Knex

 My son has gotten into knex recently, and likes making robots out of them... So I figured I'd stoke/seed his creativity a bit by making custom knex pieces that have robot kitbash components on them (random panels/weapons/etc)

This is an example of the type of kitbashes I used:

I took the knex set here: https://www.printables.com/model/143840-knex-parts-customizable and added some of the kitbash pieces to male/female connectors.

And here is an example of something my son made tonight:

He REALLY likes them, I think I'm gonna make the kitbash parts a bit bigger, but the "prototype" idea phase has definitely gone well.

HotDog Game

 We had friends come over with their kids a couple of days ago, so obviously I asked the kids for their "dream game" idea.

This was their pitch:
A hot dog eating contest, where its a guy vs a robot, and every so often a gold hotdog shows up, and if they eat it, they throw up on the robot.

Can do

The Reward System

I had 3dprinted a piggy bank, but realized they do a poor job of showing progress, so I considered an electronic one, but decided to go simpler.

I repurposed a clear pvc pipe I had from another project and found small tiles he got for Christmas that fit perfectly on top of each other and show very clear vertical progress.

He gets a ticket for doing chores/sharing/trying new things/complimenting people/etc.

He picks what the reward is, and we'll move a rubber band that acts as a goal marker based on how many tickets we think that reward "costs".

Powerwheels project

 My friend Jeremy got his daughter a powerwheels for christmas, but it came missing some parts. Instead of sending him the parts, they just sent a whole new car. He knew I love fixing/modding things, so he gave us the car. 

Here is the before picture of the car.

Our son has no issue with pink, but I decided a fun mod for the car would be to paint it with blackboard paint, so he could draw on it (to encourage art/creativity/etc)

So once I got a battery for it, and spliced some wires to make a custom connector, I started taping.

After it was all painted, you are supposed to "condition" the paint by coloring over the whole surface with white chalk.

After this was done, I decided to use a projector and draw some of his favorite characters on the car as a fun surprise to show that its chalkboard and he can do whatever he wants on it.

Hes been talking a lot about an imaginary movie that involves sonic and paw patrol working together (I'll be making the game adoption of this soon lol)

Ive got some more projects planned for the car, but wanted to let him enjoy it "as is" for a bit, so he can appreciate the mods I'll be adding (tablet mount/animated lights/music system/gps/etc)

Sonic light sculpture

 

So after seeing a local christmas light show, my son asked if we could make a sonic light sculpture, so here we are.

Started with a rough sketch based on a picture I found.

Then we started bending some random wire we got from home depot.

Next we started electrical taping some blue lights to it.

Then we added some white lights.

Then I gave up on swapping colors, and just use sharpie to color the nose/shoes/buckles.

As I was hanging it, someone with their dog jokingly said to their dog "look, its sonic!". 

My son loved it as well, and asked if we could make it move next year... which we will.

3d Printer

 Projects have definitely slowed down as I was moved to a team that has a bit too much on its plate (as well as being asked to be a temporary Product owner for the team) anyway I'll stop crying because its fun either way.

I got my old 3d printer back up and running (replaced the hot-end with e3dv6, and used 3d printed parts to make the conversion). I printed a bunch of toys for my son, his friends, and for his birthday, I printed a customized articulated octopus for every kid in his class (with their name on the back)

Unfortunately it turns out the teachers just randomly gave out the octopi to kids, so the personalization was a bit lost lol... oh well, next time....

Hacking class

 I gave another hacking class to a group of high schoolers that I have taught previously.