Week 5- Journal

This week's assignment was to design, simulate, and build a simple electronic device that performs two actions. The design should be done on Tinkercad and implemented in real life using wires, components and the breadboard. I was inspired by the game "Operation".

The software used for this assignment is Tinkercad.

The materials used for this assignment are:

1. Old cardboard boxes

2. Sticker paper

3. Scissors

4. Cutter

5. Breadboard

6. 5V power adapter

7. 220 ohm resistor

8. Crocodile wires

9. Jumpers

10. Buzzer

11. LED

12. Tape

13. Glue

14. Tweezers

15. On/Off switch

At first I drew the circuit in my notebook to be able to understand where each component will go. Then, I put the components together on Tinkercad but I replaced the tweezers and the foil with a slider switch as these materials are not available on the software.

After simulating the circuit on Tinkercad and making sure that everything is working correctly, I started building the circuit on the breadboard. At first, I made the circuit without the tweezers and the foil to make sure that it is working as planned.

Then, I started including the tweezers and the foil and testing it out.

After that, I started cutting the box and the spaces for each component, and starting fixing everything into place.

I had a problem with understanding how to complete the circuit on Tinkercad after I drew it by hand, I went to Esraa for help and she helped me with organising the components and she also told me about replacing the tweezers and the foil witth the slider switch.

Esraa also helped me out with placing the components on the breadboard and translating what I had on the software into reality.

Honestly, Esraa is always of great help and I'm very grateful for her feedback and guidance.

The biggest challenge in this assignment was the implementation from the software to the hardware. However, once I grasped the idea correctly (with the help of Esraa) I was able to move forward quickly.

I looked at several designs online and tutorials to be able to understand how they built their model and their circuits to help me get inspired.

Making a fully functional circuit on my own and putting this circuit in an enclosure for it to be a functional prototype is a huge step for me to have taken towards making my final project. It opened my eyes to several aspects I did not know before and helped me understand more how the components will work together.

Making the sumo car in the end-of-week session from scratch was really gratifying and fulfilling, and also super fun to play with!

In this week's "Hands-on, Minds-on" activity we were asked to create an electrical circuit that contains a DC motor, lamp, and an ON/OFF switch powered by an electric adaptor

So that: the motor and lamp are both optimally ON at the same time when the switch is ON, and are both OFF when the switch is OFF.

The components needed from the electronics kit were:

1. 1 DC Motor

2. 1 Lamp

3. 1 ON/OFF Switch

4. 1 DC Power Adapter

5. 1 DC Jack to terminal block converter

6. 2 Jumper Wires (Male - Male)

7. 5 Crocodile Wires

8. 1 Screw Driver

I followed the steps written on the portal and at first, I had a problem with understanding the sequence of making them all connected to each other but once I figured it out, it worked!

During Wednesday's mid-week session, we played a game as an ice breaker where each one of us had to imagine if their life was a movie what would it be, what genre would it fall under, the storyline, and who would play the lead role in the movie. Then, we moved on to the activity which was posted on the portal. I was paired with Amr, we started first by searching about how the 7-segment display component works (which took a lot of time) but once we figured it out we were good to go. Amr was the driver for the first part and we switched for the second part.

Since we took a lot of time in the first part, we somehow managed to finish the second part in only 6 minutes.

In this week's end-of-week session, we had a Makeathon where we were required to build a simple Sumo RC Car by designing, fabricating, wiring, and integrating all the components. We were split into groups and I was grouped with Mohab and Doaa. We started by making the circuits on the breadboards and making sure that everything is working correctly through several trials and errors.

Then, we started making our design on Fusion360 and exporting our files as DXF for Rdworks and then for the laser cutter.