Color Communication Boxes
These are Color Communication Boxes, made from laser-cut acrylic and have an Adafruit Playground that is running CircuitPython controlling them. It is switch-accessible and was built to help preschool students who have difficulties "communicating" with each other. When one student taps their switch, it stops the color wheel and lights up the devices of each student around them while playing a message telling the student which color they chose.
Supplies
You will need:
- Adafruit Circuit Playground
- NeoPixel Light Strip
- Laser-cut acrylic for the faces of the cube
- Female end of audio jack
- Power Cord
- Speaker
- Wires
Laser Cut and Assemble the Boxes
The first thing that we did was organize and laser cut the faces for the cube. First, we used MakerCase to design the box. We made sure to design the controller box with four holes - ones for the power cord, switch cord, and the cords to connect the three devices - and the other two devices with one hole each. Next, we used laser cutters to cut the faces of the box using 1/4” clear acrylic material. Lastly, we used hot glue to assemble our box.
Design the Circuit
Next you are going to want to design your circuit and connect all the components. I connected the NeoPixel light strip to the board. It has three wires on the end of it: red, black, and white. The red goes to VOUT, black goes to GND, and white is the signal which I put at A1. Next, I ground the speaker and connected it to the AUDIO output on the board. The speaker I am using has a battery of it's own so I did not need to provide it with a power source. Lastly, you need to connect the female end of the audio jack by connecting the black wire to GND and the white wire to A3. After all these are connected, we have finished out the circuit.
Write Your Code
We have attached the code that we wrote for the Color Communication Boxes to function properly. You will want to make sure that you have put the sounds below into a folder named "color_sounds" and put these on your CPB for the code to run correctly.
Put Your Color Communication Boxes Together
Now it is time to put the Color Communication Boxes together. First, we soldered all the light strips to a longer cord that could stretch between the students. Second, we attached the wires to the CPB. Next, we glued in the light strips to each of the boxes. Lastly, we connected the speaker to the controller box, plugged in a switch, and plugged the power cord into the wall. Finally we were ready to tap the switch and listen/ watch for the color we had chosen!