Author: Russel Sy

Introduction

For today’s recitation i was tasked to build a circuit which incorporated an H bridge, a stepper motor, and the use of external power. 

Materials

1 * 42STH33-0404AC stepper motor
1 * L293D ic chip
1 * power jack
1 * 12 VDC power supply
1 * Arduino kit and its contents

2 * Laser-cut short arms
2 * Laser-cut long arms
1* Laser-cut motor holder
2 * 3D printed motor coupling
5 * Paper Fasteners
1 * Pen that fits the laser-cut mechanisms
Paper

Circuit 1: Stepper Motor

This specific circuit was hard to create because of the amount of wires that were involved, as well as the added risk of breaking the Arduino if the circuit wasn’t wired correctly because of the added external power. At first when I built the circuit, it would not function. In order to figure out why, I rearranged the wiring in order to organize the circuit to look exactly like the diagram, however all the wiring was correct. Then I switched out the stepper motor as it could have been a possible cause of the problem. The circuit still did not work. I then switched out the H bridge and the circuit started to work. 

The added external power was in order to make the stepper motor function properly. Motors in general require more power than the Arduino can provide.

Circuit 2: Drawing Machine

For this aspect of the activity, I worked with a partner who had built the same circuit as me. We added a potentiometer to the circuit in order to control the rotation of the stepper motor, and then added 3D printed arms that were provided to us in order to create the drawing machine.

Questions:

1) Machines I’m interested in building

• Actuators are responsible for converting forms of energy into motion. Because of this, actuators can be an essential component of creating new interactive forms of media and art. One way I could see actuators being used is in the world of music. Although most instruments are appealing at face value due to the beautiful sounds that they produce, they can sometimes become monotonous to younger children as they have to play the same songs over and over again while learning the groundworks of musical theory. In order to make the process of learning more engaging to a younger audience, I would like to create a machine that translates physical movement with the whole body into a machine that uses actuators in order to play an assortment of different musical instruments. 

2) Art installation

• Daniel Rozin has a line of artwork which focuses on showing reflections using ordinary objects, blurring the lines between digital and physical. An example of this is his Wooden mirror, which takes visual input and translates it into his piece. The artwork reads grayscale information, and tilts wooden panels hung up on a wall in order to reflect more or less light, according to the greyscale input. I think Daniel chose stepper motors for each of the wooden panels as a greyscale input could be translated to an exact angle that the panel should be turned to. This relates to the work during this recitation as we used potentiometers in order to control stepper motors. A physical characteristic (movement) was translated to digital data through the potentiometer, and then translated back into the physical world using the stepper motor and the drawing arms. The wooden mirror uses physical visuals, translates them into data, which is then shown again physically through the tilting panels on the wooden mirror

Introduction

For todays Recitation, I built 2 simple circuits— one involving an LED and the other involving a buzzer— and a 3rd circuit which included the first two basic circuits with the addition of 2 buttons. The third circuit used the first two circuits with the addition of two buttons in order create what was called the “Speed Game”.

Materials

1 * Arduino Uno
1 * USB A to B cable
1 * breadboard
1 * buzzer
2 * LEDs
2 * 220 ohm resistors
2 * 10K ohm resistors
2 * pushbuttons
A handful of jumper cables

2 * arcade buttons
1 * Multimeter (optional)

Circuit 1: LED Fade

This simple I built circuit was based off of this circuit diagram shown below:

As this was a very basic circuit, it was built with no problems. The power to the LED on the breadboard was given directly from the Arduino, rather than connecting the 5V and ground to the positive and negative ports on the breadboard. This was easiest since only one module needed to be powered. If the circuit had more modules, it would be better if power was given to the breadboard, and then connected to each of the parts. I completed the circuit and then ran the code from the Arduino presets.

Circuit 2: toneMelody

This circuit was similar to the last, except the LED was swapped out for a buzzer.

The buzzer was not polarised, so its connection to the anode and cathode did not matter. The circuit also did not require a resistor, making it even simpler than the LED circuit. I built the circuit and played the preset melody in the Arduino software. After analysing the code for a little and the some of the parameters in the code, I was able to change the melody from being 8 beats to 16 beats, and change the notes in order to play the first line of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Circuit 3: Speed Game

This circuit required the use of 2 LEDs, 1 buzzer, and two buttons. The breadboard was split into two separate sides, each containing one LED and one button. After following the schematics shown below, the circuit was built and the code given to us could be run through to the circuit board. 

 

The circuit allowed for a code to be ran, having two players press each of their own respective buttons as fast as they could. The first player to press the button 10 times has their respective light flash, as well as the buzzer in the middle of the board to start ringing.

A lot of the problems that I ran into when building the circuit had to do with the amount of wires and connections that had to be made when creating the circuit.

After lots of trouble shooting and rearranging each of the components of the circuit board, the final circuit was made and the code was able to be ran through the program, allowing my partner and I to play the Speed Game.

Questions:

1) Everyday Technology and Interaction

• Technology has been essential for everyday living since the industrial age. I personally do not remember the last time I had gone through a day without interacting with some form of modern technology. In my everyday life, I use technologies like my smartphone and laptop in order to contact people, entertain myself, or to work on anything related to academics. Looking back at the circuits that I had built for this lab made me realize the scale at which modern day circuits work. Every single pixel on an LED screen contained an LED circuit with 3 lights (RGB) on an extremely small scale. This exercise made me appreciate the coordination and scale necessary to create our modern technologies. 
• From what I think, interaction with technology is determined by whether or not a human is able to allow a machine to function a certain way, or to change its form. For instance, in order for a computer to be of any use to anybody or anything, a human must program the computer for it to do any sort of commands. In the same sense, interactive art needs a human in order to show the purpose of its creation.

2) 10k resistor on push button

• My guess as to why a 10k resistor is used on a push button is because the 10k resistor stops the circuit from blowing up

3) 100,000 LEDs

• I would make a large screen monitor and place it in my room.