Electronics
In this project, ROBOTS have taken over our planet! In this futuristic society we must create a robot art light/music show. Over the course of the past few weeks we have learned and explored with electronics, electricity and coding. We first stared out using batteries, bulbs, alligator clips, and switches. We were given a packet that had circuit diagrams and a few questions. We set up a circuit and then answered the question given. We then began to work with breadboards. Breadboards are another option to making an electrical circuit. Its a board that has electrical connection across one "row" and the entire thing. It also has a positive and negative side. By using this you can make a cleaner circuit with more connections. While the entire class went on to work with the spark fun inventors kit, I stayed behind to work with the bread boards a little longer. This helped me get a better understanding of electricity circuits in that aspect. We then moved forward to programming and actually creating our robotics art show. This including using the spark fun inventors kit. In the booklet, it showed you how to set up the circuit using the breadboard and circuit board. You then ran the program through the Arduino program on the computer. If you wanted to you could make your own code for that circuit and run it yourself. The instructions for the coding that circuit were on the arduino program. This was how we made our robot art show. For my robot art show, I had 8 LED lights flashing to "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," by Diana Ross and The Supremes. To check it click on the button below. This project has been very informative and interesting. I cant wait to take what I learned into the future with me.
Content
Circuit- Closed loop of conductively material connecting one end of the power source to the other end. We used this concept to understand how the simple circuits worked.
Series Circuit- The current through multiple resistors in a row. We compared this to a parallel circuit to get a better understanding.
Parallel Circuit- Current has many root it can take.
Resistance- Obstacle to the current that reduces or weakens it(ohms). This can be compared to resistors at varied resistances to weaken the current.
Current- The flow of electricity from positive to negative. Measured in amps.
Voltage- The push or pull on electricity or the "drop" of electricity across a resistor. Measured in volts. We compare this to the amount of current.
Power- brightness of the bulb.
Programing- The action or process of writing computer programs. This is what we did when we created our robot art show.
Kirchhoff's Law- in an electrical network, the algebraic sum of the currents in all the branches that meet at any point is zero.
Arduino pins- If you look in the picture above you can see tat the wires go from the breadboard to the circuit board. The wires are plugging into the pins. The pins allow us to have an electrical connection from the computer to the breadboard. What I mean by this, is they allow us to write the "code" or instructions for the LEDs. They help designate a certain path flow to allow you to light that certain object up. Say you wanted to light the first yellow LED. When coding you would refer to it as [ledPin, 0]; because the wire connecting it is connected to pin 0.
This project has definitely been a little, but fun, challenge for me. I had some trouble setting up the circuits, but once I understood how to it was very easy. One pit I have is that once again I had trouble setting up the circuits. That's was hard, but once again when I understood it was just an easy flow of work. Another pit I had was that I had to leave my original group when we worked in the breadboards. I had to leave because I was still trying to understand then circuits we were doing and they were still going forward. It did lead to me getting in a very good group though. One peak that I had was programming. I was a little slow on that to but I loved it. Watching the lights flash to what I had commanded them filled me with this sense of joy and accomplishment. Another peak I had was my being in my new group. I just joined and they were great. They really helped me when in was stuck, and we worked very well together. One thing I wish I could have fixed was my time management. I did take an extra week to work with the breadboards and that was great. I just wish I had more time to program more to my robot art show. I was just understanding the coding and it was time to present. This project has definitely been one of my favorites. I cant wait, once again, to use it in my future.
Circuit- Closed loop of conductively material connecting one end of the power source to the other end. We used this concept to understand how the simple circuits worked.
Series Circuit- The current through multiple resistors in a row. We compared this to a parallel circuit to get a better understanding.
Parallel Circuit- Current has many root it can take.
Resistance- Obstacle to the current that reduces or weakens it(ohms). This can be compared to resistors at varied resistances to weaken the current.
Current- The flow of electricity from positive to negative. Measured in amps.
Voltage- The push or pull on electricity or the "drop" of electricity across a resistor. Measured in volts. We compare this to the amount of current.
Power- brightness of the bulb.
Programing- The action or process of writing computer programs. This is what we did when we created our robot art show.
Kirchhoff's Law- in an electrical network, the algebraic sum of the currents in all the branches that meet at any point is zero.
Arduino pins- If you look in the picture above you can see tat the wires go from the breadboard to the circuit board. The wires are plugging into the pins. The pins allow us to have an electrical connection from the computer to the breadboard. What I mean by this, is they allow us to write the "code" or instructions for the LEDs. They help designate a certain path flow to allow you to light that certain object up. Say you wanted to light the first yellow LED. When coding you would refer to it as [ledPin, 0]; because the wire connecting it is connected to pin 0.
This project has definitely been a little, but fun, challenge for me. I had some trouble setting up the circuits, but once I understood how to it was very easy. One pit I have is that once again I had trouble setting up the circuits. That's was hard, but once again when I understood it was just an easy flow of work. Another pit I had was that I had to leave my original group when we worked in the breadboards. I had to leave because I was still trying to understand then circuits we were doing and they were still going forward. It did lead to me getting in a very good group though. One peak that I had was programming. I was a little slow on that to but I loved it. Watching the lights flash to what I had commanded them filled me with this sense of joy and accomplishment. Another peak I had was my being in my new group. I just joined and they were great. They really helped me when in was stuck, and we worked very well together. One thing I wish I could have fixed was my time management. I did take an extra week to work with the breadboards and that was great. I just wish I had more time to program more to my robot art show. I was just understanding the coding and it was time to present. This project has definitely been one of my favorites. I cant wait, once again, to use it in my future.