NatesNotes

Arduino First Breadboard Use

first things I went through were all the electrical components. Just seeing how things look. The first arduino project looks like a great start. I don’t think I’ll need any youtube videos for a bit now, at least for projects. I’ll probably want to combine the hands-on work with some lessons on electronics, just so I can know why these things work.

Basic electrical theory

Electricity is a type of energy like heat, gravity, light Electrical energy flows through conductors (wire) Electrical energy is converted to do interesting things

  • Turn on a light, speaker noise

Transducers

  • Speakers, light bulbs
  • Change other types of energy to electrical, and vice versa
  • Electrical energy type converter Sensors
  • Transducer that turns other energy into electrical energy Actuators
  • Transducer that converts electrical energy into other energy Circuits
  • What we build to move electricity through different components
  • Closed loops of wire with a power source, and a purposeful components that use the energy, called a “load”

Circuit flow

  • Electricity flows from a point of high potential energy (power or +) to low potential energy.
    • Ground (GND or -) is generally the least potential energy in a circuit
  • DC (direct current) circuits: Electricity only flows in one direction (these will be the circuits we’ll build)
  • AC (alternating current): Electricity flow changes direction 50-60 times a second (depending on where you live), this is the type that comes from a wall socket

Current

  • Measured in amperes (amps), “A” symbol
  • Amount of electrical charge flowing past a specific point in the circuit Voltage
  • Measured in volts, “V” symbol
  • Difference in energy between one circuit point and another Resistance
  • Measured in ohms, “Ω”
  • How much a component resists the flow of electrical energy

Cliff and rocks metaphor: imagine a cliff with rocks rolling down it. The rocks may hit bushes, slowing them down and converting their energy. The height and amount of rocks determine the rock’s energy. The bushes can modify this.

  • The voltage is like the height of the cliff, or really the difference in energy from the top to bottom.
  • The current is like the number of rocks, or really the energy of the rocks at any specific point.
  • The resistance is like the bushes, or really the amount of energy the bushes resist the flow of energy/how much they convert

Notes on circuits

  • Need complete path from power to ground in order to make a circuit
  • Electrical energy used up by circuit components
    • Each component converts electrical energy to another form
    • So, in any circuit, all voltage is converted to another form of energy
  • Flow of current at specific point of circuit will be the same coming in/out
  • Electrical current will seek path of least resistance to ground
    • Given two paths, more current will go down path w/ less resistance
    • If power and ground are connected with no resistance, you will cause a short circuit
      • In a short circuit, the power and wires convert electrical energy to light and heat (sparks and an explosion) do to no other release

Breadboard

  • Primary place you’ll be building circuits
  • Arduino one is solderless, like lego in electronic form
  • Horizontal/vertical rows carry electricity through thin metal connectors under the plastic with holes

First components

  • LED (light-emitting diode): electrical -> light
    • Polarized, electricity only allowed thru one direction
    • Longer leg is an “anode”, connects to power
    • Shorter leg is a “cathode”, connects to ground
  • Resistor: converts electrical energy to heat
    • Allows you to supply other components with the right amount of energy
    • Don’t burn out LEDs, use resistor
  • Switch: interrupts flow of electricity, breaking circuit when open
    • When closed, completes circuit
    • Many types. We use momentary, meaning only closed when button down

Built a basic circuit with a switch, LED, resistor, and connectors. Pretty cool. Still a good amount abstracted, but not as much as I thought. Just strips of metal that conduct electricity on the breadboard so that I don’t have to solder. Will want to learn more about how electricity works, of course.

Thoughts: Essentially, we are manipulators of electricity. We do this to engineer systems to achieve goals.

Few days after I made the breadboard in the first arduino lesson.

Basically, you first need to learn the underlying breadboard structure. Just lines of metal that conduct the electricity. Then, you connect the power and ground jumper wires and put them in the +,- lines. When doing this, you are essentially just using the arduino as a power source, but good for a first lesson. Then, you need to gather your components. You will want some sort of resistor, because if you just do it with an LED or something you will have too much power and get a short circuit. For the first lesson, we had a resistor, switch, and led with some connecting wires. Was pretty cool to see it work. Basically just seeing the flow of electricity. This later got me interested in circuits again, and I did a quick refresher just from memory during work. Made a basic bit addition circuit on paper.

Thoughts: Was pretty cool to see the first circuit working. I messed around with it a bunch after and tried some combinations out, pretty cool. I’ll keep pushing further in this arduino project book, but I have a better idea of what to learn now. Eventually, I want to actually do some soldering. I also want to do some circuitry on software. I’m guessing circuitry (real logic and such) outside of software will be a little down the road. Also was pretty cool to hear about what arun built for his 8th grade science fair project. He won his regional one with a life alert like falling sensor. Wish I did that sort of stuff when I was a kid, but my parents weren’t really tapped into all that, and I sure as hell didn’t know anything.