Brian Huang

Education Engineer

Email: brian.huang@sparkfun.com

Twitter: @bri_huang

#sparkfun

Engineering the

Engineering: Connecting

the Why to the How

Unleashing Your Students'

Inner Inventor—Robots,

Video Games, and DIY!

Brian Huang

Education Engineer

@bri_huang

#sparkfun

Engineering the

Engineering: Connecting

the Why to the How

Write this down…

http://bit.ly/SparkFunNSTADenver2013

A little background (Ignite style)

Ignite presentation format: (a.k.a. Pecha

Kucha)

• 20 Slides

• 15 seconds per slide

• Slides are on auto-advance

• Total Time: 5 minutes

About us...

Founded in 2003 by Nathan Seidle.

At SparkFun, our focus is all about creation, innovation,

and sharing information.

Open Source Hardware is at the core of our business. We

emphasize researching, re-mixing, adapting, making

improvements, and sharing with the world!

Today

You will use a microcontroller &

ArduBlock to design, develop, and

build interactivity and “intelligence”

with digital electronics, LEDs, and

sensors.

Consumers

Creators / Makers

Engineers / Inventors

Maker Culture

Make to Learn

Seymour Papert &

Constructionism

I want ________ to ________.

Introducing Arduino…

(circa 2005) Small, low-cost micro-controller (mini-computer).

Describes both the hardware (board) and the programming language.

Developed off the Atmel ATMega328 chip.

Designed with Artists, Students, and Non-Engineers in mind…

But, really… what is this “arduino?”

In science???

• Data logging / collection

• Control of motors, LEDs, experiments

• Design of atmospheric and Space-based

experiments and apparatus

• Inventions!

• Making Art!!!

A few project ideas

And, a couple more...

And, a couple more...

Whew!

Questions?

Let’s Start!

First thing you need is…

Download Arduino from:

www.arduino.cc/download

Follow their directions on installation.

Installation Process

ArduBlock is a run-time Java script that must be

saved to a specific location on your computer.

The file ardublock-xxxx.jar must be inside the

following file structure within your Arduino

sketchbook:

\Arduino\tools\ArduBlockTool\tool

Note: Folder names are case sensitive

A little short-cut…

Unzip this file to your Arduino

sketchbook folder.

General Rules

• Raise your hand if you have a question.

• Be respectful.

• When I raise my hand…

• Share your findings with the people near

you.

• Poke around, experiment, and have fun…

• Imagine, create, and play!!!

What is all this stuff???

Components

Buzzer /

Speaker

Light

Sensor

Temp.

Sensor

the Brain

ATmega328

(16 MHz clock)

What is all this stuff??? Silk Screen & Pins

Actual Pins

on Atmega328

Startup Arduino IDE

Double-click on either

the Arduino Icon or

wherever you

installed (saved) the

Arduino program.

Plug it in

Lesson #0a – Setting up Arduino

1.Setup Board

(LilyPad Arduino w/ ATmega328)

2.Setup COM Port

PC – Highest COM #

Mac – /dev/tty.usbserial-A####xXx

Tools Board Setup Board

Tools Serial Port Setup COM Port

PC –

Highest COM #

Mac –

/dev/tty.usbserial-

A####xxx

Other Board Types

Tools ArduBlock Load ArduBlock

Programming

Area

Zoomed out

View

Programming

Blocks Palate

What is ArduBlock?

• Graphical Introduction to Programming

• Scratch-like interface

• Clear transition to text-based coding

• Generates real Arduino code in the

background.

Block Organization

Manipulating or modifying the program

flow or behavior.

Serial and I2C communication:

transferring data between devices & PC

Special utilities: Tone, servo, and

ultrasonic sensors

Creating, assigning, or using constants,

variables, or arrays.

Simple and complex math operations.

Boolean logic operations and

comparisons.

Reading or setting values (voltages) to

pins on the microcontroller.

Block Organization

Control Manipulating or modifying the program

flow or behavior.

Example #1

Click back to the Arduino window to

check for status messages

Example #1 - debrief

What is the difference between setup() and

loop()?

When you add multiple blink blocks, describe

the behavior of the LEDs?

What new feature might you want to create?

Example #2 See if you can come up with the steps needed

to make an LED blink.

What other LEDs can we play

with?

16 18 17

Pins with an A are Analog INPUT pins –

but they’re really identified as…

Digital Pins are numbered 0 to 13.

