GMU:PCB Arts/Sarah Horn

Inspiration

• Brainy the Brain Badge
• Space Girl Soldering Kit
• I voted - Blinky Badge Soldering Kit
• #electionday2020
• The Plaque Doctor by Micheal Merrill

Working with KiCad and Inkscape

After my first attempts to create something nice looking in KiCad using Inkscape I was able to actually build a couple of little project to get along with the program and train to use it.

Here you can see a circuit which includes a blinking LED. The first try was a round shaped PCB. Later I updated it, chose smaller components, put them on a rectangle plate and added some script. The function is still the same.

This is a little pendant in the shape of a star. I added a plated through-hole to turn it into a keychain.

To get in the Christmas mood I created two more batches. The first one is a gingerbread man which can be used as a pin (the dot on his back marks where the pin shall be added later) and the other one a Christmas ball (also with a keychain to hang it on the tree).

Project Concept

To figure out what I want to do as my final project, I surfed the internet to come to know what kind of circuits I can built. After searching for the possibility to make LEDs blink in different rhythms, I found a way to let an LED blink following the rhythm of music.

About the circuit:

• Components: resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, switch, battery and microphone
• The length of the LED flash depends on the capacity of the capacitor (e.g. 2.2 mF ≈ 1 s). The higher the capacity, the longer the LED blinks.
• Tutorial and example circuit
• Depending on the amount of LEDs you want you can expand the circuit.

My idea:

Thinking about how I can include a circuit like that in a PCB with an artistic touch, I collected some ideas and sketches. The rhythm following LEDs create a party atmosphere, so I'd like to build something that can be used in a party like situation as a mixture of decoration and play of light. To make it more useful I also want it to be ornamentally in every other circumstance, like a picture on the wall with an additional light effect. My thought was that it would be more comfortable if you have no need to put it down when you don’t use the effect. After experimenting with the different layers of the PCBs and finding out how to use them to make graphics, I’d like to create a black (solder mask) and white (silkscreen) picture with some highlights (copper mask – gold/silver). The size shall be not bigger than A4. The LEDs will be used as a frame for the picture or elements in the graphic which shine naturally (e.g. stars). Also I thought about making two different circuits at once, so a couple of LEDs glow all the time while some others blink. Because the picture is kept simple I can imagine using LEDs in different colors to make a nice contrast.