Introduction: Interactive Thunder and Lightning Cloud

Step 1: Electronics- Parts You'll Need:

Here's what you’ll need:

1- Arduino Uno- https://www.adafruit.com/products/50

2- Adafruit MP3 shield- https://www.adafruit.com/product/1790

3- 3 Sparkfun mosfet breakout boards- https://www.adafruit.com/product/1790

4- 12 volt power supply- https://www.adafruit.com/product/1790

5- 5 volt power supply- https://www.adafruit.com/product/1790

6- PIR motion sensor- https://www.adafruit.com/product/1790

7- 12V white LED strip cut into 3 pieces, 2 ft length each- https://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Daylight-Non-water...

8- Micro SD card with SD card reader adapter- https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-microSDHC-...

9- 3 ft red and black 2 stranded 20-24 gauge wire- Radioshack (if it stillexists in your town. Otherwise, a local hardware or electronics store should have it)

10- 3' of a different color 20-24 gauge wire- (read above location)

Step 2: Tools You'll Need

Tools you'll need:

1- Soldering station- Radioshack or electronics store

2- Solder- Radioshack or electronics store

3- Helping hands- Radioshack or electronics store

4- Rosin flux (optional, but it helps a lot)- Radioshack or electronics store

5- Flush cutters- Radioshack or electronics store

6- Tiny flat head screwdriver- Radioshack or electronics store

Step 3: Assembly:

1- Assemble the MOSFET breakout boards as shown

2- Wire the external 12V power supply to the MOSFET breakout boards by daisy chaining the positive terminals, making sure the positive lead of the 12V power is connected to each breakout board on the 3 terminal side of the MOSFET.

3- Repeat the same process with the ground wire from the 12V power supply, with the addition of joining the ground ground from the Arduino as well

4- Use the different colored wire (I used yellow) and cut into three strands, 1 ft in length each

6- Solder the 3 (yellow) wires to pins 9,10, and 11 to the Arduino without the mp3 shield (in some pictures you may see that they are soldered to the mp3 shield. This is wrong)

7- Connect the ground (black) wire from the mp3 shield to the second Arduino.

8- Connect each of the yellow wires from pins 9,10, and 11 on the second Arduino to the port labelled “C” on the 3 screw terminal port side on the MOSFET’s

9- Solder 12ft of the 2 stranded red and black wire to each of the LED strips to the + and - copper pads.

10- Take the other ends of the 2 stranded wire and use your screwdriver to tighten in to the 2 port screw terminals on the MOSFET’s

11- Connect external computer speakers (or anything better) to the audio jack on the mp3 shield.

12- Solder the connections on the PIR sensor ground, 5V, GND, and digital pin 3

13- Download the 2 codes and upload them to your Arduinos.

Step 4: Making the Cloud

what you’ll need:

1- Bucket

2- Gallon tub of white school glue: (XXX where to get it?)

3- water

4- Flour

5- Mixing stick

7- Rubber gloves

8- 2 old bed sheets

9- 40 white balloons

10- Tape

11- Painters Tarp

12- Fan (optional)

13- scissors

14- Super 77 spray adhesive

15- 2 yards Polyester batting (the thicker the batting, the fluffier the cloud)

16- Straight edge

step1:

1- Thoroughly mix 1 part school glue, 1 part flour, 3 parts water into bucket (roughly 1 gallon total) and set aside

2- Blow up 40 white balloons in various sizes

3- Tape the balloons together into a cloud shape and place on painters tarp

4- Use scissors to cut bedsheets into 1’x1’ strips

5- Soak the strips in glue mixture, shake off excess slop and drape over the top side of the balloons

6- Cover the balloons in 2 layers of bedsheets strips

7- Use a fan to dry the wet strips overnight

8- After 24 hours, flip the balloon structure and repeat the same process of draping the glue soaked bedsheets to cover the structure completely

9- Dry for 24 hours

10- Cover the cloud shaped structure in spray adhesive

11- Tear off 6” strips of varying lengths of batting and begin shaping over the cloud structure

12- continue the process until the entire cloud is covered

13- Using the straight edge, poke holes in cloud in 3 places and pull through a zip tie to act as a loop to hang the fishing line from

14- Cut another hole to drop in the LED strips