PowerStationDotLife

The breadboard stripped down and ready for the next adventure. I was pretty disappointed with myself that I didn't get my  Project A  debugged before I had to take the breadboard apart for this week's assignment.  Then I reread that first objective of the class is to "understand the driving forces behind the maker movement and the characteristics of a 'maker' with the goal of connecting making with your current practices."  As an educator, that means play around with being a maker so you know how to enhance your campus with this movement cropping up everywhere.  You also practice being the student complete with trials, errors, frustrations, fails, and triumphs.  We need to remember what that feels like so we can connect better with our own students. So, I stripped the breadboard down to the main red and black wire and started planning the new build.  The push button project from the book (project #5) is done with 2 push buttons.  I decided to s

What my personal maker space looks like when turned loose for independent play This week I decided to blog like a maker instead of an educator; embrace the characteristics of a maker.  I  was feeling accomplished when I had project 3 done by Tuesday .  As I was creating the blog post, I read through the class assignment for specifics.  Accomplishment turned to dread.  I realized I also needed to do project 4.... and create my own project.   The sheer amount of unfamiliar words overwhelmed me.  I joke that numbers were my first language.   I froze.    I walked away but kept mulling it over in the back of my mind.  As  the week got busy I started to get anxious to jump back in.  I was ready to see what I could get done.  I was going to start with what I knew: the projects in the book. So I made regular blog posts like I've been doing: Project 3   and  Project 4  I've been straying bit by bit from putting pieces in the EXACT holes on the breadboard as shown in the boo

Goal: Connect 8 LEDs and play with various sequences through different sets of code Materials: 8 LEDs 8 330 ohm resistors 10 jumper wires Procedure: 1. Assemble the circuit I'm moving away from assigning specific spots       and giving a general pathway. jump each pin to the + lead of the LED →       the - lead of the LED → resistor       the resistor → - channel Pin 2 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 3 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 4 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 5 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 6 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 7 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 8 → +LED - → resistor → "-" Pin 9 → +LED - → resistor → "-" jump "-" → GND on the Arduino board jump "+" → 5V on the Arduino board 2. Write the code Note the full code is found in the  12 Circuit USK Guide Codes. Below is a snapshot of the general code being run.  An array, int ledPins[ ], is used to

Goal:  Learning how to wire and code an RGB LED with the intent to incorporate it into a bigger project Using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to mimic analog results Materials : 1 RGB LED 3 330 ohm resistors 6 jumper wires Procedure: 1. Assemble the circuit I altered the jumper wires to colors that made sense to me. Arduino pins used RGB LED: a4 red                    a5 GND (longest lead)                    a6 green                    a7 blue Resistors:   e4 to g4                   e6 to g6                   e7 to g7 Jumper small black: e5 to "-" Jumper large black: "-" to GND on Arduino Jumper white: h4 to Pin 9 on Arduino                         (red is used for power) Jumper green: h6 to Pin 10 on Arduino Jumper blue: h7 to Pin 11 on Arduino Jumper red: "+" to 5V on Arduino Notice the jumper from the left side of the breadboard to the right using the resistors.  Follow the electron flow to see why the GND and 5V on

                                            Goal: To control the blinking rate of an LED using the variable resistor called a potentiometer. Materials: 1 potentiometer 1 LED 1 330ohm resistor 6 wires Procedure: 1. Assemble the circuit potentiometer:  a6, a7, and a8 on breadboard LED:   h20 (+) and h21 (-) on breadboard resistor:  i21 and (-) on breadboard jumper wire 1: e6 and (-) on breadboard jumper wire 2 :e7 on breadboard and                         A0 on Arduino board jumper wire 3: e8 and (+) on breadboard jumper wire 4: i20 on breadboard and                           Pin 13 on Arduino board jumper wire 5: (+) on breadboard and                           5V on Arduino board jumper wire 6: (-) on breadboard and                          GND on Arduino board 2. Write the code: IDE code for Arduino Board Electronic Diagram 3. Upload and test it all: Circuit and Code Play Don't forget to change the code to reflect

            The Blinking LED                  Arduino Coding Project #1 Goal:   Make a blinking light through circuits on a breadboard and coding sent through an Arduino board. Materials:   Arduino set with breadboard Arduino USB cable Computer/mobile device 1 LED 1 330ohm resistor 3 wires Procedure: 1. Assemble the circuit: LED "+" (longer leg) in c2 and LED " -" (shorter leg) in c3 330ohm resistor in a3 and "-" vertical column of breadboard  jumper wire from "GND" on Arduino board   to "-" on breadboard   jumper wire from "5V" on Arduino to "+" on breadboard    jumper wire from "Pin 13" to "e2" on breadboard   connect the Arduino board to the computer via the USB cable 2. Write the code:    Using the Arduino IDE program,      create a file, type in the code    on the right.  Verify it.  If no    errors need to be fixed, upload    the code to