Introduction: Rocking Church

Hello,
My Name is Dominique York  and I am a Junior at Boston Preparatory Charter School, and i am also a returning youth teach at an awesome program called Lear2Teach Teach2Learn. Where we learn many different technologies such as scratch, pico and mod kit, as well as arduino and soldering all during the spring. Then in the summer we go to many different community centers to expose these technologies to children all over the metro Boston area. During the spring I was apart of this week long program called Artbotics, which was when i was first introduced to modkit and laser cutting in what they call the fabrication laboratory. The project that i will be showing you is my final project for the spring of 2012.

For this project, you will need the following things :
  
   -Button (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/97)
   -Servo Motor (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9065)
   -2 Headphone Jacks  (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10159)
  -Wood (3mm plywood - 4 12" squares)
  -Lasercutter (We have an Epilog at the South End Technology Center @ Tent City)
  -Arduino (I used a Duemilanove, but it has now been replaced by the Uno:  https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021 )
  -Modkit MotoProto Board (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10018; need to solder on headers   -                         https://www.sparkfun.com/products/116)
  -Computer with Modkit Micro Software Link (www.modk.it), Inkscape and Open Office Draw (Open Source Software)
  -USB connector cord for connecting Arduino and computer
  -Caliper for measuring
  -Acrylic Paint for decorating
  -hot glue gun

Step 1: Servo

The main attraction of my kinetic sculpture involved servo motor that worked a lever mechanism to make the choir sway to a gospel tune.

I designed my choir and its levered mechanism using Libre Draw.  A screen shot of my Libre Office file is attached and it is annotated with all the dimensions.

To put it all together:
     - I placed part 2 behind both parts 4 and 1
       (be sure that the servo hole in part 1 isn't where both part 4 and 2 connect with part 1)

    - Once the holes are all in line, push the pegs through the holes

    - Moving on to the next side, place part 3 behind part 4, but in front of part 1

    - Then, place the pegs in the hole and be sure that they are secure.
       (once everything is put in place, make sure that the pegs aren't too loose;  
       if they are, then you might want to get a wider peg or you could create your
       own circular stoppers to keep the pegs from moving back and forth)

    - Once you are done, you can place the servo motor in the space cut out for it. 

    - Then you can begin laser cutting the people in the choir using a Libre Office file (see the attached file)

    - Once you cut our your choir, then you can begin decorating them and
      hot gluing them onto part 4 of your servo motor mechanism.

Step 2: Final Servo

Here is what the final of my servo looks like, you have the freedom to design it however you would like. 

Step 3: The Building

Now moving on to the biggest part of the project , the actual building. In this part you have a lot more freedom to make the sides longer or shorter. However the most important is to make sure the slots in which you cut out to put the sides in is press fit perfectly .. but no pressure if it doesn't hot glue is always there to help.

Here is a picture of the front and the back of my church and the slot sizes. All drawings were made using Libre Office.

As you can see from the picture the back of the church has a circular hole, this is up to you if you would like a "stained glass window" or not to bring about a more authentic feel to your project. 
 The dimension of the slits in the front and the back of my church is 3.06 X .18 inches
first pic (Front)
second pic (back)

Step 4: Sides

As I wrote before you have the freedom to make your sides as long or as short as you want, it is truly all up to you. I Made my sides very short because my project is smaller, however one thing that must stay consistent is the slits on the front and back of your church. To make The sides of my church i made two rectangles to attach to both ends of a much larger rectangle. After getting the perfect position i merged all 3 rectangles. And inserted sides into both front and back of church

Once you've got your pieces together, you need to use the laser cutter to make the bottom/base of your church, the dimensions of this all depends on how big or small your church is, after you've cut it all out you need to super glue all the corners of your church to your base.

Step 5: Programming

Once you have put together the parts of your project and your church us nicely put together , you need to move on to programming your choir. I am using a mod kit board and mod kit programming. 

I opened mod kit micro on to my computer, (look below for programming and hardware set up) 

Step 6: Even More Fun !!!!

Now we can begin to decorate the whole church.