Glow Circuit Assembly

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to use the Glow circuit assembly.

Using the Glow circuit assembly, you'll build a penguin that can light up when assembled with two real electronic components: a light-emitting diode (LED) and a battery!

You can also use the Glow Circuit Assembly Lesson on Tinkercad to learn - it's fun and easy!

Circuit assemblies can be found in the "Electronics" dropdown in the Shapes Panel.

Instructions

1. Click the Shapes Panel dropdown and select "Electronics" from the list of Tinkercad Shapes.
2. Choose "Circuit Assemblies" to be shown the Glow, Move and Spin assemblies + Cutouts.
3. Continue to the next step, where we'll explore the Glow circuit assembly and Cutout.

The Glow circuit assembly on the right consists of a few different parts: a 3D printed holder (in red), a light-emitting diode (LED), and a battery. When the LED is powered by the battery, it lights up.

The Glow Cutout is a special hole designed to create a cavity for the Glove Circuit Assembly within a design.

Instructions

1. Drag out the Glow circuit assembly into the editor.
2. Drag out the Glow Cutout into the editor.
3. Continue to the next step.

In this step, we’ll see how the Glow circuit assembly and cutout fit together.

Instructions

1. Select both the Glow Cutout and the Glow circuit assembly and click the Align button. Center both on the workplane by clicking on the two middle dots along the workplane.
   

   HINT:

   You may notice that the Glow circuit assembly extends beyond the cutout in several spots along it base. To ensure a tight fit between your design and the Circuit Assembly (called a press-fit), the circuit assembly is designed to be slightly bigger in those spots!

2. Continue to the next step.

Next, we'll make the penguin transparent to make it easier to align with the cutout.

Instructions

1. Select the penguin, click on the Solid color in the inspector, and check the transparent box.
   
2. Continue to the next step

In this step, we’ll group our design with the Glow cutout to make room for our Glow circuit assembly.

Instructions

1. Click on the Top side of the View Cube to make it easier to position the cutout into our design.
2. Drag the cutout so that it is centered around the penguin's body. Don't worry about moving the Glow circuit assembly for now - we will add that in the next step.
   
   

   HINT:

   You may want to turn your Snap Grid off to more precisely align the shapes.

3. Select both the cutout and the penguin and click the Group button to group the objects together. Notice how once your design is grouped with a cutout, it cannot be scaled. This is to make sure your design will still fit snugly around the circuit assembly when it is printed.
4. Rotate the camera to check out how the cutout has created a cavity in the penguin that we can fit the Glow circuit assembly into.
5. Continue to the next step

Now let’s add the Circuit Assembly to our design.

Instructions

1. Click on the Top of the View Cube to make it easier to align our Glow circuit assembly with the penguin.
2. Drag the Glow circuit assembly so that it is visually aligned with the cavity in the penguin.
3. Continue to the next step

When exporting your circuit assembly, you will want to export it separately from your design. In this step, we'll export the Penguin and Glow circuit assembly individually.

1. Click the Bottom side of the View Cube so you can more easily select the circuit assembly.
2. Click the circuit assembly to select it and then click the Export button.
3. Ensure that "The selected shape" is selected and select .STL to export the circuit assembly for 3D printing. Exporting the circuit assembly will only export the 3D-printable components in the assembly. The electronic components will not be included.
4. Click the penguin to select it and then click the Export button.
5. Ensure that "The selected shape" is selected and select .STL to export the penguin for 3D printing.
6. Use your favorite 3D printer to print the Penguin and Glow circuit assembly!
   
   

   HINT:

   If you print your Penguin with clear material, the light will really shine through!

7. Continue to the next step.

After 3D printing your Glow circuit assembly, you can assemble it with two electronic components:

1. An LED
2. A 3V Coin Cell Battery (CR2032)

Find all Glow components on Sparkfun

You will be leaving Tinkercad and taken to an external site when you click the link above.

Note: Coin cell batteries can cause serious injury if swallowed. Keep coin cell batteries out of reach of small children!

In the next few steps, you'll learn how to put the electronic components together to complete your Glow circuit assembly.

1. Gather your electronic components and 3D printed Glow circuit assembly holder.
2. Continue to the next step.

1. Align the positive side of the battery (labelled "+") with the “+” indicator on the holder.
2. Continue to the next step.

1. Insert the LED from the top, making sure that the longer leg lines up with the “+” indicator on the holder. Your LED should now light up!



If it is not lighting up, make sure that your battery and LED are inserted in the correct direction aligned with the “+” on the holder.

2. Continue to the next step.

Now we're ready to embed the Glow circuit assembly into your 3D printed penguin!

1. Press fit the 3D printed Penguin and Glow circuit assembly together by resting the Glow circuit assembly on a flat surface, placing the Penguin over the circuit assembly, and pressing down on the top of the penguin with the palm of your hand to snap it in place.
   
   

   HINT:

   To remove the circuit assembly from the penguin, you can use your finger or a flat tool to pull on the lip of the base. To turn off the LED, remove the circuit assembly from the Penguin and remove the LED.

2. Congratulations, you’ve built the Glow circuit assembly! Now that you've learned how Glow works, try designing your own model from scratch to fit around the circuit assembly.