Paperclip Puzzle

 The core component of the switch is a custom 3D-printed maze, which acts as a physical puzzle for creating an electrical connection. The tactile and playful design invites users to engage physically with the switch, treating it more like a puzzle or toy rather than a traditional functional component. To complete the circuit, users must bend a standard paper clip to fit within the maze, forming a precise contact point between two points. The circuit receives 5 volts from the Circuit Playground Express. Two 100-ohm resistors are connected in series, providing a combined 200 ohms of resistance to protect the LED from excessive current. If the paper clip bridges the gap in the maze, current flows through the blue wire to the LED and returns to the ground, illuminating the light and completing the circuit.

 

Unconventional Switch: Cooking Light!

    Have you ever been cooking late at night and wondered if something was missing? Something fun and engaging that makes dinner prep just a little bit more entertaining. Well fear not, for we have a solution! With the Cooking Light, you'll have a small LED that lights up every time you touch your spatula with your pot - super FUN!

    We decided to use a spatula and pot as our unconventional 'switch' for our project. We used only the breadboard, resistor, and required clips to run the power from the Circuit Playground to the pot itself. Instead of using the breadboard for both positive and negative, we decided to run our power backward, through the switch itself. Once contact is made, the circuit will complete and the LED will power on. It will then switch off once contact is no longer made.

Unconventional Switch: Tappity Tap

    Life can sometimes be boring, you go to work and have to endure a long meeting, you have to sit through a long lecture. A good way to entertain yourself has always been tapping your pencil or pen on your notebook. Even that has started to get boring, so wouldn’t it be nice if a little light popped up to keep you entertained?

Our project was simple but effective, we attached our power source to a metal plate and our power connection directly to pencil lead. Using the fact that both the plate and the graphite of the lead are conductive, and our 100 ohm resistor lowered the power to not overly excessive for our light we could power the light by simply tapping our pencil lead against the plate. A fun activity to distract yourself while mindless drool goes on in the background, now including a light show.

Unconventional Script: Team 13 - Bad Memory

 

For our unconventional switch, the first thing that came to our minds for a conductive object was a can of beans. It didn’t work. So, we upgraded to a spoon in a can of sausages. The spoon conducts the electricity and turns on the LED when it is inside our can. This unconventional switch may seem silly or useless, but it is the beginning of even greatening things. An LED that lights up when trash cans are full to remind you to take out the trash. Sinks that light up when there's still dishes left inside. Overall, it shows how you can make custom switches that help those with bad memories.  

 

Unconventional Switch - Magic Potion

 

This device combines the fact that salt water is conductive with the concept that shaking things is fun. The switch was constructed by dangling two wires into a semi-sealed plastic container with a small amount of very salty water. When left alone, the wires do not both touch the water and leave the switch is open. Shaking the container so that the moving water touches the exposed end of both wires closes the switch.
This switch connects to materiality by encouraging the user to pick it up and continuously engage with the container and water in order to activate the light. The label on the container draws the user in to play, but the imperfect seal creates a layer of risk that overly vigorous play may break the switch (and/or get water everywhere).

Unconventional Switch - Fist bump

Now, we all know what a fist bump is; but what if you could make it even better. That is what drove our unconventional switch design. Imagine this: you and your friends each have rings and whenever you fist bump they tend to clank together, no big deal. But we thought we could use this as a trigger, in this example it’s just to light up a simple LED but imagine the things you could connect them to. You could have a bro alarm that goes off whenever you fist bump to let people know you’re bros. You could have a lock that only opens when you guys fist bump, the possibilities are endless.

Unconventional Switch - Charging Cable

 One of the largest first-world problems that plagues our nation is unreliable chargers. We’ve all had it happen: you place your phone to charge after a long day of work, fall asleep with it at 16%, then wake up to find out it failed to charge in the slightest. But argh! There’s way too many variables to find out why this happened! It could’ve been the charging block, the charging cable, or the phone itself. This device aims to fix that, and to test those pesky charging devices in the process.

This unconventional switch requires a 9V battery, several alligator clips, a breadboard, one 100 ohm resistor, a charging cable, a charging block, and an LED light. We connected the 100 ohm resistor and the charging cable to the positive side, and the charging block with the LED to the ground. If both pieces are functional and the opposite end of the charging cable is placed on the connected plug’s prong, the LED lights up.