Electricity / Programming / Robotics
In this project we had to design a robot light show to go with music. To do this we had to learn about electricity and programming with Arduino prototyping boards. We started learning about electricity with light bulbs and alligator clips, then moved on to breadboards. Once we had a good grasp on series and parallel circuits, resistance, voltage, and current, we moved on to Arduino mini-projects.
Our first mini-project was making a temperature sensor that displayed the temperature on an LCD display which could be toggled between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
In this project we had to design a robot light show to go with music. To do this we had to learn about electricity and programming with Arduino prototyping boards. We started learning about electricity with light bulbs and alligator clips, then moved on to breadboards. Once we had a good grasp on series and parallel circuits, resistance, voltage, and current, we moved on to Arduino mini-projects.
Our first mini-project was making a temperature sensor that displayed the temperature on an LCD display which could be toggled between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
The next mini-project we made was a little instrument thing that could play and record a pentatonic scale. Since we made it in one block period, it had some bugs. The main problem was that it could only play back legato, and could not support rests. The other big problem was that we could not figure out a way to get the correct tempo.
The other mini-projects were pretty much irrelevant. Our main project wasn't though. We made an easily programmable 6x2 led matrix that could sync with music. At the time we thought our design was very efficient, however, reviewing the code later, we definitely could have improved the memory management. Our algorithm made it so memory grew linearly, however, we could have made it so it grew logarithmically instead. This would mean we could make a far longer show. Our final programmed show is below.
Concepts:
Circuit: A complete loop made of a conductive material from one side of a power source to the other.
Parallel Circuits: The current has multiple routes it can take.
Series Circuits: The current goes through multiple resistors in a row.
Resistance: Obstacle to current that weakens, reduces, and slows down current.
Current: Flow of electricity from positive to negative.
Voltage: Push or pull or electricity across a resistor.
Power: Brightness of a bulb.
Circuit: A complete loop made of a conductive material from one side of a power source to the other.
Parallel Circuits: The current has multiple routes it can take.
Series Circuits: The current goes through multiple resistors in a row.
Resistance: Obstacle to current that weakens, reduces, and slows down current.
Current: Flow of electricity from positive to negative.
Voltage: Push or pull or electricity across a resistor.
Power: Brightness of a bulb.
Reflection
This project was my favorite this year. Michael is great with hardware, and I have a lot of experience with programming, so pairing up was great.
This project was my favorite this year. Michael is great with hardware, and I have a lot of experience with programming, so pairing up was great.