Announcing: MuseCon 0 - The Secret Muse

A new convention in northeastern Illinois celebrating music and the hands-on arts beginning in 2010

Blinkies

Yes, MuseCon will have THE blinkies...

Build-A-Blinkie is where you get a kit (circuit board, LEDs, and other electronic parts) and solder them together to make a working blinkie. Basically, a little board with blinking lights. You can proudly wear your very own blinkie as a pin or attach it to a lanyard as a "necklace", or just put it on a shelf and let others admire your technical abilities.

The ability to solder is not required, and we have a number of techs that will help you out. The folks running this show have been doing this at other cons for over 10 years now. Hundreds of folks of all ages have been building blinkies - many of them who have never soldered before. Heck, we'll even provide the soldering iron and solder for you (at the con only)!

Deep in our top secret labs we are making plans for 2010 and 2011. At this time we will go out on a limb and guarantee a few things:

There will be blinkies
- They will blink
- Some assembly will be required
There will be a Friday Night RSVP blinkie for $5
There will be a Saturday RSVP blinkie for $10
You can choose to build blinkies from years past
We will have lots of LEDs to select from

Some of the blinkies that will be available:

12 LED circle kit

3-D Blinkie We always try to support different levels of assembly skills, this time we think we've nailed them all with a single design. Starting with a 3 inch circle, we placed 12 LEDs around the edge - a very easy to solder board.

This is not your 1st board? Looking for more of a challenge? We have 5mm holes so you can bend the LED legs and make them visible from both sides.

Looking for something really spectacular? A second board can interlock with the first, forming a sphere of 24 LEDs.

But wait - Dale wanted support for 10mm LEDs, so we added support for them too!

The design has two buttons to select the pattern. Like most of our boards, it has the IR emitter and receiver for two-way communication to other blinkie boards.

This board was introduced in 2009.

16x8 matrix kit

16x8 matrix After making the 5x7 matrix, Dwayne always wanted to do something bigger. He had to overcome two problems: The first was how to light up the LEDs, as the 5x7 pushed the PIC chip to its limit. The second issue, how long would it take to solder in all the LEDs?

After searching the globe, Dwayne located the perfect part - a beautiful 8x8 matrix. We still support this board with the standard four LR44 batteries, but have also added support for external power.

It's a 2.5" by 1.8" double-sided circuit board that will display various user-selectable patterns and text messages. The design has two buttons to select the pattern. Like most of our boards, it has the IR emitter and receiver for two-way communication to other blinkie boards.

This board was introduced in 2009.

6 LED circle kit

6 LED circle kit It's a 2.0" by 2.5" double-sided circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering. It has 6 single or bi-color LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2005.

19 LED circle kit

19 LED circle kit It's a 1.8" by 2.6" double-sided circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering. It has 19 single or bi-color LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns and text messages. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2005. In 2007, an updated version of the software was released, adding support for single color LEDs.

5x7 matrix kit

5x7 matrix kit It's a 1.8" by 2.95" double-sided circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering. It has 35 single or bi-color LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns and text messages. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

One of the special features of the 5x7 is the ability to customize the first scrolling text message.

Please note, with all the extra goodies, a bit more soldering skill is needed.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2006. In 2007, an updated version of the software was released, adding support for single color LEDs.

19 LED stick kit

19 LED stick kit So, Dale asked how many LEDs can you put in a line using the 8 pin PIC (12F683), and the 19 LED Stick was created.

It's a 1.0" by 8.25" double-sided circuit board with a hole for hanging from a lanyard that requires assembly and soldering. It has 19 single color LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2006.

4 RGB kit

4 RGB kit Dwayne found a closeout on a large number of very nice RGB square LEDs and created a prototype to showoff to Dale. The plan to convince him it was worth the investment to buy the LEDs worked...

It's a 1.4" by 2.2" double-sided circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering. It has 4 RGB LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2007.

3x3 matrix kit

3x3 kit Dwayne found a way to squeeze a little more out of the 8 pin PIC (12F683), creating the 3x3 Matrix Blinkie.

It's a 2.1" by 3.2" double-sided circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering. It has 9 single or bi-color LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

One of the special features of the 3x3 are the 5 push buttons. Why 5 push buttons? Because Dwayne could - he's still contemplating what he wants them to do.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2008.

Simple 4 kit

simple 4 LED kit We picked up some special LEDs with a built in flasher chip and we were so impressed with them, we created a simple board around them.

It's a 1.5" by 1.5" double-sided circuit circuit board with a mounting pin on the back side that requires assembly and soldering.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders and the mounting pin to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2008.

14 RGB stick kit

14 RGB LED stick kit The 19 LED Stick proved to be popular, so Dwayne improved on the design, and crated the 14 RGB Stick.

It's a 1.0" by 8.25" double-sided circuit board with a hole for hanging from a lanyard that requires assembly and soldering. It has 14 RGB LEDs that will display various user-selectable patterns. There is an IR emitter and receiver for two way communication to other blinkie boards.

Some beginners (and some experts) have had trouble soldering the four battery holders to the board. The circuit boards come with these components already soldered on.

This blinkie design was introduced in 2008.