LED Yup'ik male dance fans - SCOPES Digital Fabrication
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Lesson Details

Subjects
Multi-Cultural Learning, Technology
Age Ranges
11-14, 11-14, 14-18, 11-14
Fab Tools
electronics, 2D design software, laser cutter, Soldering Iron
Standards
Fab-Electronics.2, Fab-Design.2
Author
CITC Fab Lab

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Author

CITC Fab Lab
CITC Fab Lab
Informal educator
We are Cook Inlet Tribal Council’s Fabrication Lab. We are based out of Anchorage Alaska serving Alaska Native and American Indian students based in the Anchorage school district. We teach design, building, and fabrication with a cultural emphasis. Our different… Read More

Summary

Combine tradition and technology in learning how to make a glowing Yup’ik dance fan! They were used in winter ceremonies, accompanied by masks they helped illustrate the story told by the song, accentuating fluid movements of the dancer’s arms.

 

Use this project to talk about cultural heritage, learn about Yup’ik traditions and ceremonies. You can bring them to life by spicing it up with some technology, and perhaps learning how to dance in the dark.

What You'll Need

to make a PAIR of fans you’ll need:

  •  1/8th inch (3 mm) plywood 24×12″ (60×30 cm) sheet
  • wood/tacky glue
  • 6 coin battery packs with a switch, like: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13883
  • 6 coin batteries 3V
  • 10 LED’s – we used slow color flashing, like: https://amzn.to/2Efk3W0
  • electrical wire in 2 colors
  • 10 feathers about 12″ (30 cm) long

 tools:

  • laser cutter
  • hot glue gun
  • soldering iron + wire
  • wire cutter + strippers

 

Lesson Materials

The Instructions

Laser cut and glue the plywood layers

The fans will be made of 4 layers of plywood

Download the file and laser cut the shapes. The fans are about 4.5 inch (12 cm) wide.

There is a red line meant to be engraved, not cut! to help you position the little pieces of layers 2 and 3.

 

Glue the first three layers of both fans – all but the big ones without engraving. When gluing in the little pieces, make sure that your LED bulbs will fit in the spaces between them.

 

 

 

tip: you can use clothes pins as little clamps to hold the pieces together as glue dries!

Hot gluing the LED's

Your LED's have two 'legs' - metal leads. The longer one is the positive leg, the shorter - negative. LED's are polarized, which means that they only allow the current to flow in one direction. This will be important when connecting all of it!

Arrange your LED’s in their slots:

  • bulbs sticking out as much as possible – the feathers will be mounted on them;
  • legs facing inwards, longer legs (+) on the left, shorter (-) on the right – this will help us not get lost in the wires.

 

Use little blobs of hot glue to hold them in place.

Connecting all positive metal leads

Let's get to soldering! In order for the LED's to work properly, we will connect them in parallel. This way all of them will get the same voltage.

To keep things organized, use one color of wire for positive (usually red) and one color for negative (black) connections. Make sure that (+) and (-) wires cross each other only when insulated!

 

 

Solder a 2″ (5 cm) piece of wire (stripped of insulation at the ends first, using wire strippers) to each long leg of the LED’s. Braid and solder their loose ends in one place, adding one 3″ wire – this one will go out to the batteries.

Connecting all negative metal leads

Use a different color of wire to solder all the short (-) legs just like we did with the (+).

Braid and solder their loose ends in one place, adding one 3″ wire to go out to the batteries.

 

Battery packs

We need a power source to light up our LED's! Most single LED's need a power supply of about 3V - and this is what our batteries are. We are using 3 of them so that they will last longer, and to be quite honest: for the cool bionic look as well! We will connect them in parallel - this way we keep voltage the same, while adding their capacities.

On the back side of the fans, got glue 3 battery packs on each one of them. Make sure you will be able to easily change the batteries if needed.

  • connect their positives (+) together (2 short red wires) by soldering,
  • then connect the negatives (-) (2 short black wires)

Poke the 3″ wires from below through the holes in the cover, and solder the positive (red) one to the nearest (+) of the battery, and the negative (black) one to the nearest (-).