Light-up Music Box

For this assignment we had to light up a small LED light bulb. We use an Arduino board, some wires, resistors, an LED light, and a breadboard. We plugged the Arduino board into the computer. Then, we plugged some wires into the breadboard from the Arduino board. After, we plugged in the light, then the resistors. The resistors control the amount of energy the LED light receives. In order to make the wires, boards, and light work, we had to upload a program that tells the board what to do. We went to the Arduino IDE to type the program and then upload it. Eventually, the light lit up. I learned about the negative and positive side of an outlet. Also, I learned that the outlet's two slits on the top are different sizes. In addition, I learned that the code for the Arduino must have everything needed or else the LED would not light up. One is longer than the other. I'm proud of myself for being able to figure out the wires and where they go. I liked the assignment because I like looking at all the wires and being able to know what they do to make my light shine.

For this assignment we were given a different LED. This LED can make any color the code says. A regular LED can only blink one color. This LED has four legs; one for Red, Green, Blue, and Ground. All the legs that connect to the colors have resistors in front of them to control the power being put into the LED. Then we got colored wires to indicate what color each leg is. A Red wire for the Red leg, a Green wire for the Green leg, etc. We didn't have too but we wanted to. Then we plugged the other end of the wires into the Arduino board in holes 9, 10, and 11. The one leg of the LED that did not connect to a color had a wire put in front of it. That wire connected to the negative rail. In the app, Arduino IDE, we wrote a code that had different requirements. Instead of digitalWrite we put analogWrite. AnalogWrite gives you more control on how much of one color gets sent into the LED. To make the secondary colors of light we combined various primary colors (red, green, blue). Red and green make yellow. Red and blue make magenta. Green and blue make cyan. I learned the difference between analogWrite and digitalWrite. Also I learned the primary colors of light (red, green, and blue). I am proud of myself for being able to make any color I wanted using the code we wrote. I think this assignment was interesting because we were able to make any color we wanted. Before this assignment I would have never known how.

For this assignment we made music/noise with the Arduino. We used a buzzer, jumper wires , a USB cable, and the Arduino breadboard. My goal was to make the Arduino play a short tune. We went to Arduino IDE to type our code. We typed our code and made the Arduino board play the tune of "Three Blind Mice". After that we labeled our code. We used letters/variables to symbolize numbers. Instead of typing the number I could type the variable to save time.I learned that the buzzer made noise by compressing air. I liked this assignment because now I know more about coding and I can do more things with coding.

For this assignment I made a music and light show. For the music I made my own song. I made my own song because I had a bunch of ideas and I wanted to use all my ideas, not one. It was a mash-up of three different tunes called "Electricity". I used an app called Piano Player to find my notes and write my song. Also, the app told what frequency the notes were. I used the Arduino IDE again to program my song and LEDs. I hooked up the wires, LEDs, resistors (I also cut them to make them shorter), button, and the buzzer. Then I programmed the music and had the lights play at the same time. Click here to see the program! I decorated my Arduino breadboard with a torn-up cotton ball to look like mist, pipe cleaners representing lasers, sticky notes for the buzzer to amplify the sound, vellum translucent paper, and pipe cleaner fuzz. I wanted the board to look like a laser light show. I also color coordinated the the LEDs with the wires. After that I added a button. With the button wired in to the breadboard, the song and lights do not play when I plug it in. It will only play when I press the button. The button required different code; the button is INPUT not OUTPUT. The button will not be in the video because I put it in after the video was shot. Sorry!!!

I liked this project because now I know how laser light shows and Christmas lights work. Also I decorated the board and I like art. I learned how to make the lights and the music go on at the same time. It was also very hard to wire it because the resistors, wires, and the lights were very close together. I am glad I know how to make my very own personalized creation! :)