Programming and Robotics:
Programming and Robotics are two of my favorite things; I program on my free time, and I even programmed the school's FIRST Robotics Team robot. Therefore, as a rule, I must like this unit. And I did. First, I'll explain the unit, then the concepts, and throughout I will detail my thoughts on it.
The Unit:
In the unit, we were divided into pairs of students. We began by studying electricity and circuits. We started with a large packet of problems to solve, and used D-Cells, alligator clips, and small light bulbs to complete them. When we finished the packet, we moved on to a (much smaller) packet relating to solder-less breadboards. We then worked on studying the components used with provided Arduino RedBoards (which we used to create a robot art show). In addition, we learned (or in my case, reviewed) programming. The new part of this, for me, was not the basic language (I've worked with C/C++/C#) but the Arduino portion, which was new to me. I felt that the first packet was too lengthy, however, and much of the information was repeated too often.
The Concepts:
Circuit: A continuous loop of electricity from one end of a power source to the other.
Current: The flow of electricity through a circuit. This is decreased by resistors. It is measured in amps (and all factors of amps) via an ammeter.
Resistance: (Resistors) An "obstacle" in the path of the electricity, which decreases current. Measured in all factors of ohms.
Voltage: The difference in potential energy between two resistors. Measured in volts via a voltmeter.
A common equation we used is 'V = IR', where V is Voltage, I is Current, and R is Resistance. Given certain values, we can find any of the three above terms in a circuit.
Pins: A source of power to control components of a circuit. Activating these provides them with power, so that the component connected to them gets current.
Ground: The negative terminal of the power source. This is where the current flows to.
Potentiometer: A variable resistor, meaning that it can be changed to different values.
And although I already knew these:
Variable: A programmer-set value which takes up memory and can be changed.
Function: An enclosed set of instructions to be interpreted by what runs the code.
Conditionals: If/elif/else and boolean operators to determine variable equivalence and do something based on that outcome.
My Project:
My partner Jordan and I did quite a bit of tweaking. We started with coming up with one song, each, and programming them in, but for some benign reason that would not work. We then tried AC/DC's back in black, but for another unknown reason, this wouldn't work, at least how we had hoped. It played the wrong frequencies for the notes (which were correct in the code). In the end, we settled with this incorrect Back in Black, and also a random song. Both consisted of the tones playing at the same time a random color flashed, only the random song played random frequencies for random durations (and still kept the light consistent). In addition, we added a "Light Tube" of sorts which worked quite well. It consisted of Handyman Coil wrapped tightly enough to just encompass the buzzer and LED. One one side, many small holes were drilled to allow some light to escape the tube. At the top we wrapped the end of the coil with clear plastic wrap and placed a marble on top, which refracted the light enough so that you could view the top color even from a perpendicular angle. This worked very well as our art piece, and I'm quite proud of it. You can see videos of it in action below.
The Unit:
In the unit, we were divided into pairs of students. We began by studying electricity and circuits. We started with a large packet of problems to solve, and used D-Cells, alligator clips, and small light bulbs to complete them. When we finished the packet, we moved on to a (much smaller) packet relating to solder-less breadboards. We then worked on studying the components used with provided Arduino RedBoards (which we used to create a robot art show). In addition, we learned (or in my case, reviewed) programming. The new part of this, for me, was not the basic language (I've worked with C/C++/C#) but the Arduino portion, which was new to me. I felt that the first packet was too lengthy, however, and much of the information was repeated too often.
The Concepts:
Circuit: A continuous loop of electricity from one end of a power source to the other.
Current: The flow of electricity through a circuit. This is decreased by resistors. It is measured in amps (and all factors of amps) via an ammeter.
Resistance: (Resistors) An "obstacle" in the path of the electricity, which decreases current. Measured in all factors of ohms.
Voltage: The difference in potential energy between two resistors. Measured in volts via a voltmeter.
A common equation we used is 'V = IR', where V is Voltage, I is Current, and R is Resistance. Given certain values, we can find any of the three above terms in a circuit.
Pins: A source of power to control components of a circuit. Activating these provides them with power, so that the component connected to them gets current.
Ground: The negative terminal of the power source. This is where the current flows to.
Potentiometer: A variable resistor, meaning that it can be changed to different values.
And although I already knew these:
Variable: A programmer-set value which takes up memory and can be changed.
Function: An enclosed set of instructions to be interpreted by what runs the code.
Conditionals: If/elif/else and boolean operators to determine variable equivalence and do something based on that outcome.
My Project:
My partner Jordan and I did quite a bit of tweaking. We started with coming up with one song, each, and programming them in, but for some benign reason that would not work. We then tried AC/DC's back in black, but for another unknown reason, this wouldn't work, at least how we had hoped. It played the wrong frequencies for the notes (which were correct in the code). In the end, we settled with this incorrect Back in Black, and also a random song. Both consisted of the tones playing at the same time a random color flashed, only the random song played random frequencies for random durations (and still kept the light consistent). In addition, we added a "Light Tube" of sorts which worked quite well. It consisted of Handyman Coil wrapped tightly enough to just encompass the buzzer and LED. One one side, many small holes were drilled to allow some light to escape the tube. At the top we wrapped the end of the coil with clear plastic wrap and placed a marble on top, which refracted the light enough so that you could view the top color even from a perpendicular angle. This worked very well as our art piece, and I'm quite proud of it. You can see videos of it in action below.
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Because I've already commented throughout on how I felt during the unit, I'll summarize the peaks and pits below instead of a formal reflection.
Overall Peaks and Pits:
Peaks:
1. My favorite things to do
2. Learned about electricity (Which I don't normally work with / pay attention to)
Pits:
1. First packet was too long and seemed to drag on. They could have been shortened / some things omitted.
2. Not enough time to flush out the final project. This could have been avoided by shortening the first packet.
Neutrals:
1. Jordan and I stuck to a role throughout. I programmed and debugged while he set up the circuit and drilled. The great thing is that we did what we wanted, but the problem is that neither of us got as much experience as possible.
2. I ended up taking a lot of leadership positions throughout because I've worked with this before. Neutral because it's good that I worked as a leader, but bad because half of the time I didn't know / wasn't clear on the circuitry / electricity. The programming was okay, however.
Overall Peaks and Pits:
Peaks:
1. My favorite things to do
2. Learned about electricity (Which I don't normally work with / pay attention to)
Pits:
1. First packet was too long and seemed to drag on. They could have been shortened / some things omitted.
2. Not enough time to flush out the final project. This could have been avoided by shortening the first packet.
Neutrals:
1. Jordan and I stuck to a role throughout. I programmed and debugged while he set up the circuit and drilled. The great thing is that we did what we wanted, but the problem is that neither of us got as much experience as possible.
2. I ended up taking a lot of leadership positions throughout because I've worked with this before. Neutral because it's good that I worked as a leader, but bad because half of the time I didn't know / wasn't clear on the circuitry / electricity. The programming was okay, however.