Dutch inspired windmill
This week's assignment was to design, simulate, and build a simple electronic device that performs two actions. I decided to make a windmill style gadget that turns a blade and has a LED bulb
Regarding the software u used tinker-cad for sketching the electric circuit. Regarding the electrical components i used a 5V DC motor, a yellow LED bulb, a mini breadboard, a 220ohm resistor, an ON/OFF switch and a bunch of cables and connectors. For the housing i used scrap 6mm and 3mm plywood.
Tinker cad showing the electric circuit
Schematic view on Tinker cad
I used tinker-cad to sketch my electric circuit and make sure that everything functions as expected before the actual assembly. Its an easy process where you simulate the exact circuit with all the components, inputs and outputs and troubleshooting without the risk of killing any components due to faulty connections later on.
The motor has 2 connections, one to the 5v adapter, the other to the ground (negative) through the on/off switch. The led light has 2 connections, the positive to the 5V adapter, and the negative to the ground through a 220ohm resistor. All connections are made in parallel.
This is the link for the circuit and simulation on tinkercad.
After a successful simulation on tinker-cad, i build the circuit and the housing using the actual components mentioned previously.
The most challenging and frustrating part was wire management. The idea was to make as small housing as possible and use the mini breadboard but multiple connections were needed hence multiple wires running through each other. My solution for this chaos was to use tie plastic zip ties to organize the cables.
cable management
Final product in action!
The skills i learned this week was all about electronics. Understanding Ohm's law, how to use an AVO meter, how to design and make circuits and electronic devices. All of this is definitely very helpful regarding my final project. This video shows the device functioning correctly and as intended.
Title of Media
This week during the Saturday session we had the chance to design and build our own RC sumo car using a couple of DC motors, breadboards and pushbuttons using the H-bridge circuit to control both wheels. My team, Aya, Omar and I (team AOA), decided on an aggressive design that has sloped bumpers on the front end in a half-circle configuration, We thought this would give us the highest chances for winning the battles and we did!! Team AOA is the winner! It was a lot of fun.