Analog Input Pins are A0 to A5. but, actually…

Analog Pin Digital I/O ID

A0 14

A1 15

A2 16

A3 17

A4 18

A5 19

An

alo

g P

in

M

ap

pin

g

Example #2 - debrief

1) Can you write a program that blinks on and off with a 1 second

delay in between? What is the period of this pattern?

2) Can you write a program that blinks 10 times per second? What

delay time did you use? What about 50 times per second? What

delay time did you use?

3) Creative: Modify your program to create a heartbeat pattern.

4) Extension: Add extra LEDs to create an LED chaser or Larson

Scanner. Use as many of the LEDs on the Lilypad Development

Board as you like. How fast do you want it to run?

set digital pin

Any number… except,

Pin# is limited to a

range of:

Allows the control of the pins on the Atmega328

chip – turning them on or off (like the light

switch)

or

Different shapes?

Digital Constant Block Numeric Constant Block

to ON OFF

Example #3 - What’s next?

set analog pin

Because of certain hardware

settings, set analog pin only

works with pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10,

& 11.

Allows the control of the pins on the Atmega328

chip – turning them partially on or partially off

(like a dimmer switch)

Analog Output Values

to

Rather than having just HIGH

and LOW, you can set the

pin to any value from 0 to

255.

Concept: Analog vs. Digital

To create an analog signal, the

microcontroller uses a technique called

PWM.

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

Pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 are capable of producing an

Analog Output

Example 4 - What about sensors?

Example #4 - debrief

What was the maximum value you saw from the light

sensor?

What was the maximum value you saw from the temp

sensor?

Analog sensors are read by a 10-bit Analog to Digital

(A\D) converter. It “quantizes” a voltage at the input

pin into 1023 “bins.” 5 V = 1023 and 0 V = 0.

Example #5 – if statements

Example #6 – making sounds

(er… music)

Options, options, options…

Questions

?

Preview of Digital SandBox

Slider / Potentiometer Switch

Motor /

Speaker Out

Push Button

Microphone Light Sensor

Temp Sensor

LED Array

RGB LED

Arduino

Extension Project

Create a musical and interactive lighting

display.

Plan out what you want the project to do,

first! Use an outline, flow-chart, or thinking

map to accomplish this.

Getting started with Arduino

SparkFun Inventor’s Kit

KIT-12001

Circuit 1: Blinking an LED

Circuit 2: Reading a Potentiometer

Circuit 3: Driving and RGB LED

Circuit 4: Driving Multiple LEDs

Circuit 5: Push Buttons

Circuit 6: Reading a Photo Resistor

Circuit 7: Reading a Temperature Sensor

Circuit 8: Driving a Servo Motor

Circuit 9: Using a Flex Sensor

Circuit 10: Reading a Soft Potentiometer

Circuit 11: Using a Buzzer

Circuit 12: Driving a Motor

Circuit 13: Using Relays

Circuit 14: Using a Shift Register

Circuit 15: Using an LCD

Data Collection with Vernier

Discount / Promo Code

Promo Code: EDUNSTA2013

25% Discount – orders > $30

E-mail: education@sparkfun.com to create

an educator account.

Twitter: @bri_huang, #sparkfun, #nsta2013

Before leaving, please fill out a quick survey

so that I can get your e-mail and a little

info about your familiarity with Arduino /

SparkFun.

Thanks!

http://www.sparkfun.com/WorkshopFeedback

Thank you!

Alright? Let’s blink!

Challenge 1a – Blink to mimic a heartbeat

Challenge 1b – Blink multiple LEDs

First -- plan out a pattern on paper – then

start coding

Challenge 1c – Multiple LEDS – Knight

Rider (Cylon)-esque

Save your Project

• Save early, Save

often!

• Enumerate your

iterations – (e.g.

blink_10.adp,

blink_11.adp,

blink_12.adp…)

Speeding up and Slowing

Down…

What if we wanted to create a pattern that starts off

with a slow blink and gets faster and faster?

What part do we need to be able to change?

constant

Programming Concepts:

Using Variables

Variables placeholders / reminder for

counting

Using Variables in ArduBlock

Numbers/Constants

Variable is just a

placeholder for a

value.

This placeholder can

be manipulated

within the code.

