What is Arduino?
Arduino is an extremely simple way to learn coding and assembling circuits. We have 13 projects to learn how to master it. You can find over 16,000,000 videos on Arduino and how to use it, or what it is! Arduino will be used in many of my classmate's final projects. Many companies have made cheaper versions of Arduino but the version we are using is a starter kit for the Arduino UNO. It comes with many wires or different sizes, a motor and many other pieces.
14 Assignments
1. Series Circuit
2. Parallel Circuit 3. Spaceship Interface 4. Love-O-Meter 5. Color Mixing Lamp 6. Mood Cue 7. Light Theremin |
8. Digital Hourglass
9. Motorized Pinwheel 10. Zeotrope 11. Crystal Ball 12. Knock Lock 13. Touchy Feely Lamp 14. Keyboard Instrument |
Series Circuit
A series circuit (or this version at least) is a circuit in which you need to press both buttons at the same time to get the LED to light up. The hardest part of this project was finding the right resistor, the one in the diagram was brown/tan so I was using the tan one which ended up being the wrong one. When I finally got the right resistor, I was struggling with the smallest wire segment. I have (comparatively) large fingers so it was almost impossible to manipulate something so small. As you can see in the video to the right, I eventually got it to work.
Date Completed: 3/5/20 |
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Parallel Circuit
In this version of a parallel circuit, you can press either the top or the bottom button to get the LED to light up. I didn't really struggle with this one, it was just the tiny red wire that caused me some grievance. But at one point I accidentally knocked it out when I was finally done with the rest of it and it really annoyed me. Then I got it back in, again, you can see evidence of this in the video to the right. This one wasn't as challenging because I only had to make minimal changes to the series circuit (seen above.)
Date Completed: 3/5/20 |
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Spaceship Interface
Light Theremin
This was one of the easier projects but the sound it made physically pained me to hear. I remembered hearing this in the classroom and how much it hurt me to hear. That's why I was stalling to get it done. I was really struggling to find a better way to make it so that I didn't have to hear the sound (such as ear plugs possibly). I failed.
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Digital Hourglass
Honestly, the hourglass was really satisfying to make. I wasn't sure if it was working at first but that's because the lights in my room were overpowering the small LEDs on the circuit. Mr. Willauer suggested I turn the lights in my room off so I did and I saw that it was working. This is another one that I was unable to get a video of at the time.
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Crystal Ball
Touchy Feely Lamp
What I learned
I learned how hard it is to code things and how fickle the coding really is. I enjoyed reaching out and talking to TJ a little more because he was being really really helpful. I was really struggling though to get this done and I should've just gotten it all done right off the bat. I don't think I will use Arduino in the future, but I might.