![]() ![]() ![]() The next step is to actually fabricate our circuit board. (See PDF below as well.) Pretty simple here– only two wires! The two round pads contact the two sides of the battery, and the two angled pads contact the two leads of the LED. One thing to keep in mind for interfacing papercraft to electronics: it’s helpful if the circuit traces fold over the leads for the LED in order to maintain good contact.Īfter connecting the dots (so to speak) we have the resulting layout of our circuit. The next step is to add those circuitry lines (circuit board wires, or traces) between the battery and LED. We marked up the locations of the battery and LED terminals on the origami balloon– while still folded– and then unfolded our “circuit board.” At this point, we have the component locations marked, but no lines drawn between them. We knew we wanted the LED to go into the hole in the bottom of the balloon, so we tucked the leads into the folds on the side opposite the battery. (And you can follow along with balloon folding in this flickr photo set.) The balloon has a convenient pocket on the side for a lithium coin cell, and a single hole that allows you to point an LED into the interior of the balloon. To get started, we first folded an origami balloon, and then inserted the components where we wanted them. After that we will unfold the model, draw circuit paths between the points that we want to connect, and go from there. The first step in designing a three-dimensional circuit like this is to see where the parts go. Something constructed this way can then be folded so fit an LED and battery to complete the circuit.īesides the throwies themselves, this was inspired in part by the beautiful LED Floaties. In what follows, we combine basic electronics (an LED Throwie) and papercraft (a traditional origami balloon) to make what might be called an “LED Foldie.” The circuitry consists of aluminum foil traces, ironed onto adhesive paper such as freezer paper, photo mounting paper, or even a laser printed pattern. And the coolest thing about circuits like these? You can make them at home. This little LED-lit cube is much more than just a paper lantern: It’s a translucent and flexible thin-film electronic circuit that hooks up a battery to an LED, limber enough to be folded into an origami box. ![]()
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