Introduction: Computer Bugs - Additional Ideas, Tips & Tricks

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About: Hi! This is a very old account of mine and no longer in use. All PMs and comments are forwarded to my email, so you can still contatct me, if you ever want to. Cheers!

In early December I found here, on instructables.com, a tutorial by nnygamer called "Computer Bugs" (link:https://www.instructables.com/id/Computer-Bugs/). I realy liked his idea, but I thought "normal" bugs were too boring. In total I've made now 7 different bugs, which were great presents to Christmas.

Now, a few weeks later I decided to give instructables for this great idea (thanks to nnygamer) something back. In this toutorial I'll write about the experiance I've made, tips & tricks for your bugs and finally give you some new ideas.

The stuff I needed was allready there, normaly build electric circuits. As well I've the knowledege to use the tools. We all are different and you won't get the results I got. That's normal. So don't try to do exctly the same. Be different and create art that was never created before! And if you made some, share it here to give new ideas, tips & tricks to the others. Just post it as a comment. If you write me a PM I'll include it at the end of this tutorial.

English is not my mother tongue, but I learned it for over 7 years and I'll use Google translater for all missing words, so I hope you (native speaker) can understand it without "translating" it yourself :D. If you spot any mistakes write a short PM to me so I can correct them and learn for the future. As well this is my first toutorial I've ever made. If anything is unclear you can send a PM to me, too.

Step 1: General Information

The next stept i'll write about tools and materials I used. It is not allways recomment to do exactly what I write ,especially buying stuff you'll never need again. At the end you can found all bugs with tips & tricks belonging to them. Just pick the steps by the pictures you need. Oh, and read the comments on the pictures. If you cant see them, try to use another browser. Firefox should work fine.

Please read nnygamers toutorial first, I've written this beliving you know how it "orgionally" works.

Dont' hasitate to finish your bug. All of the bugs I present here took me more than 30 minutes to build, the complex up to 3 hours! And the time I've needed to gather components, materials and tools, make experiances and plan this stuff is NOT inculded. It takes time to make something perfekt!

Step 2: Workspace

The right workspace is much more important than you maybe think.
You need a powerful light source to get best soldering results. Daylight would be optimal. If your eyes are 40> and have good soldering knowledge it should be possible to get good results even without too much light (I solder allways in the cellar and as you see it works :))
The vapores in the flux of the solder is slightly toxic so you should (be able to) open a window from time to time.
You also need a nonflammable board which can resist 350°C to 450°C hot molten solder.
At last all tools and materials you need should be arround you.

Step 3: Tools : Soldering Iron

It is very impotant to have a good soldering iron, a normal 30W version is going to work fine. If you plan to solder in near future again, I really recomment you to buy a regulated soldering station. Above you can see my 48W Soldering Station LS50 from ELV. It can regulate from 150°C to 450°C without dropping even on thick circuit bords or while smelting blocks (~25g) of solder. There are also very expensive (<1000€!) stations availeble, but for DIY projekts this 50€ station does its job well enough.
A good solder is for this projekt not too important but if you want to buy good solder try to get some with Sn60 Pb38 Cu2 (1mm thick, 100g schould be for the first projekts enough).
If you used to much solder, you can simply remove it with desoldering tape or a desoldering suction pump. This is not necessary for this projekt, but if you are a beginner, correction could be required.
Solder paste as you see it on the first picture is not required to solder, I use i just to clean my soldering iron because my sponge is too burned.

Step 4: Tools : Vice

On the picture you see mine vice. It's not realy mine, it's a selfmade from my father. You don't really need it, but it's often as usefull as a "third" hand; eg. it can hold a circuit board while I solder a component to the board. I won't write "use a vice" in the "bug section" , use it if you need to.

Step 5: Tools : Plieres

For this projekt you need at least 2 small plires:
1. One to hold the electric components
2. And the other to cut of too long wires
They dont need to be too expecive, better buy a few different or a set (mine like in the pictuere costs about 30€)
The big one nnygamr has used also workes but it is not perfekt to handle small pieces such as ceramic condensators. I would really not recomment to use Nail Clippers to cut wires, it would work, but they're not made for this and could get damaged.

Step 6: Tools : Hotglue Gun & Carpet Knife

I figured out that hotglue is realy useful to build these bugs. It can fill out small holes and makes possible to add stuff which can't be soldered. Its transparenty doesn't distort the colors of the electric components and keep there "caracter". With a sharp knife you can cut off the hotglue you don't need.
As you see I've a very old hot glue gun, but it works.

Important: Just use hotglue if you can't solder things together (eg. plastic) but try to use as less as possible.

