Lesson Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students the concept of coding edge cases, how to send outputs from an Arduino, and troubleshoot electronics. Students will learn: 

• What is an edge case in programming

• How to send digital and PWM outputs from an Arduino

• Common practices when troubleshooting an Arduino

Required Kit Supplies

• Your fully wired MESA Combat Robot

  • Batteries should handed out at the end of the lesson

• 1x USB A-to-USB B upload cable

• 1x FlySky Controller

Additional Required Supplies 

• Chromebook or laptop for each student

  • Access to Arduino web editor (https://app.arduino.cc) with Arduino Create Agent installed or the Arduino IDE

  • Instructions on how to use the Arduino web editor here.

Keywords

• Edge cases: A programming term used to describe parts of a coding process is at the end of normal program operations. Edge cases require specific code and special attention to prevent the code from producing an unintended result.

• Digital output: An electrical output from an Arduino which is high or low, on or off, 1 or 0, 5V or 0V.

• PWM output: An electrical output from an Arduino which can mimic an analog signal through small pulses. 

• Debugging: The process of testing and rewriting code to make sure the intended result occurs in all cases. Debugging may require fully rewriting code, or identifying edge cases and writing specific code to fix the unintended results. 

Additional External Resources

• Using the Arduino Web Editor

  • Using the Arduino Cloud Editor | Arduino Documentation

• Introduction to Programming an Arduino

  • Getting Started with Arduino | Arduino Documentation

• How an H-bridge works

  • What Is an H-Bridge? – Digilent Blog

  • H-Bridges – the Basics | Modular Circuits

  • How does an H-Bridge work? | CircuitBread

• What are if-else statements and boolean conditions

  • If Statement (Conditional Statement) | Arduino Documentation

  • Arduino - Comparison Operators

  • Arduino - Boolean Operators

• Steering Methods

  • 5 Wheeled robot steering mechanisms | Kshitij Tiwari Ph.D.