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The Magic Mushroom Switch |
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1. The Starting Piece
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This is a simple flat wooden car, initially meant to be a coat hanger, that I found at Dolarama. The first thing I did was to remove its mushroom-like hook from the center : our "key" piece that will become our magic mushroom switch. |
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2. Esthetic
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Before adding any kind of circuit to the car, I had to give it a nice colorful look, worthy of a toy. Regular gouache was used to paint the top of the car. The wooden hook was painted into a mushroom. |
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3. Carving
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The wooden piece was then flipped over to design the space for the circuit. The wood was carved to fit the different components appropriately. Aluminum paper, a conducting material was glued to the tip of the mushroom. |
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4. Eletrical Set-Up
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The components of the circuit include: a 12V battery, a 6V buzzer, a 2V LED, and two resistors of 200 and 300 ohms. The idea is to have the headlights (LED) and the honk (buzzer) of the car turn on when the magic mushroom is placed in the hole. The buzzer was screwed in place, the battery was placed in a customized holder glued to the wood, and a red-colored LED was place in the headlight position of the car.
Once these 3 items were in place, the resistors were glued to the wood with super glue, and wires were soldered to complete the circuits. Finally, the switch ends of the wires were passed through the central hole. |
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5. Trial
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The efficiency of the switch was then tested. When placed in the central hole of the car, the LED and buzzer did effectively turn on, as shown below. |
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