Step 7: Tools : ???

Be creative!
Maybe you've some good ideas what tools you can use?
Or you have your awesome universal tool?
Use those and you'll get your special bug!

(On the picture are a few tools I haven't need but if you've got a good idea...)

Step 8: Materials : Electric Components

There's a bunch of electric components. And they are all on circuit bords, just as nnygamer said.
If you want to get lots of goos-useable components (I know you want) take apart old, analog equipment.

Good stuff:
PC Power Supply (big, high power components, mostly dual-layer boards are used -> easy to desold)
DVD Player (Laser diode, motores, buttons; Power Supply included, just partly SMD)
Radios (old one came with nearly no SMD, tons of small components + Speakers)
Old TV (BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS, my uncle helps me to discharge the loaded capacitor; if you have someone whose job has something to do with electronics you can get, TONS of components; I got about 200 Resistors, 20 Buttons, 4 Speaker, 150 Capacitors, all not SMD)

Bad stuff:
CPU's (you know why)
PC mainboards, grafikcards, RAM (realy thick, hard to desold and mostly SMD)
Cellphones (100% SMD most components too small to desolder, even for me (serch for 0201 Resistor size :)), but Akku is useful)
Flashlight, calculator, ... (nothing important insinde)
Cameras (lots of SMD inside, but intresting stuff as high-power capasitors too)

Keep the components sorted by function in Boxes. You may need components you don't need for this project later in other projekts. Don't throw any parts away you don't need now!

How to desolder:
Maybe I'll make a toutorial to this with pictures and a detaild description, but for now these general hints must be enough: 
1.Heat up your solderin Iron to 350°C, or if the board is thicker 400°C-450°C (Full Power) 
2.Try to hold your soldering iron flat to the solder so it can be quickly heated up.
3. Heat the soldering points as short as possible.
4. Pull out the component.

Here are some types of comonents shortly explayed how to desolder.

Resistors, Diodes, Inductions (in a Case):
Heat up the solder on the other side of the board and pull with a plire the first wire out. Do the same with the second.
Capacitors (Elko):
Heat up both solder points at one time and pull it out with your hands. If it takes to long ist getting burning hot, so you should use a plire to pull it out. If it's mounted like a resistor or a diode desolder it like a resistor.
Capacitors (ceramics):
Very hard. Heat up both solder points at one time and pull it out with a plire, because it gets realy hot in a second. Be careful that you don't breake it.
Inductions:
Try pulling it out with a plire like you do it with any other component. The wire gets very fast very hot!
Inductions(air):
Take a paperclip and bend it in a shape fitting trough the induktion. Heat up the solder points and try to pull it out with your selfmade tool.
Transistors:
Try to heat up the three solder points at one time. Pull it carfully with a plier out.

I'll upload mor pictures if I get some "new" devises.

Step 9: Materials : Paint & Color

I think it looks best when using as less paint al possible. The color should have the components. I use the color just for the eyes:
Withe acryl-color as the eyeball and a small dot of a water resistent marker as the pupil. To get the eyeball painted every paintbrush would be to thick. A much easyer solution is to use a needle or alternativly a wire. These can also be simply cleaned and reused.

Step 10: Materials : ???

Be creative!
Took the materials you want to use to make it perfekt to you. For example I used old CD's as wings for the insekts. For details read how the insekts were made.

Step 11: Knowledge & Experience

As I said somewhere before you need soldering a good soldering knowlege. Those bugs have often one point were at least 8 wires come together. When you heat it too long it will fall apart again.
The bugs are different hard to make so I rated all with a number of 1-10 and a * after that. 10* means you are as good as I, it si possible for you to make any bug you wich to, 1* means you're holding the soldering iron the first time in youre hands.

Step 12: 1. Bug : Common Bug / Ant

Estimated difficulty: 3-4*
Time it will take to prepair & solder: 60min+
Materials I used:
- 6 Germanium diodes (small)
- 1 Tantal Condensator (small)
- 1 Induction (small)
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't 6 diodes you could also use any axial leaded components you have. You can replace the induction with a small capacitor.
2. Bend the wires of the diodes stairght and short them to the same lenght.
HINT: Watch out for those black rings on the diodes.
3. Bend down the "shin"

Soldering
4. Solder the legs together.
HINT: Place the legs on an empty circuit board and fix them with some tape. Use more solder the needed.
5. Short up the wires of the capacitor and induction if nessesarry. Solder them to the body.
HINT: Try to heat up just the top of the solder, otherwise the legs will fall appart.

