DIY Switch

I had the initial idea of using my glasses to build a switch.

Upon starting, I bought aluminum foil and compiled other conductive elements I had around such as binder clips, water bottles, pen holders, and paperclips to see what else could be done. (Making more switches out of these is something I’d wanna keep doing. Hopefully more so when I hone my 3d printing and laser-cutting knowledge.)

I’m hoping to eventually be able to play around with weight and air and find more practical uses.

Some random sketches:

For now, I’m sticking to using my glasses.

Process (02/12/2020)

*The hardest part was barely being able to see when attaching things onto the glasses

I attempted to zigzag the foil to create a spring of sorts. This required a lot of cutting to get the shape narrow enough but not too narrow. This didn’t work too well though.

In the end, the piece of foil that moves ended up resembling more of an L shape. When I wore my glasses, the L shape would move up to touch the other piece of foil attached to the nose bridge, effectively closing the circuit. However, it stayed up.

I realized I needed weight to pull it back down, so I attached a paperclip.

I used floss to hold the zigzag ( slash L ) foil on the nosepads. This served as a fulcrum from which the foil could pivot.

I then used tape to fasten the wires onto the contraption.

(I had to disassemble the contraption so I could use my glasses. *facepalm* and will reassemble it before class. Fingers crossed.)

Process: Update (02/12/2020)

This one ended up sturdier. I wanted to reinforce the foil with something and ended up doing so with the paper clip itself. 

The primary foundation of the moving part of the switch relies on balance which in a simple form would look like:

I wanted to increase the surface area of the paperclip which I did with foil.

The paperclip has a plastic sheathing that I had to take out to reveal the conductive inner layer (just in case I need it to be conductive — like if I connect my wires to it).

After doing so, I tied the string around it to balance between the nose pads and taped everything together.

I then attached longer wires so that I could move it further away from the breadboard.