Week 8 Journal

Making Things Talk to Things

Ideation

Tell us about your assignment's idea for this week. Why do you care about this idea? What inspired you? (Please include images or links to sources of inspiration)

My idea is inspired by a challenge I faced through the assignment of week 5 as I wanted to get different colors other than purple, so I decided to use this as my idea for week 8.

For the fact that we started using Arduino UNO, it is possible to get a wider range of colors through coding.

Using the Bluetooth module will add more interesting and handy outcomes, so I decided that the two outputs should be: different colors with the buzzer as the buzzer will make one beep if one color is produced (after an input of "one" using the Bluetooth app), two times if two colors are produced (after an input of "two" using the Bluetooth app), three times if three colors are produced (after an input of "three" using the Bluetooth app), and any other input value shows only a color without the buzzing sound.

Idea Source

Tool Chain

Which software/machines/materials did you use in the assignment? Why?

Software Wiring:

I decided to use Fritzing as it supports adding more advanced components that are not used through Tinkercad.

Bluetooth control:

A mobile application that controls the Arduino actions via Bluetooth wirelessly.

Arduino IDE:

Arduino IDE is the software platform that codes anything that the Arduino board can use.

Electric Components:

RGB LED

Buzzer

Resistors

Breadboard

Bluetooth Module

Connecting wires

(Jumpers)

Arduino UNO

Preparation Process

Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?

Planning

Software Wiring

Implementing the ideas needed fritzing to add the Bluetooth module to the software wiring.

The Bluetooth module is connected through the Tx pin to (0) pin on Arduino and the Rx pin to (1) pin on Arduino.

The buzzer (piezo) is connected to pin no.2 through its positive end and the negative end is connected to the main ground pins on the breadboard.

The RGB LED is connected to the Arduino using the following pins: Red pin on Arduino pin no.7, ground pin to the ground pins on the breadboard, green pin on Arduino pin no.6, and blue pin on Arduino pin no.5

Coding Process (Arduino IDE)

Explain the development/implementation process of your assignment. How did you use the machine/tool to manufacture or implement the design of your assignment?

Following the pseudocode scanned in the planning section, and the wiring diagram from fritzing, the actual wiring started by:

Connecting the Arduino ground pin to a common ground, and the 5V pin to a common voltage on the breadboard itself, to make it easier to connect all the other components to both.
The buzzer is connected to Arduino pin no.4 (yellow wire), and to the common ground (grey pin)
The RGB LED is connected to the ground (grey wire), and the other 3 pins are connected to 3 220 ohm resistors, and each is connected to the Arduino onto 3 pins according to their colors (Red, Green, and Blue wires).
The Bluetooth module is connected following the used wiring tutorial through the End of Week Self-Practice Videos, as the RX terminal is connected Arduino pin 0 (Brown wire), the TX terminal is connected to Arduino pin 1 (Orange wire), the VCC pin to the voltage common pins on the breadboard, and the ground to the common ground.

Overcoming Challenges

When you got stuck, what/who did you turn to? At what point did you have to pause to research or learn more before moving on? What are some mistakes, pitfalls, or challenges that others can avoid if they were doing this assignment?

One of the challenges is that the wires of the blue and the green colors were switched and I didn't notice why the colors didn't match that of the code.

The solution was that one of the instructors gave me a hint to check those wires and when they got readjusted everything worked perfectly.

Final Project

How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?

I'm planning to use the Bluetooth module in my final project, so this week has so very helpful to me.

Links and files