Introduction: DIY a Device for Explaining the RGB Primary Color

By Seeed
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This is a toy that you can change the Minnie mouse’s hair clip, It’s based on the Color RGB model, when you’re sliding the Grove – Silde Potentioment, the color would be changed too.

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.

I want to tell little friends what Color RGB model is and what would happened when you added RGB light together. So I made this toy.

By the time you’re done with the project you will reap the following experience:

  • Be familiar with Color RGB model;
  • Be familiar with Arduino.

Now, let’s get started.

Step 1: What Do We Need

Step 2: The Drawing and Laser Cutting

Download the Drawings

I made a shell to fix the Grove Modules and

draw a Minnie Mouse using plywood. Then my friend from seeed help me cutting the plywood. I guess you don’t have a laser cutting at home, you can find some in the hacker space near from you easily. If there's no hacker space nearby, you can try the Laser Cutting Service supply by Seeed.

You can download my drawing shown as the picture by click here .

Laser cutting

Now, you’ll need two pieces of Plywood (3mm 40cm*60cm), and cut the plywood according by the drawing that you have already downloaded.

Step 3: Modules Connect

Then you should connect the Grove Modules to the plywood using screws and nuts.

At last, connect Grove Modules to baseshield and fix the two pieces of plywood using screws and nuts.

Step 4: Software Work

We assume you have connected your Arduino board and computer well with USB.

  • Download demo code at https://github.com/Lee-Kevin/11.RGBColorToy/tree/...
  • Click “Download zip” button on right side of webpage to download all codes.
  • Decompress the downloaded zip files to“C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Arduino\” and remove “-master” in decompressed file name.
  • Launch Arduino IDE.
  • Click Sketch>Add file to add ColorRGB.ino file from“C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Arduino\ 11.RGBColorToy\Code\ColorRGB\”
  • Press CTRL +U to upload codes to your board. Wait a while, there will be prompt like following figure:

Congratulations, you have already completed the most of the work.

Step 5: The Result

As you can see, the Minnie mouse’s hair clip color can be changed by the three Grove - Silde Potentioments. And you can use this device to explain the principle of shade colors to the children.

Here is the video.