Well here we go, this is my first blog post! (Mostly as an example for class. :P)
Of course, we all need to start somewhere. So I opened up the starter kit and to my surprise, there were a lot of little parts! Oh boy, I might have to go buy a better container for these parts eventually, but I think for the first week that I will just use the included little baggies.
Then I cracked open the book and started reading. Good thing I did that because I have no idea what I’m doing! Thankfully the book has a bunch of nice step-by-step instructions. It really helped me out. I don’t think anyone can get too lost if they follow along.
The first part of the project had us making our first circuit, which was pretty exciting, but also pretty easy. It didn’t really take too long.
My first circuit!
Like I said it is pretty simple. The switch in the middle breaks up the connection in the circuit, but when you press down, the circuit is complete which makes the LED light up!
After the simple circuit, the book also had us make a series circuit and a parallel circuit. In a series circuit components come one after another. In a parallel circuit components run side by side. Just in case you didn’t know. 😉
Below we have a GIF of the series circuit in action. Basically, you need to push down both switches to complete the circuit. Just as before, with the complete circuit, the LED will light up.
But the parallel circuit is a little different. Only one of the switches needs to be pressed to form a complete circuit. But yet again, once the circuit is complete. (It doesn’t matter which way) the LED will light up. Below you can see a GIF of the process in action.
And that was basically the entire project 1. Pretty neat! Below is some extra stuff I thought of throughout the project.
Extra note 1: I remembered about 1/2 way through the project that my keyboard had a USB port, so I didn’t need to run the cord all the way back to my desktop.
I also took a nice close-up shot of my parallel circuit that I was proud of.
I also experimented with making the project in Autodesk tinkercad. I think both tinkercad and fritzing will help me in this class if I need digital mockups or sketch diagrams for these types of blog posts.
Oh well, that’s all for project 1. This class seems fun. I look forward to making all the cool open-ended stuff after the midterm!
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