SpareShip!

A SpareBot-inspired spaceship:



It’s more fun, of course, when the LEDs actually light up:



Here’s the circuit diagram – basically three LEDs in parallel, a battery, and a magnetic reed switch:



A resistor is added to each of the red LED branches; this is to limit the current in those branches so that the white LED gets some current as well. Without the resistors, the bulk of the current will flow in the red LED branches (which have less resistance), and the white LED will not light as the current flow through it will be extremely small.

Since the ship’s just held in place by wires, turning on and off a mechanical switch would eventually flex the ship out of shape. Hence a magnetic reed switch is used, it’s more streamlined and you can hide it in the fuselage without anything sticking out.

Vibroroach

Over CNY spring cleaning, we dug up a dead cellphone and promptly gutted it.  There’s a pretty nifty vibrator motor inside:

Doesn’t this look like a carapace?

A small clothespeg was turned into a battery holder.  First, disassemble the clothespeg, and cut out two grooves:

Glue a short piece of wire into the groove, and make a little paperclip-like bend at the end.  Then reassemble the clip.  The springy bendy ends will pinch a little button cell nicely (instant battery holder!)

Wire it up to the motor, and superglue the whole thing to the back of the shell:

Add a few more wires for decoration, then clip on a battery:

A little vibroroach!