Final touches
6. Bend the legs untill every leg touches the ground.
HINT: If it is at the back to heavy, bend the last two legs more backwards
7. Paint the eyes.

Step 13: 2. Bug With a Long Body

Estimated difficulty: 4-5*
Materials I used:
- 6 Silicium diodes (small)
- 1 Transistor (normal one, long wires)
- 1 Condensator(Elko)(17mm long x 8mm diameter)
- 26mm isolation of a cable 
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't 6 diodes you could also use any axial leaded components you have. You can replace capacitor with a induction.
2. Bend the wires of the diodes stairght and short them to the same lenght.
HINT: Watch out for those withe rings on the diodes. Two legs have to be longer to hold the weight auf the capacitor.
3. Bend down the "shin". Bend down the middle wire of the transistor and both wires of the capacitor in the same direction as well.

Soldering
4. Solder the legs together.
HINT: Place the legs on an empty circuit board and fix them with some tape. Use more solder the needed.
5. Solder the capacitor to the conection point of the legs.
HINT: You could bend the lower wire of the capacitor to the front so it is on top of the solder. (I hope you understand what I meant)
6. Solder the transistor to the upper wire of the capacitor, as you see it on the pictures.

Final touches
7. Bend the legs untill every lag touches the ground.
HINT: If it is at the back to heavy, bend the last two legs more backwards
8. Paint the eyes.
9. Cut of the isolation of a wire and put it over the two remaining wires of the transistor.
HINT: If it doesn't fit squeeze the wires untill the solder falls off. If it stiff doesn't fit your isolation is to thin.

Step 14: 3. Snail

Estimated difficulty: 1-2*
Materials I used:
- 1 IC/ Transistor (TO220)
- 2 Condensator (ceramic)(small, long wires)
- 20mm isolation of a cable
- 1 induction (ring; 10mm thick, 15mm diameter)
- 1 Ferrit-part (7mm x 7mm x 2,5mm thick)
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't the Ferrit-part (the "mouth") you could replace it with something different.
HINT: Check out the datascheet of your TO220 component. Maybe it's a voltage regulator, a very useful IC, keep it for future projekts.
2. Cut of on wire of each ceramic condensator.
3. Get some isolation and put it on the remaining wire of the ceramic kondensators.

Soldering
4. Solder the induction on top of the TO220 like shown in the picture.
5. Solder the Ferrit-part to the outer wires of the TO220.
HINT: Bend the wires of this component first. Make sure it sontacts the ground before soldering.
6. Solder the ceramic condensatores to the outer wires of the TO220.

Final touches
7. Bend the eyes the way you wish.
8. Paint the eyes.
9. Bend the middle wire of the TO220 upwords untill it contacts with the induction and holds it in place.

Step 15: 4. Spider

Estimated difficulty: 2-3*
Materials I used:
- 8 Ferrit-cylinders (small)
- 1 IC (Dip8)
- about 240mm pre-painted copper wire (from an air- induktion; 0,5 mm thick)
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't the Ferrit-cylinders and the air-induction you can also use resistors, ...
HINT: Check out the datascheet of your IC component. Maybe it's a voltage regulator, a very useful IC, keep it for future projekts. It could be also somesthing different, e.g. an LED Driver. After reading the datasheet for a few minutes and you still don't know what to do with it use it wor this projekt with a good conscience.
IDEA: You can still solder the spider with it's legs on a circuit board. It provides a great cooling and should work for all non-high-frequency IC's. Style up a circuit board :).
2. Uncoil the air induction(s). Cut it into 8 same lenght (about 30mm each) peaces.
3. Pull out the wire of the Ferrit-cylinders.
HINT: This might be really hard. Be patient. And also careful, Ferrit breaks easiely. Make sure your wire will fit through.

Soldering
HINT: Read step 4 :"Tools : Vice"
4. Solder each wire piece to a wire of the IC
HINT: You can solder only the blank copper, not the paint. So you have to options: Either you remove the paint with a fine and sandpaper before you began to solder or you could hope your soldering iron gets hot enough to burn the paint (400°C should be OK)

Final touches
5. Bend the legs the first time.
6. Put the Ferrit-cylinder on and bend the wires again. They should hold without any glue.
7. Bend the legs untill every leg touches the ground.
8. Paint the 8 eyes.
HINT: If you fail with one of those tiny eyes (0,5mm diameter) you can remove it simply with a carpet knife.

