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<h3>Week 4: Microcontroller Programming</h3>
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<h4>Assignment: Make an Arduino Do Something</h4>
I will be working with blinking, remote controlled LEDs for my final project so I decided it would be a good use of time to program a simple LED circut with an artistic flare. For this week's project, I built an "LED wave" using the Millis() function. My final project is going to need its LED pattern to operate independently of the rest of the code, so I needed to understand how this function works to avoid using the delay command in the future.
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I modeled the circuit using TinkerCad's Arduino module. This took about 1.5 hours testing different code files, playing with timings, and trying different resistors and wiring diagrams. This allowed me to similtaneously debug the circuitboard and the code seamlessly.
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<img src="./Tinkercad.jpeg" alt="tinkercad simulation with code and wiring diagram" width = 600>
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<p class="caption">Tinkercad is like Canva for EE</p>
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I decided to use as many pins and lights as possible and hoped this wouldn't overload the board. Below is the finalized code used to create this effect:
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<img src="./scan.gif" width = 500 alt="battlestar galactica character">
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<p class="caption">Note: don't confuse 10,000 ohm with 220 ohm (see struggling LEDs 2 & 3)</p>
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<title>Scanning</title>
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<h2>Scanner Code</h2>
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const example = "Hello, world!";
console.log(example);
unsigned long previousMillis = 0;
// Delay to determine speed of scan:
unsigned long interval = 100;
// Array with Arduino pins containing LEDs in sequence
byte LEDpins[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
// Variable to track which LED to turn on
int currentLED = 0;
boolean direction = UP;
void setup() {
// Set Pins with LEDs to OUTPUT
for (int x = 0; x < 10; x++)
pinMode(LEDpins[x], OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LEDpins[x], x == currentLED);
unsigned long currentMillis = millis();
if ((unsigned long)(currentMillis - previousMillis) >= interval) {
previousMillis = currentMillis;
if (direction == UP) {
currentLED++;
if (currentLED == 10) {
currentLED = 8; // Set to the second-to-last LED
direction = DOWN;
}
} else {
currentLED--;
if (currentLED < 0) {
currentLED = 1; // Set to the second LED
direction = UP;
}
}
}
}
}
</code>
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<img src="./galactica.gif" width = 500 alt="battlestar galactica character">
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<img src="./glasses.gif" width = 500 alt="glasses scanner">
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<p class="caption">I messed with the timings until the wave was visually appealing.</p>
One of my classmates suggested I add a button to shoot a laserbeam down the line of LEDs, so I added this after drafting in TinkerCad. Here is the result:
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<img src="./shoot.mov" width = 500 alt="my LED array">
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Lastly, I will be using two ESP32s for my final project because I will be using radio controlled LEDs and potentially incorporate WIFI. To get a head start, I installed the Arduino ESP32 add-on and familiarized myself with the interface.
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