May the 4th be with you! Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of experiments with servo motors and craft materials as a way of combining physical and digital elements to tell stories. Here’s a little project idea that I’ve been thinking about trying for a while that combines collaging, programming and electronics. Luckily enough, I could find the perfect subject for my first “servo collage” to fit with this Star Wars celebration day.

To make your own you’ll need a magazine with cool looking photos, scissors or an exacto blade, a micro:bit (v1 or v2), a servo motor (either continuous or positional), some alligator clips and jumper wires, aluminium foil, wire or paper clip, wire snippers, round nose pliers, masking tape and some spare cardboard from old boxes.

To start find a big picture from the magazine that has a part where you’d like add some motion. Cut the object out of the magazine and then cut out the part that you’d like to animate. I chose a big photo of BB-8 and cut out one of the “eyes” to make spin.

Next cut a small piece of the wire. Attach one end to a servo horn either by bending or with glue/tape and then use the pliers to bend the wire back up and around so that the part you’d like to animate is centered over the motor. Tape the cut out element to the other end of the wire.

Then attach the servo motor to the micro:bit using alligator clips/jumper wires or a shield if you have one. Press fit the servo horn onto the motor and arrange it in the space where you cut out the photo. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough to test. Build a simple program in MakeCode to test out your machine. I started with one where if I press “Button A” the motor spins back and forth for 3 seconds. Upload the code and test out your servo collage.

If you want to take things one step further you can find another place in the photo to add a switch. I cut out two squares of BB-8’s head and taped pieces of aluminium foil underneath. Then you can attach the pieces of foil to the GND and P1 spaces on your micro:bit using alligator clips.

Now you can make a code where you press the switch and the motor turns on. For me this created the start of a little story where BB-8 likes to be patted on his head and then responds by looking around. I could add more lights, sounds, sensors and movements to the creation.

You can probably find lots more ideas for people and things to animate. I think sports stars and people in the news could be cool creations. you could take things further and make a mash-up of different images to create a funny or fantastical scene. Get inspired and see where the idea take you. Or as BB-8 would say, “BEEP-BOOP-BEEP”

Make a Kinetic Collage with BB-8