Step 16: 5. Butterfly

Estimated difficulty: 7*
Materials I used:
- 1 transistor (normal one, long wires)
- about 80mm pre-painted copper wire (from an air- induktion; 0,5 mm thick)
- adjustable Condensator (small, mine was from a radio I think)
- fuse with red granules (20mm long x 5mm diameter)
- CD(s)
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't those parts choose some simliar.
HINT: Try to get a fuse with colored granules. It looks just awesome!
2. Break a CD untill you have all Parts you need. You might need a second or a third, what parts you'll get is pure luck.
HINT: Cover the CD with cloth. When you break the CD this will protect you from splinters. The silver surface could got lost, thats normal, but aware of those annoying pices. Check after every break your results. You gan destroy good pieces!
3. Uncoil the air induction(s). Cut it into 8 same lenght (about 15-20mm each) pieces.
4. Bend the middle wire of the transistor to the flat side, the other two outwards.
5. Lay down the CD pieces in two simlier, but mirrored shapes down.
HINT: The "perfect" solution takes time. The gaps between the parts should bee as small as possible (<1mm).
6. Hold one piece in your hand and put CAREFULLY as LESS AS POSSIBLE hotglue at one edge. Glue the right part to it. Repeat untill finished.
HINT: Too much glue is also OK, but it could lift up the silver surface destroying this awsome light reflexions.
7. Glue one piece of wire to each wing, making it possible do solder it later to the body.
HINT: Remove the paint at one side about 3mm before (as desribed in Step 15: 4. Spider) glueing it to the wings. Thats much easier than doing that afterwords.

Soldering
8. Put some solder on top and bottom of the fuse.
HINT: If it's too hard try to use a file before.
9. Solder to the fuse the adjustable condensator, in this case the red part (the withe one on the photo)
10. Solder the legs to the body (You should use the solder which should be already there at the fuse)
HINT: You have to remove the paint from the wire like I described in Step 15 (4. Spider) already. Keep in mind one wire of the capacitor should face up later, so solder all legs to one point.
11. Take now the transistor and solder it on the top of the capacitor (as shown in the pictures).
12. At last solder the wings to the fuse next to the capacitor.
HINT: Try to solder as fast as possible otherwise the glue around the wire will melt...

Final touches
13. Bend the legs untill every leg touches the ground.
HINT: If it is at the back to heavy, bend the last two legs more backwards. Try to let it "see" upwards. It looks much better.
14. Bend the head if nesessary.
15. Paint the eyes.

Step 17: 6. Dragonfly

Estimated difficulty: 8*
Materials I used:
- 1 Resistor (very small)
- pre-painted copper wire (from an air- induktion; 0,5 mm thick, green, red or blue)
- 1 Condensator (Elko; 12mm long x 5mm diameter)
- 1 Tantal Condensator (big)
- 1 Induction (18mm long x 2,7mm diameter)
- 1 Induction (8,7mm long x 6mm diameter)
- 1 Part of an button (from an old cellphone, it's the golden one at the tail)
- 2 lenses (small, e.g. from a DVD player )
- CD(s)

Preparation
1. Collect the Parts. If you haven't those parts choose some simliar. You don't need the small resistor.
2. Break a CD untill you have all Parts you need. You might need a second or a third, what parts you'll get is pure luck.
HINT: Cover the CD with cloth. When you break the CD this will protect you from splinters. The silver surface could got lost, thats normal, but aware of those annoying pices. Check after every break your results. You gan destroy good pieces! (In total you need 4 long triangular shaped parts in total.)
3. Uncoil the air induction and the shorter one (8,7mm long x 6mm diameter).
4. Bend the colored wire from the air-induction around the core of the other induction and solder it back to the wire attached to the core.
5. Cut the wire you got from the induction into 10 parts
6. Glue one piece of wire to each wing, making it possible do solder it later to the body.
HINT: Too much glue is also OK, but it could lift up the silver surface destroying this awsome light reflexions. Remove the paint at one side about 3mm before (as desribed in Step 15: 4. Spider) glueing it to the wings. Thats much easier than doing that afterwords.
7. Bend the wires of the Elko outwards.

Soldering
8. Solder the Elko to the induction (in my case with blue wire) as shown in the last picture.
9. Solder the Tantal condensator to the induction.
10. solder the long induction ti the golden button part (if you have one) and the small resistor at the end. Glue the side withe the button piece to the Elko.
11. Solder the legs to the body. The 4 front legs should be soldered right after the head, the other two to the wires of the capacitor(Elko).
HINT: You have to remove the paint from the wire like I described in Step 15 (4. Spider) already. Keep in mind one wire of the capacitor should face up later, so solder all legs to one point.
12. At last solder two wings right after the head, the other two to the wires of the capacitor(Elko) just like you already did it with the legs.
HINT: Try to solder as fast as possible otherwise the glue around the wire will melt...

