Week 4 - Journal

This week’s assignment was to build an electronic device that could perform two actions simultaneously, also this device needs to have an enclosure and an on/off switch. I personally liked the buzz wire idea suggested in the assignment’s description because I have seen this game in tv shows and I have always wanted to try it out, so that’s why I made one and before starting I watched DIY videos to know how to implement the idea but in medium- fidelity.

We used tinker cad online simulation software, it allows you to recreate your circuit exactly and know the mistakes beforehand the actual hardware connection. tinker cad has all the components needed for any connection. it also provides some cool features for example

- You can import the Arduino code in the Arduino uno in the simulation and see if there is something that needs to be checked

- When the voltage through some component exceeds the limit voltage this component can take, tinker cad will display that the component did burnout because of the voltage

- Some components you don’t have to repick, because for example resistor can be changed easily just by clicking on the component and entering in a bar how much ohm you want the resistor to be.

The circuit connection:

• the buzzer and leds are connected in parallel and I made sure that the positive of the buzzer is aligned with the positive of the led

• the leds are connected in series with 220 ohm resistors

• the negative of the power supply is connected to negative terminals of the buzzer/ leds ,

• a push button is connected from the positive point of the led/buzzer

• the other end of the push button to the slider commen ( it represents the aluminium and hook in the real simulation)

• the positive power supply (5V) to one end of the slider

1- The curved wire : I didn’t have metal wire at home so I looked for something that could pass current and do the job , so instead of using metal wire I rolled a aluminium sheet until it resembled a wire and while rolling I had a jumper at one end so that I can connect it later on in the circuit , then I checked with the multimeter if it will pass current or not , and it did , the hook is made using a key ring connected to a jumper sticked together using electrical tape and the wire goes through a pen body .

2- Placement of leds / button ./ buzzer on the cardboard top : I cut places for the two led and buzzer using a scissor and made the button close to the power source (5v) . the bottom and sides were cut out of cardboard to resemble a rectangle shape

3- The circuit connection: the buzzer and leds are connected in parallel and I made sure that the positive of the buzzer is aligned with the positive of the led but the leds are connected in series with 220 ohm resistors , to be able to put the components on the top of the breadboard , the negative of the power supply(5v) is connected to negative terminals of the buzzer/ leds , an on/off switch is connected from the positive point of the led/buzzer and the other end to the Aluminium wire jumper and the hook wire jumper to the positive power supply

I did make some mistakes mainly in disorganization of the circuit / wires , the wires would constantly disconnect because they were interlocked into each other and quite short

- You can use electrical wires instead of jumpers the circuit would be easily tracked and the possibility of disconnection is less

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- Also in tinker cad you can organize the wire too , by making nodes in points with no pins then you can move this node to be perpendicular to pin

-You can also have the wires all tied together using a zip tie