Arduino
For this project, we were to create a project using an Arduino circuit board. For our project, we made our board play the song Iron Man by Black Sabbath and had the lyrics show up on the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display).
This project was long and complex. To begin the project, we were to get in groups of 2. We were to pair up with a partner who had the same experience with electricity and circuits as us. I paired up with Beau McAndrew. Like me, Beau had little to no knowledge of electrical circuits. We started by doing a packet all about electrical circuits that included us building circuits using light bulbs, batteries, and wires. After we completed the packet, we learned about breadboards and how they work. I didn't really understand it at first, but after a few days, i got the hang of it. We then worked on the arduino boards on the computer. These were very interesting and the most fun part of the project.
Terms and Concepts
Circuit: A loop of conductive material from positive to negative sides of a power source. Requires resistance to avoid shorting out
Resistance: Measure of how much current is slowed/ how many obstacles in a circuit. Measured in Ohms
Current: The flow of electricity through a circuit. Found using the equation I(Current)=V(Voltage)/R(Resistance). Measured in Amps
Voltage: Potential energy drop across a component of a circuit. Found using the equation: V=I(current)R(resistance). Measured in Volts
Resistance: Measure of how much current is slowed/ how many obstacles in a circuit. Measured in Ohms
Current: The flow of electricity through a circuit. Found using the equation I(Current)=V(Voltage)/R(Resistance). Measured in Amps
Voltage: Potential energy drop across a component of a circuit. Found using the equation: V=I(current)R(resistance). Measured in Volts
Reflection
I liked this project. It was very confusing at first and i had no idea how any of it worked, but I understand it a lot better now. I liked Beau as my partner. We got along very well and we came out with a good product. We were way behind the rest of the class at first, partially because we really didnt understand it and partially because we were off task. But once we got to the arduino boards, we got on task and worked hard. We got a little set back when the song we chose originally did not work, but we chose a new song and got it to work. It was very hard to get the lyrics on the LCD to line up with the tune from the buzzer. It was hard to understand the code and get it to work, but Beau understood it more than I did, so he worked on the code while i built the circuit. We worked in a team, and because of that, we came out with a great product. I thought i was very productive this project and that i really have improved on being productive since the beginning of the year.