Before having done this, I had hardly any experience with electronics. The only experience I had was a field trip in second grade where we lit light bulbs with batteries. So this was completely new to me and it was quite a challenge. The first electronic things we did were as a class. We were taking batteries, light bulbs, and wires to do different things. I learned about things being in series and in parallel. If the circuit goes through two or more things on the same line, they are in series. When there is a junction and it splits into two or more strings that connect back up later, then anything like a light bulb in those strings are in parallel. We had to make more and more complicated circuits as we went along. Then we got a little more complicated, and used bread boards, which is a board with wires that go in certain directions in different parts of it to easily make circuits. We had some experiments that we had to do with those to get started. Later on, we had a packet of about 6 or 7 different experiments we had to set up on bread boards. Each one taught you a different component and what it does, like a potentiometer or a capacitor. Our group struggled through all of these experiments, as they were the last ones we had to do and therefore the hardest. The last one we had to do was to make an LED light blink. This may sound simple, but setting it up was very, very complicated. It was so hard for us that we had to have outside help in order to finish it. Although I was frustrated and confused most of the time, I had fun and I learned a lot from it. The picture below looks like what we mostly did during our time working with the breadboard.
Concepts of Programming
Syntax error - when a character or string is improperly placed in an instruction and the command fails to be executed.
Runtime error - a failure or mishap that occurs as the code is being processed.
String - a sequence of characters that are either variables or a literal constant.
Literal Constant - objects already given data type base don how they are written (Ex. 0x = (zero, x))
Variable - a storage location or symbol that contains and unknown value.
For Loop - programming language statement that permits a code to process repeatedly.
Boolean Operator - simple words that provide relationships between words and groups of words (Ex. OR, NOT, AND, AND NOT)
Binary Numbers - number expressed in the base-2 number system only using numbers 1 and 2; we use the base-10 number system (numbers 0 to 9); computers run on a binary system
Iteration - repeating a procedure in the code.
Dictionary - data type that stores objects in a list.
In this project I learned a lot about electronics and programming. I understood the concepts and the logic behind electricity and how its used. There was so much patience that had to be used in this project. Circuitry was a lesson learned, you always have to be careful not to make a wrong connection or to short out the battery or an LED. I gained a lot of skill and experience through learning about circuitry. This project was definitely eye-opening and a great learning experience throughout. Programming is a very difficult and time consuming task, also the wiring of the bread board was also very difficult and needed to have patience in order to be completed, every minor detail mattered in the lines of code.
Syntax error - when a character or string is improperly placed in an instruction and the command fails to be executed.
Runtime error - a failure or mishap that occurs as the code is being processed.
String - a sequence of characters that are either variables or a literal constant.
Literal Constant - objects already given data type base don how they are written (Ex. 0x = (zero, x))
Variable - a storage location or symbol that contains and unknown value.
For Loop - programming language statement that permits a code to process repeatedly.
Boolean Operator - simple words that provide relationships between words and groups of words (Ex. OR, NOT, AND, AND NOT)
Binary Numbers - number expressed in the base-2 number system only using numbers 1 and 2; we use the base-10 number system (numbers 0 to 9); computers run on a binary system
Iteration - repeating a procedure in the code.
Dictionary - data type that stores objects in a list.
In this project I learned a lot about electronics and programming. I understood the concepts and the logic behind electricity and how its used. There was so much patience that had to be used in this project. Circuitry was a lesson learned, you always have to be careful not to make a wrong connection or to short out the battery or an LED. I gained a lot of skill and experience through learning about circuitry. This project was definitely eye-opening and a great learning experience throughout. Programming is a very difficult and time consuming task, also the wiring of the bread board was also very difficult and needed to have patience in order to be completed, every minor detail mattered in the lines of code.