Lab 3 - Digital Input/Output (I/O)

     In today's lab, we learned how to perform digital input/output with the Arduino. This was a follow up from last weeks lab. In this lab, we completed tasks such as making LED's blink, making an electric motor spin, turning LED's on and off with push buttons, and changing the color of an RGB LED.
     To start the lab, Cal and I set up our arduino, breadboard, and equipped the breadboard with an LED and a resistor. We then copied the code from the exercise worksheet and ran it. Our LED then started blinking, thus this task was successful. Next, Cal and I hooked multiple LED's into our breadboard and copied the code corresponding to the exercise we were working on and ran it. It also ran successfully.
     After that, we began working on the electric motor exercise. The electric motor we used is a much larger object than anything we had worked with before, thus a transistor was required. Our transistor gave enough voltage and current to power our motor without burning the motor up. If the wrong transistor is used, the motor could have too much current and thus burn up or cease to function. Cal and I organized our circuit as shown below. We then ran the test code and our motor would run for the designated time, then turn off.

Next, Cal and I began working on setting up multiple push buttons to power on/off a LED. This was pretty interesting since we had only used one push button in the past.

     In the last section of the lab, Cal and I configured our breadboard with an RGB LED and multiple resistors. The RGB LED has the ability to change the intensity of its red blue and green components. This gives this type of LED the ability to shine different colors at the same time. Cal and I copied the sample code and loaded it onto our Arduino. The results are shown below.

Lab 2 - Simple Circuits

All the elements of our arduino kit.

     In this lab, we were introduced to the basic principles behind simple series and parallel circuits. The pieces Cal and I used consisted of a solderless breadboard, jumper wires, LED's (light emitting diodes), a potentiometer, resistors and a switch.

     The breadboard was used to connect each of the components together. The jumper wires tied the circuits together. The LED's were used to show that the circuits were complete. The potentiometer was used to regulate the voltage which made the LED's go from bright to dim. The resistors reduced voltage across the circuit. The push button switch was used to open and close the circuit.
     To start the lab, Cal and I tested our multimeter to make sure it was working properly. We did this by setting the multimeter to the continuity mode, and touched both probes of the meter together. When the probes were touched together, the multimeter beeped until the probes were no longer touching.
     Cal and I then hooked an Arduino up as a power supply for our breadboard instead of using our dc power supply we made in the previous lab. We then hooked the jumper wires to the appropriate sections of the breadboard. Next, we tested the resistance capacity of each of the three types of resistors. We then wired a led and a resistor to our breadboard to make a simple led circuit.

 A push button was then added with a few more led's to make our circuit a little more complex.

     In this final step, Cal and I integrated a potentiometer into our circuit. A potentiometer is a resistor that can change its resistance. A potentiometer has three different leads. The resistance between the center lead and either of the outside leads changes as the pot's knob is moved.This is shown in the video below.

Imaginary Expressive Object - Personal Jetpack

When I was asked to think up an imaginary object, the one object that immediately popped into my head was for people to have their own personal jetpack. The jetpack would operate by taking two small jet-powered engines and strapping them to a heavy duty backpack filled with fuel. The jetpack could even use high powered fans and a battery to function. To operate it, there would be two hand controls on each side. On one side, a user would have the thrust for desired height and the other side would be forward/backward and side to side movement. Though the jetpack does exist, it is rarely seen and is not used by the majority of the population today. The jetpack is both necessary and fun. It is necessary because if the engines are made efficiently, it would cut the cost of fuel when compared to modern day cars. It would also be fun to just fly around everywhere you go. However, there are some downfalls to the jetpack. On one hand, you could be 2000 feet in the air and run out of fuel. Another case would be if one or both of the engines malfunctioned. These problems could be fixed by mounting a parachute mechanism somehow inside the backpack section of it

Assignment 1 - Sensor Walk

This is a guitar effects pedal which distorts the sound going to the amp to give it a more grungy sound. (Push sensor)

My guitar has different sensors in it. It has the pickup sensors which are the chrome boxes under the strings, as well as the sensors that change the volume and the treble/bass in the guitar.

This is a wireless sound sensor for use with Turtle Beach gaming headsets. 

There are various other sensors I have seen such as the motion sensor hand sanitizers, the smoke sensor fire alarms, as well as temperature sensor thermostats and sprinkler systems.

Lab 1 - Soldering

Introduction

     Our first lab covered the steps required to permanently solder two objects together. I had done some soldering in the past, mainly just soldering wires, so this lab was a good refresher for me. I have a feeling soldering is going to be a very useful skill when taking this class. Cal and I breezed through this lab, and our circuit successfully passed the voltmeter test.

Steps:

     The first step Cal and I took was to strip all the wires we used and pre-solder them. This made future soldering much easier because the smaller copper wires would not separate, thus giving us a better connection. Next, we soldered a red wire into the center of the 2.1 mm DC power plug, and the black wire to the outside of the power plug. We then applied heat-shrink to the soldered joints to keep the wires from touching or shorting out. We then reassembled the plastic cover on our power jack. We then took the other sides of the wire and soldered them to the battery snap which is used for a 9V battery as a power source. We then broke off two header pins and inserted them in the "helping hands" to secure them. We soldered both a red and a black wire to both the gray terminals on our header pin. We also applied heat-shrink to these connections to keep them from grounding or shorting out. Next, Cal and I soldered the red wire to the inside of the 2.1mm DC power jack and the black wire to the outside of the power jack. After the power jack was reassembled, we tested our soldering skills by using a voltmeter to see if power was making it through a complete circuit. Our soldering was successful as there was voltage passing through the wires and out the connections. Cal and I further tested it as shown below, which lit up the led from the breadboard.

     

Introduction

This is a blog about my progress and assignments throughout the course of CSC 420 - Physical Computing. I find physical computing to be very interesting and I am looking forward to making a lot of progress in the class.