Pong Celebration: Independent Project A

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 book.  I've been following the electron flow to make sure everything was in order and connected.  As I was working through Project 4, I wanted to find a more efficient way to say how to wire the circuit.   All of a sudden, the wiring diagram/ schematic made sense.  It's the bare bones of the general flow.  Exact spots are negotiable so long as the positve and negative leads connect and flow in the right direction.

My youngest came in as I was testing both Project 3 and Project 4, so he had an understanding of what those did.  I showed him the parameters for my independent project.  Together we came up with a pong game with the 8 LEDs that ended after a random amount of loops.  At the end, the RGB LED activates in a flash of rainbow colors to signal the winner.  We thought we'd use the POT(potentiometer) to control the RGB LED, but then decided to do the digital LEDs instead.

Goal:

Create a pong game out of 4 red and 4 yellow LEDs that ends in an RGB LED rainbow display with the POT controlling the digital LEDs.

Materials:

4 red LEDs

4 yellow LEDs

1 RGB LED

1 Potentiometer

9 330 ohm resister

16 jumper wires

 Procedure:

1. Assemble the circuit

Pin 2 → +Red LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 3 → +Red LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 4 → +Red LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 5 → +Red LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 10 → +Yellow LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 11 → +Yellow LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 12 → +Yellow LED- → resistor → "-"

Pin 13 → +Yellow LED- → resistor → "-"

RGB LED:

Pin 8 → resistor → Red lead 

Pin 7 → resistor → Green lead 

Pin 6 → resistor → Blue lead 

Longest lead → "-"

POT

lead 1 → "-"

lead 2 → A0

lead 3 → "+"

GND → "-"

5V → "+"

2. Write the code

The coding is long, so I saved it in a Word document and linked it below.  I learned a lot amount were to insert functions, declaring everything at the beginning.  I think I can only have one "void setup()" and one "void loop ()" but I need to do a lot more research into the formatting of the coding.  I also think I need to do some nesting of functions to get the desired result.  

Project A Coding

3. Upload and test it all

We got the code to compile and load.  We haven't gotten the results we were going for, but we haven't given up.  Take a look at what we've accomplished so far:

Clearly, there's work to be done.  Rather than being sad I didn't get it the first (or second....or third....) time out of the gate, I'm inspired to keep working on it after the assignment deadline has passed.  Fulfilling our original idea (or a similar modification of it) is still a goal of mine that we'll be working on all week.  I am also excited to try the extra challenge with the photoresistor and thermal sensor.

Need an extra challenge? Are you up to the task?
If you want to try to control all three colors of the RGB LED, think about how you might be able to use one POT, one photoresistor (varies voltage based on how bright the light is), and the thermal sensor (varies voltage based on the temperature being registered). This is a REALLY COOL challenge as you will be controlling the color of the light based on a value you can directly control as well as two different values that come from the environment.
  
Taking a look at Jeremy Blum's tutorial took some of the intimidation out of the new hardware.

Review of Schematic Drawing Tools:

A peer mentioned a program or app that will assist in creating electronic diagrams.  Here's two I played around with this week.  

SmartDraw 2018:

Diagram from Project 3

program you purchase
watermark on pics from 7-day trial version
very technical
great for electricians that need a very precise, formal diagram

not intuitive to newbies
big learning curve for me
took longer than I'd like for a simple drawing

A bit pricey for a teacher

might be worth the price for a school when they grow to the point of training certified electricians/ electrical engineers

Graph paper background doesn't save

Schematic.com

free online account
loved the click and drop of basic shapes
love the graph paper background
same general commands as MS word/ppt
copy and paste on steroids/ numbers each diagram to help keep track of how many diodes (LEDs)/ resistors there are
search box to find symbols for diodes, resistors, GND, etc