Introduction to Paper Circuits
Welcome to the Paper Circuits part. We’re going to get crafty with electricity, making interactive paper and cardboard projects that light up, buzz, vibrate, and dance.
This part will introduce you to the world of electricity and circuits. By the time you finish this part, you will have the skills and knowledge you need to design and make your own paper circuit projects.
Over the course of this part, I’m going to guide you through the basics of paper circuitry. I’ll give you lots of tips and tricks for using interactive components in your craft projects. On the next page, I’ll explain some of the basic facts about electricity that you’ll need to put into practice while making your paper circuits. Later in this part, you’ll learn how to avoid basic mistakes and how to design, make, and power your projects. Each of these skills forms part of one of the five projects in this part, but if you want to skip ahead or look back, here’s where to find this information:
Paper Circuits: Essential Skills
How to work with copper tape (pages 10–12)
How to work with cardboard (page 31)
How to plan more complex paper circuits (page 62)
We will also start to explore the world of DIY electronics. By the end of this part, you will understand what a circuit is, how to guide electricity on a path, how to power your projects, and how to use some common electronics components such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), buttons, and buzzers. Here’s where to find this information:
What is an LED sticker? (page 10)
Adding more than one LED (page 12)
Introducing series circuits (page 13)
Introducing parallel circuits (page 13)
What are buttons and switches? (page 32)
How to move electricity along a path (page 34)
How to make a parallel circuit (page 43)
How to use an LED in a paper circuit (page 52)
This part will also challenge you to try lots of new craft skills. You’ll learn lots of techniques and tricks to take your paper craft projects to the next level. Here’s where you can find all this information:
How to make your first origami fold (page 21)
How to work with cardboard (page 31)
How to score card (page 42)
How to make a reverse fold (page 50)
How to make a pop-up card (page 59)
How to use a craft knife (pages 60–61)
Paper Circuits: Essential Skills
What Is Electricity?
Humans use electricity to power all sorts of things, from the televisions in our homes to complex science experiments on the space station. All these uses of electricity are based on the same simple ideas that we’ll be exploring in this book.
Electricity is made up of a flow of tiny particles called electrons. In order for electricity to do anything, these electrons must have a clear path to follow. We can make these electrons do some pretty cool things by carefully controlling their flow and putting obstacles in their path. This path is what we call a circuit.
What Is a Circuit?
A circuit is the path electricity takes. For a circuit to work, it needs a power source, such as a battery. Take a look at a standard AA battery. You will see a + (positive) symbol at one end and a – (negative) symbol at the other.
We can make a path for the electricity inside the battery by connecting the positive and negative sides to a light, with wires connected to both the positive (+) and negative (–) ends. A circuit can also contain other things, including buzzers, sensors, and motors, which all do cool things when you pass electricity through them. We call these things components.
A circuit will not work if the path is broken. Electricity will only travel around a complete circuit with no gaps. Look at the following diagram to see a complete circuit and an incomplete circuit.
Conductive and Nonconductive Materials
When most people think of making a circuit, they think about getting the electricity to move through wires. However, you don’t have to use wires to make a circuit—you can use anything that is conductive. When we say something is conductive, we mean that electricity can pass through it. When we say something is nonconductive, we mean that it will block the path of electricity.
Conductive materials include copper tape, special fabrics, graphite (what we call lead in many pencils), and even some types of sewing thread. Nonconductive materials include paper, card, parcel tape, and plastic.
Buying Copper Tape
You can buy copper foil tape in a few different thicknesses. It comes in two types: with conductive glue or with nonconductive glue. I usually use 5-mm copper tape with conductive glue, but the techniques we are going to learn will work with any type of copper tape.
You can order copper tape with conductive glue online. Copper tape with nonconductive glue is more common. You can find it very cheaply at hardware and gardening stores, labeled as “slug tape.”
Quick Start Tips
You’ll find lots of good tips and tricks for crafting your paper circuits as you read through this part. Here are the most important things to remember.
Connect the positive bit of the battery to the positive bit of your component and the negative bit of the battery to the negative bit of your component.
Electricity likes to take the easiest route possible. If you put a component on top of an unbroken bit of copper tape, the electricity will go through the copper tape instead of the component.
Make sure your positive and negative paths do not touch. If they touch, your circuit will not work.
Tools and Materials List
To make all the projects in this chapter, you’ll need the following tools:
Sharp scissors
Craft knife
Cutting mat
Ruler, ideally metal with a non-slip back
You’ll also need the following materials:
From a Craft Store
Assorted colors of card
Assorted colors of paper, including white and black
Cardboard
Assorted colors of origami paper, including red
Craft glue
Sticky tape
Pegs or small bulldog clips
Picture frame
From an Electronics Store
5-mm-thick copper tape roll
Ten Chibitronics LED stickers
One sewable/stickable buzzer
One sewable/stickable vibration motor
Six 3V batteries