Final touches
13. Bend the legs untill every leg touches the ground.
HINT: If it is at the back to heavy, bend the last two legs more backwards. Try to let it "see" upwards. It looks much better.
14. Glue the lenses on the head, these are the eyes. If you haven't got lenses, use paint.
HINT: If it doesb't look perfekt, you can remove the lenses and try it again.

Step 18: 7. Firefly

Estimated difficulty: 9*
Materials I used:
- 1 Resistor (47Ohm, maybe up to 100Ohm)
- 110mm pre-painted copper wire (from an induktion; 0,3 mm thick; better use 0,5mm)
- 1 yellow LED (small, normal), high power possible, but needs a different resistor
- 1 Switch (on/on; very small)
- 1 Button (much more like just a contact, which doesn't need much pressure to activate)
- 2 batterys (each 1,5V) or 1 battery (3,0V), higher voltage possible, but needs a differen resistor
- 1 battery-holder
- 1 IR-Reciver (with 3 wires)
- about 20mm isolated wire
- CD(s)
- withe acrylcolor
- black permanent Marker

The Firefly is the most complex bug from these 7. It should not just look like a bug, it should also include a full functional but tiny circuit. Creativity is required. That's the way I did it:

First Toughts:
1.Think about the circuit first. The last picture showes the quickly drawn shematic diagram. On a circuit board it would be something for totally beginners. If you haven't done something like this before, test it on a circuitboard first, otherwise go on to the next step:
2. Look for a battery holder. It should hold one 3V or two to three 1,5V button cells and allready look like a body. Use your imagination.
IDEA: You could also take a high-cap condensator. It would be able to hold enough energy for about 5 minutes if you use a low current LED.
HINT: If you have just a popular 3 cell holder, take one cell out and fill up the place with hotglue and/or a switch you may need.
3. Spend thoughts on your design. Where do you want to place the switch, the button and the resistor?

Preparation:
4. Collect the parts. If you haven't a IR-Reciver you can use an transistor instead. You don't need a button and a switch, on of those schould work also fine.
IDEA: If you want you can also use SMD components this time. But make sure they work before using.
5. Break a CD untill you have all Parts you need. You might need a second, because what parts you'll get is pure luck.
HINT: Cover the CD with cloth. When you break the CD this will protect you from splinters. The silver surface could got lost, thats normal, but aware of those annoying pices. Check after every break your results. You gan destroy good pieces!
6. Choose two pieces you want to use as wings.
7. Uncoil the air induction(s). Cut it into 8 same lenght (about 15-20mm each) pieces.
8. Glue one piece of wire to each wing, making it possible do solder it later to the body.
HINT: Remove the paint at one side about 3mm before (as desribed in Step 15: 4. Spider) glueing it to the wings. Thats much easier than doing that afterwords.
9. Bend the middle wir of the IR-Reciver to the flat side, the other two wires upwards as seen on the pictures.

Soldering:
10. Solder the circuit as you want before adding legs, wings or the head. Make sure it works.
HINT: You can attach the resistor before or after the LED. Keep in mind the LED has + and - . Go to google or wiki for details.
11. Now you can add legs, wings and the head in the order you want. Try to to solder the most parts, to attach it to plastic use hotglue.

Final touches:
12. Bend the legs untill every leg touches the ground.
HINT: If it is at the back to heavy, bend the last two legs more backwards.
13. Bend the head if nesessary.
14. Paint the eyes.

Step 19: Last Words

This was lots of work and if you like it please show it via a vote or a comment. I would be realy glad if you send this link to your friends to to make this page popular. It would be also great if you post here your creation, show your style.

Credits to: nnygamer for his great & cute idea, without him I would have never startet this.

licens-information:
Even it says "noncommercial" you can use this for any kind of charity projekts. And if you made on bug as a present saying "I've got the idea from the internet / instructables.com" is enough (you doesn't have to say "from the following link: ..." for sure)

Step 20: Wanted: Awesome Bugs

Send me a PM with the name, one (or more) photo(s) and a short discription of your bug and I'll post it here.

Step 21: Bug Artist : 1. Dagelias - the Bug on the Circuit Board

I think this bug looks great together with the button on the circuitboard. If you want to know how it was made ask dagelias.
IDEA: It would look even bettter when it would be soldered to a circuit board with golden conductor tracks on top.

Thanks to dagelias for his permission to post it here. Also check out his other bugs:
Link: https://www.instructables.com/id/computer-bugs-ideas/