HackSpace_-_October_2019

FORGE

YOU’LL NEED

ItsyBitsy

M0 Express

adafruit.com/

product/3727

Micro servo and

servo horn

adafruit.com/

product/169

LiPoly backpack

for Trinket and

ItsyBitsy

adafruit.com/

product/2124

LilyPad sewable

on/off switch

sparkfun.com/

products/9350

LiPo battery 3.7 V

1200 mAh

adafruit.com/

product/258

Elastic shoulder

mount for GoPro

Wire and

soldering

supplies

Copper tape

Solderless

breadboard for

prototyping

Cardboard

Spray paint,

acrylic paint,

or markers

Bamboo skewer

Plastic bottle cap

Small plastic

washers

Hot glue gun and

glue sticks

with LiPo batteries, this project can also be powered

by a USB power bank via its micro USB port.

PROTOTYPING YOUR CIRCUIT

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your

servo works properly, so start by gathering your

materials and prototyping your circuit. If you think

you’ll be using an ItsyBitsy M0 in projects often,

consider investing in a second one and soldering

the included headers into the pins. Keep this

breadboard-ready ItsyBitsy on hand for prototyping

and experimenting with circuits. (Another option is

to build this entire circuit on a solderless breadboard

and install the whole breadboard in your project, if

you have room for it.)

The ends of the wings are sewn together with
thread, so that when the front panel is lifted by the
servo, the wing spreads open like a fan. You’ll want
to use strong thread for this, something that can
withstand the stress of being tugged on by the servo.
Heavy-duty thread should suffice, and still be thin
enough to slide between the panels. If you’ve already
got a costume to mount your wing to, great! If not,
a GoPro shoulder mount makes a great premade
harness. You author purchased the one shown here
for about $10 on Amazon. Make sure the wing is held
tight to your shoulder so that it doesn’t slide around
when actuating. If you have long hair, keep it far away
from the servo.
If you’ve never worked with motors before, the
servo in this project is a great place to start! A servo
is a motor that is controlled with position data – you
tell it where to point and it moves there. The servo
in this project can rotate up to about 180 degrees,
but we will only use about 60 degrees of movement.
Servos are extremely useful and fun to play with,
but they can be damaged if mishandled. Do not turn
the servo by hand or force its movement, and avoid
sending it beyond its limit in your code.
We’ll control the servo with a small microcontroller:
an ItsyBitsy M0 from Adafruit. This board has a special
5 V output pin that is perfect for our servo, and can
be programmed in beginner-friendly CircuitPython. To
make our project mobile and easily rechargeable, we’ll
add a LiPoly backpack to the ItsyBitsy. Our power
source is a LiPo battery, which must be handled with
care for safety. If you’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable

Left

The starting point

for our wing

Figure 1

The basic circuit