Introduction to Arduino
Over the course of the semester I had a chance to work with Arduino which includes coding and working with circuits. We were given all the parts to complete our projects and guidelines for sculpting the code, but we had to assemble it all together. We are given a breadboard for crafting our circuits and the little arduino computer which will receive code. We can build a "spaceship interface" or a "crystal ball" but ulitmately it's all useless unless we give the computer instructions about how all the parts interact, and that's done through coding. For this project, since I did the majority of it at home, I used Codebender. A website that is compatible with arduino and I do recommend it! It could be slow at uploading sometimes but was overall great for someone like me who doesn't have a computer at home. Before you scroll through I would like to discuss some of the projects that... didn't go how I thought they would!
Project 5: Color Mixing Lamp
I attempted this project a couple of times but couldn't ever get it to work out perfectly. In my first attempt, I had inserted the phototransistors into my breadboard incorrectly and corrected that in my second & third attempts along with the correct resistor for the LED! Though the light was much brighter now and made a much more obvious "fading" motion, I couldn't get the colors to interchange. Sometimes when I messed with the LED I could get red to appear but green simply didn't show at all. I'm not sure if it was a part that was broken or some error I was looking over but I'm glad I at least got the lamp to improve.
Project 8: Keyboard Instrument
The video I included is my first attempt at the project and was only to get 2 notes to make a constant pitch. I was able to successfully complete the project at school getting 3 out of the 4 notes to work (my fourth note wasn't constant). Apologies for not taping my final attempt at it but I promise you didn't miss much!
Project 13: Knock Lock
Who could forget knock lock? This one gave me LOTS of troubles. As you'll see in the video my code wasn't working right, or maybe it was the circuit at the time, either way that project was a bust at home (later learned I had the wrong resistors in). Then I went to school and worked on it for over an hour! I would rewrite the code, check over each line, check it all again, then I'd look over my circuit, completely redo the circuit (with the right resisitors), and it still wouldn't work! I watched three videos of people doing this project and didn't catch an error in my own copy of this lock. My code would cycle through "locked" and "unlocked" without me knocking! It's like the loop function wasn't working. In the end I'm not sure what was wrong with the project but I was happy to move on from it.
Project 5: Color Mixing Lamp
I attempted this project a couple of times but couldn't ever get it to work out perfectly. In my first attempt, I had inserted the phototransistors into my breadboard incorrectly and corrected that in my second & third attempts along with the correct resistor for the LED! Though the light was much brighter now and made a much more obvious "fading" motion, I couldn't get the colors to interchange. Sometimes when I messed with the LED I could get red to appear but green simply didn't show at all. I'm not sure if it was a part that was broken or some error I was looking over but I'm glad I at least got the lamp to improve.
Project 8: Keyboard Instrument
The video I included is my first attempt at the project and was only to get 2 notes to make a constant pitch. I was able to successfully complete the project at school getting 3 out of the 4 notes to work (my fourth note wasn't constant). Apologies for not taping my final attempt at it but I promise you didn't miss much!
Project 13: Knock Lock
Who could forget knock lock? This one gave me LOTS of troubles. As you'll see in the video my code wasn't working right, or maybe it was the circuit at the time, either way that project was a bust at home (later learned I had the wrong resistors in). Then I went to school and worked on it for over an hour! I would rewrite the code, check over each line, check it all again, then I'd look over my circuit, completely redo the circuit (with the right resisitors), and it still wouldn't work! I watched three videos of people doing this project and didn't catch an error in my own copy of this lock. My code would cycle through "locked" and "unlocked" without me knocking! It's like the loop function wasn't working. In the end I'm not sure what was wrong with the project but I was happy to move on from it.
Project 1: Series Circuit
Project 2: Parallel Circuit
Project 3: Spaceship Interface
Project 4: Love-O-Meter
Project 5: Color Mixing Lamp
Project 6: Mood Cue
Project 7: Light Theremin
Project 8: Keyboard Instrument
Project 9: Digital Hourglass
Project 10: Motorized Pinwheel
Project 11: Zeotrope
Project 12: Crystal Ball (magic 8 ball)
Project 13: Knock Lock
Project 14: Touchy-Feely Lamp
Summary
Overall, I had a LOT of fun with Arduino! I really do mean that! When I was in Science Olympiad we had a coding event that introduced me to the parallel and series circuits. I rediscovered this little passion of mine and I'm glad I did! These projects are an introduction of what you can do with coding and Arduino, I used Arduino in my final project and I got to work with relays. I encourage you to try out Arduino and after you have a base understanding try new things! It's totally normal to flop on your first and second try at something. As long as you're learning along the way and having fun I think you're on the right track. This unit gave me a new appreciation for coding and the science/math that goes into electrical engineering. If you're like me, a high school student who will soon be out in the world looking for a future career, I encourage you to try coding! Try new things! If you find out you like coding, great! If you don't, well now you know! Don't close off any opportunities to yourself. I'm happy to end this unit with my freshman year's sign off: happy creating friends!