Feb 22

First order of business to check-in and see how you are all getting along with this stuff:

• kits?
• software installed?
• first project progress?

Second is to go over some key circuit concepts, and to practice "debugging" circuits with multimeters.

Let's assemble this circuit

• https://www.makerspaces.com/basic-electronics/

in several ways : (i) wires, (ii) breadboard + battery, (iii) breadboard + arduino

Then let's measure the power going through the LED. Rather than just write the formula here, I'll ask some questions and we'll come up with answers in class.

• What is the definition and units for "power"?
• Turns out we need to know "current through" (I) and "volts across" (V).
• How should we use a multimeter to measure V?
• How should we use a multimeter to measure I?
• Where is the LED spec? How much power is too much ... and what happens then? How much is too little?

OK, now suppose we want to add a second LED. What are the different ways to put one into the circuit? What difference does it make?

Third, what are some ways to alter the code and/or the circuit to change things up?

Finally, depending on how this is going, we'll decide how much time to allocate to these first "lights" labs ... stay tuned. ;)

attachments

		last modified	size
	circuit.png	Mon Feb 21 2022 10:15 pm	696K