Pots n' Caps, Pots n' Caps, Pots n' Caps

I took a different approach to this week's assignments.  While the things we are building now are rather simple, simple things can have a large impact depending on the context.  This is my Visual Language lecture starting to bleed into P comp.  Also, another way of thinking I started: If this doesn't work, what will?  Troubleshooting has always been a good way for me to learn the material.  It can be frustrating to have expectations and things not turn out the way you'd like.  However, the journey and what you learn in the process is always the most important.  Let's be real, it's been a month of school and we are treading far from our comfort zones in as sorts of ways.  To be more nerdy, brain interference.  If we can put some low and high pass filters to tune into the thoughts we only need to hear, wouldn't that be nice?

Each week, while the progress might look meager, a lot is covered, and a lot is learned.  It will come up in the most unexpected ways.  Like next time I run into bad pots (I think I'm authorized to use the lingo now, mostly because I never knew how to pronounce potentiometer).  Also now I know how those things worked...I used them in guitars and sound equipment all the time with caps (yea, capacitors too!)  was kind of mind blowing.  A variable resistor huh?  It makes sense and I was able to wire one from the shop without thinking about the terminals because It was familiar.

In one of the labs a lot of people used a light sensing resistor.  I didn't have one off hand so I used a temperature sensor to emulate the changes in the HIGH and LOW voltages emitted from the digital PWM from my arduino.

The code is relatively the same, but it needs a control value to be set first and the heat of my hand will leave an after affect.  I think with some more calibration and sensors I could use this "sense of touch" that is left after I release my hand from the sensor to form a digital footprint.  It is not as immediate as light and I kind of like that. The fade from the dropping voltages as the sensor went back to room temp was nice.

Next, I developed ideas and I wanted to use a motor, and started to sketch out ideas in my notebook of spinning light show.  Then, I realized I needed 9v and I didn't think this simple idea was worth the application of making a voltage converter from a wall plug-in.  And decent 9v batteries are a rarity on the floor.

So I went back to mechanical objects with lower voltages, aka the servo.  I wrote the code first, since I knew it'd be rather simple.  Then, I was what can I use a servo for.  I thought, duh, an arm.  But what will that arm do?

Still thinking of "what"  I built the circuit and got some fun interference.  The servo started moving erratically, only sometimes following the input from the potentiometer.  Even when I wasn't touching anything it would spaz and convulse like it was possessed.  I started unplugging things from the board to find the source of the problem.  I tried multiple potentiometers from my kit and another servo but it was still acting the same.  David (Dah-veed) suggested to hard-code the angles to the servo. Thanks man!  This is a return for my advice one his handle bar project where he was making his life 100% more difficult.  So, without even altering the code I checked the serial monitor and sure enough it was spitting out random angles while everything was untouched.  I sighed and grabbed a pot from the shelf and soldered it to the board and viola! A beautifully smooth motion from my servo.  Enough to make it dance:

By this point I'm tired and so was everyone else, we started forming soldering partners where we would help each other solder.  The more hands you got, the easier it is, always!  Especially, when your brain is moving at 10%

So you can tell that my concept stemmed from a tired brain as well.  I wanted the servo arm to replicate Gandolf in Lord of the Rings and when the arm went down, it would make a staff hit the ground and light up.  It'd be decked out with paper cut outs and if I wanted to get real fancy, maybe some sound effects too.  But... what I ended up with was a bunch of incorrectly soldered LED lights, and a magnet that was a little too strong.

I soldered this LED for Digital output.  However, what I built off of was a magnetic switch from earlier.  Which doesn't need much more than a circuit to be completed.

Then of course, I soldered in the 220 ohm resistor on the wrong side of the LED.  Later realizing I could have just kept that on the board...but you know.  I knew it'd still light up so I went ahead and tested the bare bones.

 "YOU SHALL NOT PASS"  Now...just imagine a nice graphical overlay over the feeble resistor wire smashing into the ground.  

You know I was excited to make a Gandalf out of paper too (or something else!).  Maybe he will be active participate in another project.