Robot Art Show

The Assignment

Our assignment was to learn about circuits and code, and then based on our gained knowledge, we had to create a circuit of our own online and then code it to do what we wanted it to. This was also an extra challenge because this project took place online at home due to Covid-19.

My Process

First, to start off the project, I had to do an introduction to circuits which I did on a simulator that pretty much did everything on its own, and was really easy to use. Then, it got a little more complicated. I then had to switch to an actual circuit simulator using a breadboard. After I got used to using that, it was time for me to start coding. First, I started really simple. I had to set up a circuit and then I would be able to copy and paste the code in, and take notes on what specific code seemed to do and how and when. For these and for the final project, I used an Arduino to process the code. When I had finished, now it was time for my final project.

Since I am not the best at circuits and coding in the first place, I decided to go with something that sounded easy, but it was actually pretty challenging for me. The project requirements were to include at least three things in our circuit. I decided to go with LEDs, a button, and a piezo. Setting up the circuit was pretty easy for me, and I accomplished that in less than an hour. I arranged 6 LEDs in a vertical line, and then also placed the piezo and the button nearby on the breadboard. My final goal was that when the button was pressed, the LEDs would light up one by one and a tone would also play out of the piezo at the same time, and the lights would continue to light up, going up the line, and the piezo would go up a scale. Next, I had to code the circuit. I found this extremely hard and ended up spending probably around 20 hours on the code over 2 weeks. I was not good at putting in the code or even knowing what does what, so it took me a long time. Finally, in the end, I had been watching a lot of coding videos and looking at websites, and I noticed my code had a line towards the beginning with one extra plus sign than all of theirs, and so I took it out and it worked. After that, fixing all the other bugs in my code was easy and I was able to turn it in complete on time.

My Project

Photo of Circuit

Video of Circuit

Robot Art Show Movie Nathan Farrington

My Code

const int LED1 = 2; //LED1 is connected to digital pin 2

const int LED2 = 3; //LED2 is connected to digital pin 3

const int LED3 = 4; //LED3 is connected to digital pin 4

const int LED4 = 5; //LED4 is connected to digital pin 5

const int LED5 = 6; //LED5 is connected to digital pin 6

const int LED6 = 7; //LED6 is connected to digital pin 7

const int piezo = 10; //piezo is connected to digital pin 10

const int button = 8; //button is connected to digital pin 8

int buttonState = 0; //variable for button being pressed

void setup () {

Serial.begin(9600); //establishing a serial connection with the computer

pinMode(button,INPUT); //declaring the button as an input

pinMode(LED1,OUTPUT); //declaring LED1 as an output

pinMode(LED2,OUTPUT); //declaring LED2 as an output

pinMode(LED3,OUTPUT); //declaring LED3 as an output

pinMode(LED4,OUTPUT); //declaring LED4 as an output

pinMode(LED5,OUTPUT); //declaring LED5 as an output

pinMode(LED6,OUTPUT); //declaring LED6 as an output

pinMode(piezo,OUTPUT); //declaring the piezo as an output

}

void loop () {

buttonState = digitalRead(button); //read the state of the button

Serial.println(buttonState); //print the button state on the serial monitor

if(buttonState = HIGH) { //if the button has been pressed

digitalWrite(LED1,HIGH); //turn on LED1

tone(piezo,2272); //play the frequency 2272 out of the piezo