Week 12

A Simple Circuit

Simple Circuit

Made with Circuit Lab

Electronics Basics

Electrical Conductivity on the Periodic Table

Feynman on Electricity

Ohm’s Law

V = IR

Or, stated differently:

Current vs Voltage

Work, Energy, Power

W = V*A

Understanding the Circuit

  • What is a circuit?
  • What is the battery?
  • What is the wire?
  • What is the switch?
  • What is the LED?
  • What is the resistor?

The Arduino

  • The Arduino IDE
  • Writing a program
  • Programming the Arduino
  • Controlling an LED with the Arduino

Arduino Website
Learning Arduino

Collected Readings

Learning Arduino
This page is a fantastic place to start! Includes code and circuit diagrams for some introductory circuits.

Lady Ada’s Tutorials
More Arduino lessons, these were written with the kits in mind.

Electricity Misconceptions Spread by K-6 Textbooks
William J Beaty talks about common misconceptions about science, and takes the time to explain what is wrong about them and what is really happening. Really helpful in clarifying concepts.

The Art of Electronics
This big, heavy book is authoritative and comprehensive and dense. If you get seriously into EE, this is the place to go but it is not introductory.

Make: Electronics
Widely recommended intro book.

Forrest Mims
This man has written a lot of hobbyist-targeted books, and many of them have been sold at Radioshack.

Radioshack Learning Lab
This thing is amazing. I learned basic electronics on this (and other Radioshack kits) as a kid, and I still pull this kit out when I start prototyping anything with wires.

Assignment

Create a project that uses an Arduino to communicate between a sensor and a processing sketch. Your processing sketch should be interactive, using the sensor as its sole input device.

Minimum Functional Requirements:

  • Choose a sensor from your kit and connect it to your Arduino.
  • Create a small program on the Arduino that communicates the state of the sensor to your Processing sketch.
  • Create a processing sketch that reacts when the user interacts with the sensor.

Suggested:

  • Build the sensor into a object to contextualize the interaction.
  • Extend your Processing sketch to involve image, animation, or text to further contextualize the interaction.
  • Through this contextualization build deeper meaning into the experience.

Advanced:

  • Use more than one sensor of the same type.
  • Use more than one type of sensor.
  • Use a sensor not included in your kit.
  • Include an LED or other output in your project.

Each week we will introduce new material that you will need to understand to complete the assignment. This week we introduce circuit basics and the Arduino. Next week we’ll discuss inputs (switches and pots/dials), outputs (LED’s), and Arduino code in more depth. The following week we’ll look at communication between Processing and Arduino.

Grading will be based on demonstrating an understanding of the core technical concepts and creative development. If your project meets the minimum functional requirements, you will receive a “C”. Higher grades will be given for creative development. Nothing noted under Advanced is required to receive an “A”, I have listed those ideas for students who would like to explore further partly on their own.