Electronics and Programing
For our last assignment of our freshman year, we were given many tasks involving electricity and programing. We started out by having the teacher give us packets that required us to set up many different kinds of circuits using alligator clips, light bulbs, batteries, etc. As we progressed through the packet it got more and more challenging. After we finished the first packet, we were given another one about breadboards. We had to set up circuits using our STEM computers, a breadboard, a red board, resistors, wires, lights, buzzers, and a lot of other cool things. We were able to come up with a lot of really cool setups. everything we needed and used came in a very cool "electricity kit" that really helped the process. In order to give the breadboard and red board power, we had to plug it in to our computers. We also had to read the code for each and every circuit to understand how it worked. The detail that we put into this was amazing and I am really proud of what me and my parter we able to accomplish and learn through the whole process.
For our last assignment of our freshman year, we were given many tasks involving electricity and programing. We started out by having the teacher give us packets that required us to set up many different kinds of circuits using alligator clips, light bulbs, batteries, etc. As we progressed through the packet it got more and more challenging. After we finished the first packet, we were given another one about breadboards. We had to set up circuits using our STEM computers, a breadboard, a red board, resistors, wires, lights, buzzers, and a lot of other cool things. We were able to come up with a lot of really cool setups. everything we needed and used came in a very cool "electricity kit" that really helped the process. In order to give the breadboard and red board power, we had to plug it in to our computers. We also had to read the code for each and every circuit to understand how it worked. The detail that we put into this was amazing and I am really proud of what me and my parter we able to accomplish and learn through the whole process.
Concepts
current - amount of electric energy or flow
voltage - "push or pull" of energy; potential energy difference
conductors - material that transmits sound, electricity, or heat
series - flow or route of electricity in one path
parallel - flow or route of electricity that has a connection and a branched path for each load; more current than series because more resistance
battery - container with one or more cells where chemical energy is transferred to electricity and used as a power source
circuit - a completed loop made of conductors including a power source (battery)
LED - semi-conductor that emits light when conducting current; light emitting diode
multimeter - instrument that measures current(Amps), voltage(Volts), and resistance(Ohms)
potentiometer - a three-terminal resistor that can be adjusted to the needed resistance
resistors - device designed to have resistance against travel of electric current
Ohm's Law - Voltage = Current x Resistance (V = IR)
node - point on circuit where two or more circuit elements meet
capacitor - device that can store electric charge with an insulator separating one or more conductors; charge and discharge energy when necessary
LM386 amplifier chip - a integrated circuit with a low voltage power amplifier
cathode - negative charged electrode which electrons enter; supplies current
anode - positively charged electrode where electrons leave a device; supplies current
diode - semiconductor device with two terminals but only allowing in current from one direction
syntax error - when a character or string is improperly placed in an instruction and the command fails to be executed
for loop - programming language statement that permits a code to process repeatedly
Arduino pins - slots on the breadboard where wires and lights and resistors can be plugged in to make the circuits
current - amount of electric energy or flow
voltage - "push or pull" of energy; potential energy difference
conductors - material that transmits sound, electricity, or heat
series - flow or route of electricity in one path
parallel - flow or route of electricity that has a connection and a branched path for each load; more current than series because more resistance
battery - container with one or more cells where chemical energy is transferred to electricity and used as a power source
circuit - a completed loop made of conductors including a power source (battery)
LED - semi-conductor that emits light when conducting current; light emitting diode
multimeter - instrument that measures current(Amps), voltage(Volts), and resistance(Ohms)
potentiometer - a three-terminal resistor that can be adjusted to the needed resistance
resistors - device designed to have resistance against travel of electric current
Ohm's Law - Voltage = Current x Resistance (V = IR)
node - point on circuit where two or more circuit elements meet
capacitor - device that can store electric charge with an insulator separating one or more conductors; charge and discharge energy when necessary
LM386 amplifier chip - a integrated circuit with a low voltage power amplifier
cathode - negative charged electrode which electrons enter; supplies current
anode - positively charged electrode where electrons leave a device; supplies current
diode - semiconductor device with two terminals but only allowing in current from one direction
syntax error - when a character or string is improperly placed in an instruction and the command fails to be executed
for loop - programming language statement that permits a code to process repeatedly
Arduino pins - slots on the breadboard where wires and lights and resistors can be plugged in to make the circuits
Reflections
Out of every project we have done this year, not only was this our last, but it most definitely one of the most challenging and most interesting. Bella, who was my partner for the majority of the project, and I both feel that we learned a lot while working with the breadboards and lights. One of the peaks we had we definitely the knowledge we gained. Before this project, I knew nothing about programing lights with a breadboard and a red board. After we worked on it for about 3-4 weeks, I fully understand how the currents work and what the circuit is doing. Another peak we had was our final product. I believe that our "light show" turned out really well considering it was our first time working with anything like this. We took a lot of time looking at the codes and tweaking small details. We picked a song we wanted to use and listened to it over and over so we remembered the timing. When we set up our circuit on the breadboard, we changed the code many times and added or moved patterns of the lights. We did this continuously until we got everything to match up. When the lights and music came together how we wanted them to, we were very happy with what we had done. Although we had some high points during this project there were some things we could have done better. One pit we had was not knowing the material. In the beginning Bella and I didn't know anything about using a red board and reading codes. After going through the process we eventually learned, but it was difficult in the beginning. Another small pit we had was keeping up with the other groups. Even though we weren't working with the other groups, we were all supposed to be around the same spot. It was hard to keep up because of our lack of experience and the teacher was not always able to help us because he had to go around to all the other groups as well. This left us waiting to get our checkpoint passed, but we still managed to get everything done. I'm really happy with our final light show and everything I learned from working with electricity, circuits, and programing.
Out of every project we have done this year, not only was this our last, but it most definitely one of the most challenging and most interesting. Bella, who was my partner for the majority of the project, and I both feel that we learned a lot while working with the breadboards and lights. One of the peaks we had we definitely the knowledge we gained. Before this project, I knew nothing about programing lights with a breadboard and a red board. After we worked on it for about 3-4 weeks, I fully understand how the currents work and what the circuit is doing. Another peak we had was our final product. I believe that our "light show" turned out really well considering it was our first time working with anything like this. We took a lot of time looking at the codes and tweaking small details. We picked a song we wanted to use and listened to it over and over so we remembered the timing. When we set up our circuit on the breadboard, we changed the code many times and added or moved patterns of the lights. We did this continuously until we got everything to match up. When the lights and music came together how we wanted them to, we were very happy with what we had done. Although we had some high points during this project there were some things we could have done better. One pit we had was not knowing the material. In the beginning Bella and I didn't know anything about using a red board and reading codes. After going through the process we eventually learned, but it was difficult in the beginning. Another small pit we had was keeping up with the other groups. Even though we weren't working with the other groups, we were all supposed to be around the same spot. It was hard to keep up because of our lack of experience and the teacher was not always able to help us because he had to go around to all the other groups as well. This left us waiting to get our checkpoint passed, but we still managed to get everything done. I'm really happy with our final light show and everything I learned from working with electricity, circuits, and programing.