Arduino Blinking Lights

During this unit, we explored the uses of Arduino and came to understand the basics of electronics like voltage, polarity, and parallel structure versus a system. I personally had never encountered any electronics before, so I also learned what resistors are, how to code on Arduino, and how certain hardware works.

This video shows the results of the mini-projects in snap circuits, Arduino, and soldering.

Soldering

1. Prepare your materials: a soldering iron, stand, sponge or brass wool, wire cutters, and solder.
2. Turn on your soldering iron. Wait until the temperature is around 700 degrees.
3. Do not start soldering until the temperature is at this point, otherwise, the solder will not be hot enough and you will make solder balls.
4. Be aware of safety measures:
   1. Do not touch the soldering iron’s tip under any circumstances.
   2. Always put the soldering iron into the stand when setting it down.
   3. Be aware of your surroundings.
   4. Do not make sudden movements while holding the soldering iron; you may burn someone.
5. Put your component into the breadboard and either secure with tape or simply bend the wire back so it doesn’t move.
6. Hold the soldering iron like a pencil, but again, do not touch the metal part of the iron.
7. “Tin” your soldering iron by dabbing it into the brass wool. The tip should be shiny.
8. Heat the ring of the breadboard with the tip of the soldering iron.
9. Apply the solder to the breadboard. It will melt when it comes in contact with the metal and/or the tip of the soldering iron.
10. Make sure you have applied enough solder to the ring, but also make sure that you don't have too much solder and create a solder bridge. It should look like a little volcano.
11. Take wire cutters (electrical or normal) to cut the excess of the wire.

Notes:

I had difficulty with coding a few of these programs, described below...

for (int i=8; i>0; i--)

On this line, it says “i>=0”.

This allows the code to get to array member 0. Before, the code just said “i>0”, so array member never turned off. Array member 2 was defined as Input 2 in the array, so the LED connected to Input 2 was the one that did not shut off.

Now that it says “i>=0”, Input 2 is included in the instructions of code and will now turn off.