Project Description
This project was a little different than the previous STEM projects. We partnered up with someone and were given a packet that was to be done with very little guidance. We were able to ask as many questions as needed, and once we completed an exercise we had to explain it to Mr. Williams and get it stamped. This was a great learning experience for me because it forced you to think a little harder and figure it out on your own. The packet was meant to get us comfortable with the idea of a breadboard. We were then told to come up with something/build something for the robotic art show.
My partner and I decided to combine sound and lights together for our show. We had coded the song and lights exactly the way we wanted them to be, but we could combine the different codes and get them to work. After lots of struggle and some help from Mr. Williams we were able to make the song and the lights work at the same time. We ran everything through pin 9 so that the lights flashed to the beat of the song. Once we got that to work, we still had 2 whole working days left, so we decided to get a little more complex. We built a second set of lights to work once the song paused.
My partner and I decided to combine sound and lights together for our show. We had coded the song and lights exactly the way we wanted them to be, but we could combine the different codes and get them to work. After lots of struggle and some help from Mr. Williams we were able to make the song and the lights work at the same time. We ran everything through pin 9 so that the lights flashed to the beat of the song. Once we got that to work, we still had 2 whole working days left, so we decided to get a little more complex. We built a second set of lights to work once the song paused.
Concepts
Circuit- complete loop of conductive material from one end of a power source to the other.
Current- measured by an ammeter in amps. The "flow" of electricity though a circuit.
resistance- a measurement of the difficulty encountered by a power source in forcing electric current through an electrical circuit. (Resistance is measured in ohms.)
Voltage- measured by a voltmeter in volts. The potential energy difference across a resistor. The "push" of electricity.
Series circuit- Voltage gets split, current remains the same.
Parallel circuit- Current gets split, voltage remains the same.
Kirchhoff's Law- the sum of all currents flowing into a node is zero.
Ohm's Law- Velocity= (Current)x(Restistance) (V=IR) States that the current though a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points.
Breadboard- a board for making a experimental model of an electric circuit. We built our circuit on the breadboard and hooked it up to a computer.
Arduino pins-arduino pins can be configured as either inputs or outputs. We used these a lot on our breadboard.
programming- is the process of writing computer programs (writing the code for the robots.) Since my partner and I had never programmed anything before, this was a little weird at first, but we eventually got the hang of it.
Current- measured by an ammeter in amps. The "flow" of electricity though a circuit.
resistance- a measurement of the difficulty encountered by a power source in forcing electric current through an electrical circuit. (Resistance is measured in ohms.)
Voltage- measured by a voltmeter in volts. The potential energy difference across a resistor. The "push" of electricity.
Series circuit- Voltage gets split, current remains the same.
Parallel circuit- Current gets split, voltage remains the same.
Kirchhoff's Law- the sum of all currents flowing into a node is zero.
Ohm's Law- Velocity= (Current)x(Restistance) (V=IR) States that the current though a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points.
Breadboard- a board for making a experimental model of an electric circuit. We built our circuit on the breadboard and hooked it up to a computer.
Arduino pins-arduino pins can be configured as either inputs or outputs. We used these a lot on our breadboard.
programming- is the process of writing computer programs (writing the code for the robots.) Since my partner and I had never programmed anything before, this was a little weird at first, but we eventually got the hang of it.
Evidence of work
Reflection
Having no background in coding/programming was definitely a disadvantage during this project. I did learn a lot about programming, and became a lot more comfortable with it over the past few weeks. I definitely gained a good understanding of how a breadboard actually works. Working with a partner really did help in this project. One peak about this project was learning by playing around/adjusting wires and other objects on the breadboard. Another peak was just learning by failure, even though it can be frustrating at times. A pit was just making sure that you get the basic understanding of a breadboard and how exactly it works. Usually it was only a minor error, that caused the program not to compile the file, and it took us a while to find the mistake made. Another pit was just time management at the beginning of the project. Even though we had plenty of time at the end, I thought that we were a little behind at the beginning of building the robot. (Mainly because neither of us had, had any experience with coding.)