Personal Applause Sign

For the longest time, people have been neglecting to applaud my myriad accomplishments. I could not abide by this and henceforth set out to resolve this issue. The solution wasn't immediately obvious, but after mulling it over for a while, it suddenly hit me. People have been culturally conditioned to clap for light-up signs that read "APPLAUSE."

From that moment on, it became clear to me that I had to make my own light up "APPLAUSE" sign that I could wirelessly trigger whenever the moment necessitated a round of admiration. And let me tell you, it works like a charm. You can get people to applaud you for almost anything.

I feel that this notion is really catching on. People are always asking me how they can make their own applause sign. There is a much larger admiration deficit in this world than I had initially anticipated. So, as a community service, I am sharing how people can make their own personal applause sign and seek the blind adulation they so rightly deserve.



(Obligatory Warning: This project uses high voltages and power tools. Consult professionals when in doubt. I take no responsibility for any of the information here or what you do with it! Proceed at your own risk.)

Step 1 Go get stuff

You will need:

3' x 4' sheet of 3/4" playwood
36" x 5.5" x 1/8" mirror acrylic
36" x 5.5" x 1/8" milky white acrylic
Black acrylic paint
Black house paint
Fine paint brushes
House paint brushes
Quick release clamps
1-1/4" wood screws
3/4" wood screws
A power drill and bits
5 amp puck relay
6 lamp sockets
6 40 watt round bulbs
Power junction box
Power socket
Heavy gauge lamp cord
Wireless doorbell
Arduino programmer
PCB
7805 5V regulator
3V regulator
(x2) heat sinks
22pF capacitors
16 MHZ crystal
Atmega168 chip
28 pin socket
Momentary switch
100uF capacitor
Audio isolator transformer
(x2) 1K resistor
A 4148 diode
0.1uF capacitor
9V battery connector
9V battery
Lamp cord
Wire nuts
4.5V adapter
Cable organizers
End caps
Wood putty
A putty knife
Sandpaper
15' 3-prong extension cord

Comments

[tinker234]

funny clap evrone

[Lithium Rain]

What's this /r business...is it a personal Randofo subdomain? Is it new for all ibles? :D

[randofo]

Everyone but you. We have been trying to keep it a secret for as long as we could. We figured that you wouldn't react well if you found out.

[Lithium Rain]

Okay, if that's the way it's gonna be.

But I think that you should know that I have made it my life's mission to get revenge - and your job. It is an awesome job, and I think we both know that it is truly my job, in the grand scheme of things, but YOU took it, even though you knew it should be my job, thereby throwing the entire universe out of whack with you accepting job offers all willy-nilly without giving even a passing thought as to how it would affect the rest of us. 

I am coming. I am coming to take my rightful job, and you know what? I will make you regret taking it. I will smear peanut butter and jelly on your macbook touchpad. I will scratch all of your CDs. I am going to steal your fish flakes, so that the fishies go hungry, and sprinkle them in your latte, and then stir the latte so that they dissolve into it, so you will drink it unaware that you are depriving the poor, poor goldfish of vital nourishment that is an important part of this nutritious breakfast. And then I will put extra sugar in the latte. To hide the taste of fish flakes. 

So in conclusion no it's not a problem at all and I very much understand and this in no way changes our relationship.

[randofo]

Before I came along, community management was performed by an army of interns chained to a radiator in the Instructables basement. They needed to be taken care of. They were provided with daily meals stolen from dumpsters and occasionally hosed off in a utility sink. I changed all of this. I rode onto the scene and said, "I will perform this community management of which you speak and you need not chain me to a radiator for I shall not run away! The hordes of internet trolls, spammers and pen gun manufacturers do not scare me, for I am Randofo!" Perhaps I did not say it quite like that.

Anyhow, what I am getting at is that you can scratch my CDs and starve my goldfish; you can cover my computer in processed nut paste and candied fruit jam; you can even steal my job; but you shall never do anything to my latte because I don't drink coffee, as caffeine makes me twitchy. Even more twitchy than I already am.

Actually, wait a minute... you can't steal my job! For you see, as I was explaining earlier, I forged this job out of the eternal heat of the Instructables basement radiator, thus breaking the chains of intern filter-clearing slavery and thus taming and systematizing the beast, until it was a beat no longer, but a daily chore that I mumbled halfheartedly about at the daily meeting. And thus, with the interns freed to do other more grueling tasks, and the filters cleared daily, and the website tamed, I was able to begin the age of Randofo. Fortifications were fortified and ramparts were ramped and somewhere along the way I made a whole bunch of stuff. Thus, I was knighted Sir Community Manager of Instructables by Dr. Eric J. Wilhelm himself.

For you see, I could not possibly have stolen your job because I braved the fire, broke the chains, freed the interns, tamed the beast, systematized the system, mumbled at the meetings, begun the age, fortified the fort, ramped the ramparts, made some stuff and was thus knighted Instructables first Community Manager... or something like that.

So, in short, I as well look forward to maintaining our relationship with no unexpected twists or unforeseen changes.

[trebuchet03]

"...an army of interns chained to a radiator in the Instructables basement. They needed to be taken care of. They were provided with daily meals stolen from dumpsters and occasionally hosed off in a utility sink. "

Oh.... how true! Utility sink showers are the best!

[mahesh.vaish]

lets see!!!if i could make it..

[piesnotpetrol]

Nice. Want one. Definitely with some interchangeable messages :) Incidentally, I found on a previous project that if you can't get milky acrylic, then using a disk sander on some clear perspex works very well to get the diffused light effect for the background.

[khearn]

Great idea! I'm workign on designing a "Quiet Please" sign, and this looks pretty adaptable. One thing that should be mentioned is that the ATMega168 needs to have the Arduino bootloader programmed into it. One needs to buy it pre-programmed (I know SparkFun sells them), or else have an AVR programmer available to do it yourself.

[wingman358]

Haahaha! Great idea and better execution.

[prankmaster109]

cool lol lol lol olololololololololololol

[eoffermann]

Love it! I've found a few places online (I just bought one from SVC.com) that you can buy small wireless car-alarm style remotes that would work great with this, too. They're cheap, simple enough to wire up, and the remotes are keychain-size.

[mr monoply33]

If I can find a way to label this from the inside, so you can't see what it says until it's lit, I'm going to have to do this.

[iobridge]

I need one of these for my meetings. Somehow I am the only that knows that I just said something applause worthy.

[Chowmix12]

Is that Scoochmaroo?

[randofo]

Yes. She explains stuff all the time.

[unigamer]

you're living the makers dream! :)

[beberly37]

You should make a second sign that says applesauce and see who notices.

[JakeTobak]

I only came in here cause I wanted to know what an applesauce sign was.

[beberly37]

Its from an old TV show that had a sign that said "applesauce" instead of "applause", because at a quick glance they look the same. After a few weeks of having an "applause" sign, if it was switched people would wonder if it always said "applesauce".

[Seppuko]

This is one of the most awesome ideas ever

[Lindie]

Love it! You're too funny!

[martzsam]

I must resist the urge to clap... errrrrrrrr....

[Kryptonite]

*clap*

[Kryptonite]

That's a nice job there, good work on the laser etched sign as well. Although, in all honesty, what do cats have to do with the time and internet?

[ScubaSteve]

Dont have a laser cutter...I guess i could do spraypaint stencils, or cut some black vinyl with adhesive backing.

[angelabchua]

its breathtaking...

[chndt2008]

Ox!

[Ninzerbean]

Wow! You deserve the applause. Really.