Goal: To Create a robotic lightshow to go with our song
So now we had three group members with two awesome instruments made from scratch and a song. Not that the song was good, but some groups that presented didn't even have a song. So now we had to add some visuals. Specifically: programming a light show with a Sparkfun Redboard compatible with Arduino. This was made so we can have a better understanding of voltage, current and resistance, as well as how a breadboard works. So we just needed to figure out what to do and how to do it. I teamed up with a group member (Brian) and we both made two different circuits (which I don't mean to brag, but I think they were the best out of the whole class).
The first one that I made with help from Brian used an LCD board and was fairly complicated to make at first, but once I knew how to do it, was super easy. Basically I made a program that stated the lyrics of the song by syllable. I told Arduino that there was an LCD plugged in, then I used code to put our names on the lower screen, and on the upper screen, I made the program say "New" for around 350 ms, then reset itself to say "tons" for 350 ms, and so on until the song was over. A video of it is below.
But if I've learned anything about my friend Brian from working with him, it's that he dreams big.
Sometimes too big.
For gosh's sake, he wanted to play the basaxinet while riding his unicycle during the concert. And during the musical instrument unit, he and another person fantasized about making a "laser harp".
This time, nobody thought he could pull off the circuit he dreamed up of. But with his confidence and a little help from me, we came up with a circuit that required THREE BREADBOARDS as well as the Redboard. (Usually for beginners in programming, simple circuits only use one breadboard with the Redboard.) We put a ton of recording and research into it as well and used up most of the ports on the Redboard. The result: We created a circuit that used a piezo buzzer, 5 buttons and 8 lights. When you hit a button, it would play a sound from the buzzer and turn on two certain lights at the same time. The fifth button turned on all 8 lights. A weird thing was that the power source (that would be the computer) put more energy into the fifth button because all 8 lights would turn on, but gave it more energy than it needed, so the fifth button lit the lights brighter and made a louder sound. A video of it is here, but there is also a picture below.
Sometimes too big.
For gosh's sake, he wanted to play the basaxinet while riding his unicycle during the concert. And during the musical instrument unit, he and another person fantasized about making a "laser harp".
This time, nobody thought he could pull off the circuit he dreamed up of. But with his confidence and a little help from me, we came up with a circuit that required THREE BREADBOARDS as well as the Redboard. (Usually for beginners in programming, simple circuits only use one breadboard with the Redboard.) We put a ton of recording and research into it as well and used up most of the ports on the Redboard. The result: We created a circuit that used a piezo buzzer, 5 buttons and 8 lights. When you hit a button, it would play a sound from the buzzer and turn on two certain lights at the same time. The fifth button turned on all 8 lights. A weird thing was that the power source (that would be the computer) put more energy into the fifth button because all 8 lights would turn on, but gave it more energy than it needed, so the fifth button lit the lights brighter and made a louder sound. A video of it is here, but there is also a picture below.
I thought this was a very fun project and I learned a lot from it, and my regret is that I cannot use this knowledge as of now because I do not own an Arduino compatible board. One thing we did well was improvise, using wires to transfer power from one breadboard to another and using staples to connect pieces when we ran out of wires. We also did a good job sharing info and ideas to each other. One thing we should work on is something that me and Brian have in common: There are some days where we just don't have the willpower to work. Other days we were arguing over what was the best thing to do or the best way to go with the project. But overall I'd say this is one of the more successful projects I've ever done.