For this project we had to use an Arduino board, breadboard, and a computer to program something. After doing several experiments and learning about electricity, we decided to make our code make the speaker play the beginning of Under the Sea while the lyrics show up on the LCD and lights flash. We didn't manage to get the lights to flash during the song, but they are there afterward. Arduino boards can do other things, like measure the temperature, do other various light things, and show games on the LCD. Below, you can see a video of our code working, pictures of our breadboard layouts, and the code we programmed (there's 18 page of it).
Concepts
circuit - a loop of conductive material from positive to negative sides of a power source electricity - a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles resistance - a measure of how much the current is slowed current - the flow of electricity through a circuit voltage - potential energy drop across a component of a circuit power - rate at which electrical energy is transferred by a circuit ammeter - an instrument for measuring electric current in amperes voltmeter - an instrument for measuring electric potential in volts potentiometer - a variable resistor with a third adjustable terminal Ohm's Law - voltage = current x resistance (V=IR) Kirchoff's Laws - current: The sum of the currents going into a connection must equal the sum of the currents leaving the connection. voltage: The sum of the voltages around a circuit must be equal to zero. series circuit - a closed circuit in which the current follows one path parallel circuit - a closed circuit in which the current divides into two or more paths before recombining to complete the circuit
Reflection
During this project, we had a lot of problems. We started this project off strong and were ahead of several other groups. As the project wore on, we experienced more and more difficulties. When we started to design our Arduino board code, we had a lot of ideas. We had to discard a lot of them to find something that actually worked. We decided to have it play Under the Sea. When we were programming the song was one of the hardest parts of the project. We couldn't get the speaker to sound like the song. We tried many different sheet musics and changed a lot of things. Eventually we figured out that we had one frequency wrong and were typing in the length of the notes wrong. After we fixed those things, it sounded a lot better. That was one of the best parts of the project. After we programmed the song, lights, and lyrics, we wanted to change it so the lyrics showed at the same time they were played in the song. This proved harder than it seemed, because we had to split up our notes into eighteen different songs. That's why most of our code is repeated eighteen times. This was definitely the most confusing part of the project. Luckily, we had some classmates help us and we got it to work. After that, our lights were a little erratic, but they ended up working when we presented our project. During this project, I learned a lot of things. I learned how to work in pairs for big projects like this and a lot of things about electricity. I also learned how to code. All of these things will be helpful in my future.