This course is heavily based in materials. I will provide samples for you to experiment with, but you will be responsible for purchasing materials for individual projects. Look at the materials page for much more.
Please purchase the tools, materials, and hardware under "Required" ASAP and bring them to every class.
- Embroidery needles (like these)
- Scissors
- X-acto Knife
- Paint brushes
- Ruler
- Seam ripper
- Multimeter
- Hot glue gun
- Small needle nose pliers (such as those used for jewelry making like this kit)
- Wire snips
- Wire strippers
- Tweezers
- Alligator clips
- Soldering iron (this can be a cheap iron, nothing fancy like this or even a USB power one like this)
- Straight pins
- Paper (range of weights, colors, textures, etc e.g. tracing, vellum, cardstock, etc.)
- Assortment of fabric (muslin or cotton is fine)
- Tape (single, double sided, and/or glue dots)
- Masking tape
- Clear nail polish
- Copper tape (1/8 - 1/4" width with conductive adhesive)
- Heat'N'Bond (you can buy in pairs and split this)
- Fabric glue
- Thread
- Beeswax (for threading conductive thread or you can get a regular needle threader)
- A variety of LEDs of your choosing. Keep aesthetics in mind and default to diffused! I usually get one of the big kits from Evil Mad Scientist, but you can source Sparkfun, Adafruit, SuperBrightLEDs, Ebay, and more for deals. For example:
- 5mm LED Assorted (Sparkfun)
- 10mm LEDs (whatever colors you'd like)
- SMD LEDs 3528/1210 (OPTIONAL, but highly recommended - whatever colors you'd like)
- Resistor Kit - should contain many 220 Ohm Resistors (red, red, brown) and 10 K Ohm Resistors (black, brown, orange)(Sparkfun has a lovely resistor kit that I highly recommend
- 3V CR2032 Lithium Batteries
- Coin cell battery holders (at least 3)
- Lithium Ion Battery 3.7 Volts 350 mAh (I'd also recommend the Adafruit Micro Lipo charger) If you decide to buy from another distributor, make sure the LiPo has the regulator circuitry on top - the stuff in the yellow tape
- Breadboard
- Jumper cables
- Arduino Uno + USB cord (You should be prepared to purchase another microcontroller such as the Adafruit Flora, LilyPad, Gemma MO, Teensy for midterms and/or final projects)
- Lead-free solder
Depending on your experience and interests, these could be helpful in your toolbox.
- Snap tool (like this one)
- Knitting needles
- Crochet hooks (also available in Making Center)
- Knitting machine or loom
- Felting needles
- Small loom (weaving)
- Regular iron
- Metal snaps
- Wool roving
- Metal zippers
- Hook + loop
- Velcro
- Ribbon
- Stuffing
- Polymorph or Sugru
- Yarn
- Small to medium Neodynmium Magnets (be careful with these - they are extremely strong)
- Accelerometer/Compass Sensor
- Flora Color Sensor
- Flora UV Index Sensor
- Flora RGB Smart NeoPixel
- Adafruit GEMMA MO
- Chibitronics Starter Kit (if you like working with paper)
- Vibration motors
- ATtiny 84 (14 pins)
- Sewing Machine (Making Center or Sven)
- Variety of conductive fabrics
- Variety of conductive threads