Hmm, they look like usable art to me! Maybe a mis-translation. He lists instructions:
    How to make.
  1. Design single side PCB by EAGLE-CAD. (Base circuit is Metaboard)
  2. Print out this PCB pattern.
  3. Trace this PCB pattern by steel wire. (0.46mm in diameter)
  4. Soldering

    I used a flux of the strong acidity for the steel wire soldering.

His "One Chip Arduino" has no board either, stressing economy.

I find more examples the more I look, like this 3D alarm clock, video about using a CD as a circuit board, and Make: uses the tag "freeform" for freeform circuit layouts on its blog.

These inspired me to make one of my oen, and I wonder if it's actually a faster, easier, cleaner way to make simple 1-off circuits than home etching in a lot of cases, if the process is refined.
Jeff's Arduino Blog 01 Nov 19:03
freeform  kimio kosaka  mats engstrom  rupert hirst