With Ethan Fonarev, Daniel Bazikian, and James Karr
In this project we were assigned the task of coding our own 'show' using Arduino. Prior to this final project, we had to go through some example sets of code to understand what certain lines of code do. We also learned a lot about what makes up a circuit. We learned about resistors, potentiometers, voltage, current, breadboards and more.
Circuits
Electrical circuits are created when a conductive material connected to opposite sides of a power source connect in a sort of loop. There is a universal equation we used to find the voltage, current, and resistance in a given circuit - V=IR.
V=Voltage: measured in volts, difference in electric potential between two points.
I=Current: measured in amps, flow of electric charge.
R=Resistance: measured in ohms, difficulty of passing an electric current through a conductor.
V=Voltage: measured in volts, difference in electric potential between two points.
I=Current: measured in amps, flow of electric charge.
R=Resistance: measured in ohms, difficulty of passing an electric current through a conductor.
Breadboards
We used our knowledge of electrical circuits to create our own using breadboards. We did several experiments where we learned how resistance, voltage, and current are related. We then used our knowledge of these components to complete a 'Blinky Lights Challenge' in which we had to make a light blink at a certain rate using LED lights, a repeater, several resistors, a potentiometer, and a 9 volt battery.
Arduino
With our knowledge of breadboards and how they worked, we began learning how to code using Arduino and Redboard. We did some basic experiments .to learn how to do certain things with the code, such as making lights flash, playing different notes using a buzzer, and displaying a message on a screen.
Final Product
We made our show to play a rhythmic light show and display the lyrics to 'Help' by The Beatles.
Reflection
Towards the beginning of this project I was unenthusiastic about having to learn to code, but in the end I was surprised to have enjoyed it quite a bit. As unenthusiastic as I was, I was off task more than I would have liked to have been towards the beginning, leaving most of the partner work to my partner. When we started doing Arduino though, I worked much harder and helped out more. Also, when it came to the final 'show' I didn't contribute as much as I should have, but I did put a lot of effort into putting together the ideas of my group members. Overall, this was another surprisingly fun project and I am glad to have done it.