Doctor Who and Torchwood’s Jack Harkness wears an oh so handy vortex manipulator on his wrist. The time travel device worn by Time Agents was an easy way to get from place to place and to get out of tricky situations. Lady Mar Cosplay recently crafted the manipulator using faux leather, thin craft foam, a replacement watch band, and a LED to add a glowing effect. If you don’t want to draft your own pattern for the manipulator, she has one available in her Etsy shop.
After the pattern was ready, she started the build:
I started with the console face out of foam. I scored the markings and heated them to make them a bit more prominent before painting the whole console. I colored some clear packing tape blue with a permanent marker and attached it to the back of the foam over the windows for the light to come through.
I then started on the leather pieces. I did a line of stitching around the window for the console. I also folded down the side edges on that piece and three edges on each end piece and the flap. I should have added the flap to block the light at this stage, but didn’t realize I needed it yet.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