Start by setting a variable called

delayTime in the setup

Now… replace the “1000” in each

delay with the variable name

Decrement delayTime each loop

– using Math Operators

Example: Did you come up with

something like this?

What happens when you reach zero?

Let’s find out!

Debugging – how can we see what’s going on?

Serial Monitor

Serial print

command

Any

message

“glue”

Data

Add this block… so that we can

watch the variable value

Upload & Click back to Arduino Open the Serial Monitor

How do we fix / prevent this from

happening?

If this is TRUE…

Do this.

Otherwise,

do this.

Conditional Logic: If(), If() – else…

Logical Operators Comparisons / Conditionals

Greater than

Less than

Equal to

Greater than or equal to

Less than or equal to

Not equal to

If delayTime <= 0… reset

Advanced… Combinations of inequalities

Combine multiple conditions together using

or and and

Example:

Other than just turning an LED on

and off…

What else might we want to do / control?

Concept: Analog vs. Digital

Micro-controllers are digital devices – ON or OFF.

An Analog signal is anything that can be a full

range of values. xWhat are some examples?

Think of like a ramp or a hill.

Concept: Analog vs. Digital

To create an analog signal, the

microcontroller uses a technique called

PWM.

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

Pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11 are capable of producing an

Analog Output

Color Mixing with 3 LEDs

RGB LED

LED PINS

RED = 9

GREEN = 11

BLUE = 10

Change either of these

values… See what happens!

Color Mixing with 3 LEDs

Tri-color LED

The RGB LED is a Common-Anode (means the

positive side of the LED is all tied to Vcc).

The signal line is connected to the bottom of each

LED.

Don’t worry - it’s just a different method of

completing a circuit!

Pin

9

Pin

11

Pin

10

5 V

Value = 0 (LOW) LED is ON

Value = 255 (HIGH) LED is OFF

Color Mixing with 3 LEDs

Challenge 2b:

Experiment with different values of Red, Green, and Blue

to create a couple different colors.

Write down the values you used. Check these values

with www.colorpicker.com

Challenge 2c:

Create a unique lighting display that blinks, fades, or

switches colors. Be prepared to have a name for your art

piece and show this to the rest of the class.

Save your Project #2

New Challenge

Handling Inputs

A Simple Example

Try this bit of code.

What do you think will happen? Test it

and write down your observations.

DIG

INPUT 2

digital Inputs

Buttons / Slide Switches

INPUT A5

INPUT A5

(a.k.a. 19)

What about

this??

Analog Pin Digital I/O ID

A0 14

A1 15

A2 16

A3 17

A4 18

A5 19

An

alo

g P

in

M

ap

pin

g

digital Inputs

Buttons / Slide Switches

Challenge 3a:

Re-arrange the blocks or add new ones to:

• Blink LED quickly when the button is pressed.

• Otherwise blink slow

Same as

Pin A5

digital Inputs

Buttons / Slide Switches

Challenge 3b:

Now, using the button / switch – to start a disco/light changing

pattern

Challenge 3c:

Now, using the button / switch – to turn on and off the VIBE

motor.

Reading the

Light Sensor?

What is the biggest and smallest value the analog pin will

“measure”? [Hint: open your serial monitor to find out!]

Challenge

Use the light sensor input to affect the blink

rate of the LEDs.

Use the light sensor input to affect the speed

of a “knight-rider” or cylon display.

Use the light sensor to ___________.

Save your Project #3

Sensors

Making Music

Setting up the Speaker

Three simple blocks to play with…

Making Music

Let’s Play a song…

Twinkle-Twinkle:

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C GG

Happy Birthday:

G G A G C B G G A G D C G G G E C C B A

Hot Cross Buns:

B A G <> B A G <> G G G G <> A A A A B A G

Mary Had A Little Lamb:

B A G A BB B <> AA A <> BB B <>

B A G A BBBB AAA BAG.

Musical Notes / Frequencies

Note Frequency (Hz)

C4 261

C#4/D

b4 277

D4 293

D#4/E

b4 311

E4 329

F4 349

F#4/G

b4 369

G4 392

G#4/A

b4 415

A4 440

A#4/B

b4 466

B4 493

Note Frequency (Hz)

C5 523

C#5/D

b5 554

D5 587

D#5/E

b5 622

E5 659

F5 698

F#5/G

b5 739

G5 783

G#5/A

b5 830

A5 880

A#5/B

b5 932

B5 987

Save your Project #4

Tone