Task 1:
Step 1:
We first learned about the breadboard’s construction and how the current travels. And then, we built the circuits as in the picture. After our first try, the buzzer kept ringing as soon as the circuit connected the power. We tried to move the wires, but it had yet to improve. And then, we found that we need to connect the bottom correctly. The bottom has four legs; the right way is to connect the wires on the same sides, not the opposite side (Diagonal legs also right). And finally, we succeeded in task 1.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HN3OiXlb9wxsOB1opCQ2mnx6D73vC2Fn/view?usp=share_link
Step 2:
According to the circuit diagram, this circuit connects an LED and a resistor in, parallel with a buzzer. So we add two wires. The first one is connected to the power, and the other one is connected to the leg of the bottom, which is near the buzzers. But when we finished that, the LED did not light up. And we found that we connect the LED in an inverse way. The current will come in the longer leg and leave out from the shorter leg. After turning to the right place, the circuit finished well.
Step 3:
This step is to add one more parallel circuit with one resistor, various-resistor, and an LED. We mistakenly connect the various-resistor. Because the resistor has three legs, the current will come in from the right and leave out from the middle so that we can change the various resistor’s large to control the LED’s light.
Conclusion: Because me and my partner learned physics in high school, it’s easy to understand the circuit diagrams. But we still make some small mistakes. And we found that it is better not to cross the wires when connecting them so we can see the circuit clearly.
Task 2 and Task 3:
We make the paddle switch on our own.
Copper tape can make the current go. So this paddle switch can work well. We replaced the bottom with the paddle switch and sent the message using morse code. Just control the time we close or open the paddle. If we want to send a “-”, we need to close the paddle longer, and a”.”, we need to close the paddle just for a second.
Provide some documentation (photo, video) of your finished project(s).
Task1:
Step1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zdZoTLPa9biCWUoNVmHYKK1TZbTNR-z3/view?usp=share_link
Step2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SMtlgmGCa3SFk7QHoF6Ip1P-B3oAkP_2/view?usp=share_link
Step3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1thmyxvw3Xq2qlxbFydzlkuyYHcFCmls5/view?usp=share_link
Task2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wGYHXDbdeBHBVjIj9iUTsQKOVIuwZ1Ze/view?usp=share_link
Briefly attempt to describe how your project functions. What elements (electrical components, select lines of code) are at the core of making this work?
Task 1:
Step 1: This circuit controls the ringing of the buzzer. Just press the bottom, and the buzzer can sound. The main components are the buzzer and the bottom.
Step 2: This circuit adds an LED to the first step, and while the button is pressed, the buzzer will sound, and the LED will light up. The resistor is one important component to protect the LED.
Step 3: This circuit is the most complex. The button controls an LED and a buzzer. and there is a variable resistor that controls the brightness of another LED (by changing the amount of current through the LED to control the brightness).
Task 2:
We make a new paddle switch that can control the circuit by opening and closing the two sides. When we close the paddle, the current can travel.
Task 3:
We connect the paddle switch with the circuit to send morse message.
Answers to any extra questions in the recitation prompt.
(1) R1 is the component to protect the LED. Because the LED can only accept a very small current through, if not in series with a resistor, it will lead to too much current through the LED, so that the LED will burned out. We apply this formula to arrive at how large a resistor to use. R = V(power)-V(LED)/I(LED)
(2)
(3)Our circuits have interactivity because when people press the bottom is like the act, and then the circuits listen to us and think and give us the feedback (buzzer ring, LED light up). We can consider the circuit as another actor. And I think our circuit is in a moderate degree. Because everything we act can get feedback, but our act is not complex like we press the bottom, the LED light, and the buzzer ring. It only has a few acts to interact with. So I think it is in the moderate degree.
(4)”The Eye Writer” by Zach Lieberman is a good example of how people can use interaction design and physical computing to create interactive art. He uses cheap sunglasses, copper wires, and micro CCD to achieve a cheap but useful device. He created the device with software that needed physical computation, and Tony could easily draw and paint using it. So we can use easy materials to create a lot of things, and it needs us to have a creative mind.