Derrick

I’m working on a project on scratch, processing, and some electronics.

Basics

Electronics also includes some programming. Many electronic devices are run by small devices called microprocessors, which take inputs, does calculations, and gives outputs. In other words, they take information, calculates things, and give off signals and pulses. As for programming, we have three parts of a program, called library(extra info to connect with other microprocessors), a setup, and a loop(what part is repeated). Inside of those you can have if… else… statements and changing pins and what is put as output.

Ultrasonic sounds

Sound is measured by frequency(pitch), pressure(volume), and speed. Ultrasonic sensors are sensors that send out sound in high frequencies, which we can’t hear. We also did a circuit with an ultrasonic sensor, a display board, and the Arduino.  The circuit had the Arduino use inputs and outputs to control an ultrasonic sensor, so that it would know how far away it was from the nearest object in front of it, and display it on a display board. Of course, all of this needed a bit of programming. We altered the program so that it would show the amount of centimeters away it was from an object in front of it, and even be able to display the decimal digits. After we finished, we added a battery adapter so that we could use a battery to power our Arduinos, since we had been keeping the Arduino connected to a computer prior to then, so that it would get its power from the computer. Once we added the battery, the ultrasonic sensor become portable. We also made a box to put our circuit inside of, and altered it so that it would still work and would still be able to show us the distance between it and the nearest object in front of it.

Ultrasonic sensors are similar to the way a bat uses echolocation to find its location at night. It isn’t perfect, and it sometimes begins to show random numbers. Then again, they probably have better circuits in real ultrasonic range finders. Otherwise, the ultrasonic sensor is quite reliable. Since it uses sound waves, it can detect pretty much anything, and display its distance away.

The link to this program ishttp://tny.cz/2256bb9e

Sound Reactive Lights

A sound reactive light circuit is a circuit that has a speaker that plays songs and has LEDs that flash according to the music. This is first done by using a certain kind of cable that has two wires inside it- a ground(0 volt), and a signal wire. Since sound comes in waves, it gives off a negative and positive voltage(sound is transfered in voltage through a circuit). We use something called a clipper circuit that gets rid of the negative voltage and the voltage that was too high.

The lights are simple. You add a pin that is set on input to take information. The pin takes the average of the voltage, and makes it so that all amounts of voltage above the average cause the lights to turn on.

The link to this program is http://tny.cz/9d3f45be