Programing / Robotics
In this project, our goal was to learn how to use the programming system, Arduino, and how to connect wires on a bread board, in order to customize and create our own "robot". Our robot was allowed to do anything that we wanted it to, given the materials that we had. We had lights, buzzers, motors, touch sensors, and many other things. We could make a light show, a song, or both at the same time. The challenge was, that we had to know how to program it, and place the wires and lights, and anything else we put on in the right spot.
Circuit: The circuit is basically the "setup" or the "track" for the electricity to flow through. It is a full loop of conductive material leading from one side of a power source to the other. An example of a circuit would be the negative side of a battery, connecting to a wire, connecting to a light bulb, connecting to the positive side of the battery. In our robot, all of the wires and resistors are pieces of the circuit. Current: The current is essentially the "flow" of electricity through a power source. Think of the circuit as a race track. The cars on the track, would be the current (i.e. the stuff flowing through the circuit). Current is measured by an ammeter in amps, and it can be represented in Ohm's Law, which states that Voltage equals the current times the resistance (V=IR). This means that current is equal to the voltage divided by the resistance (I=V/R). If you have a large amount of voltage, and a low amount of resistance, than your current will be greater. If it is the other way around, and you have a low amount of voltage and a high amount of resistance, then the current will be less. Resistance: The job of resistance is to slow the current down. Resistance is measured in ohms, and it can be represented as the "speed bumps" in the race track (circuit), because the speed bumps (resistance), slow the cars (current) down. It also appears in Ohm's Law (V=IR), as the "R" variable. Resistors are the things that we place into the board to create resistance in our circuit. They look like wires with little peanut looking things in the middle. The colored stripes that they have depend on the amount of resistance that they provide. Voltage: Voltage is the "push" of electricity. It determines how fast current flows through the circuit. You can think of the voltage as the engine in the car. The more powerful the engine (voltage), the faster the car (current) can go. Voltage is measured in volts. You will see voltage most often on batteries, like 9 volt batteries, or 12 volt batteries. You also might see them on fences blocking off electricity plants: "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE". It appears in Ohm's Law as the "V" in V=IR. For our robot, we decided that we wanted to do something simple, but not boring. We wanted to make a birthday cake. This is how it would go: A light would turn on and the the "happy birthday song" would play. Then, it would pause for a second, and the light would go out. The reason it would pause for a second, is so that we would have time to "blow" out the candle. We ran into the problem of not being able to get the music and the light go at the same time. After trying every day for over a week, we decided to try a different way to get the light to turn off. We put in a motor, and then we taped the motor to a wire connecting to the light bulb. We programmed the motor to wait a second after the song ended, and then spin 90°. Since it was taped to the wire, it would pull the wire out of the board, thus turning off the light. Overall, this project turned out pretty well. We started way behind, because I wasn't able to be there the first 2 days, which made it much harder for my partner. One thing that we could have done better is we could have talked less to other groups. This not only distracted us, but distracted other groups. Had we stayed on task, we would have probably been able to get it done a lot quicker, and possibly a little better. One thing we did well, was that we were persistent. When we came across a problem, we worked and worked and worked and did everything that we could to try and fix it. One thing that I could have done better is that I could have set deadlines for myself. Had I done this, I probably would have been much more efficient in my work, and we probably wouldn't have been as behind as we were. But, again, the end product turned out successful, and I am very pleased with what we created. |