Grab A Byte
TinkerCAD Circuits:
Making/Programming an LED to blink
In TinkerCAD, I used an Arduino Uno R3, breadboard, 470-Ohm resistor, wires, and a red LED light to make an LED light light up. I first connected the red, positive wire in port 13 to hole 6d on the breadboard. One hole below the wire on the breadboard I inserted one wire of the 470-Ohm resistor and then put the other end of the resistor in hole 2c. Up two holes from the resistor wire in 2c I put the long, positive wire of the LED light, the anode, and then put the short, negative wire of the LED, the cathode, in the spot directly next to the other LED wire, 1e. Four holes down from the cathode wire I inserted a black, negative wire in 1a and went over the rail of the breadboard and put the opposite end of the wire in the hole directly across. I then used another black wire to connect the negatively charged ground wire to the Arduino Uno R3 port GND.
I then used block coding to create the written code pictured to the left. I started the code off with a forever loop and inserted blocks telling the LED light connected to port 13 to light up at high and then low light levels in the loop. Between those blocks I inserted delay commands for 1,000 milliseconds to create a stop and go of electricity so as to create a flashing effect with the LED light.
Creating/Programming a Model Stoplight
Building off of the coding and wiring from the blinking LED, I wired and coded a stoplight. Using the same materials and distances as the blinking LED, I made two more of the same LED wiring with a yellow and green LED light. For the yellow LED I used port 12 and for the green LED I used port -11. To connect the black grounding wire to the yellow and green LED circuit electricity flows I used smaller black wires to connect the cathode electricity flow of the LEDs to the grounding wire by placing a black wire four holes below the cathode of the LED and connected the other side of the black wire to a hole in the first row across the rail.
I then built off the same code from the blinking LED by copy and pasting the same code twice in the same forever loop and changing the port numbers from 13 to 12 and -11 and changing the delay from 1,000 milliseconds to 2,000 milliseconds for the yellow LED and 3,000 milliseconds for the green LED.
CLS Fablab Circuits:
IMG_3079.MOVCLS Fablab Blinking LED
Using a RedBoard Arduino Uno R3, I created the same physical wiring as my TinkerCAD digital wiring from the Blinking LED light. The only difference between the digital and physical product is placing the rail bridging wire in the hole next to the black grounding wire connected to the GND port. I then copied the the code I created in TinkerCAD for the blinking LED and pasted the code into the Arduino app on the computer. Next, I uploaded the code to the PC and plugged the USB cord from the RedBoard into the PC which, once you see the TX light on the RedBoard light up, you know successfully sent to the Arduino board.
IMG_3088.MOVCLS Fablab Stoplight
Building off my CLS Fablab Blinking LED, I created a stoplight. Similarly to the TinkerCAD digital design of the stoplight, I placed the yellow and green LEDs and their wiring in the same placements as I did digitally. I then used the code from the TinkerCAD stoplight and uploaded that code to the Arduino RedBoard just as I did with the CLS Fablab Blinking LED.
Problems I Encountered:
While attempting to upload my stoplight code in Arduino, I faced an error message. After ensuring that all of my code was correct, I asked for the help of my teacher who then let me know that I was using the wrong board and port for the Arduino. I then changed the selected Arduino to the Arduino AVR Board's Arduino Uno and the selected port to COM7. Next I uploaded the code ensured there were not any additional problems with my coding or settings by uploading the code to the Arduino RedBoard again and observing the executed code on the Arduino RedBoard.
