An Introduction to Electronics &
programming -part 1
Name : Class :
This project has been designed for you to work
independently through the activities using Tinkercad
which allows you to build and program your own
electronics devices. It should take about 12 hours to
complete.
Task 1
We are going to learn how to build simple circuits and control
them Arduino using a simulator at www.tinkercad/circuits (Hold
the CTRL button and click on link to open or copy and paste the
link in your browser)
You will need to create an account by clicking on
Then click on create personal account
then Sign up using your gmail account (that you already use in
school) – this will allow you to connect
straight away, next time you visit the site
or alternatively, create a new account with
your own email address
and then complete this and next
Then add school email and
create your own password
You will get an email with a link you will have to click onto confirm
your account
Getting Started
Scroll down the page
And click on start tinkering with circuits
You will see a breadboard and components and an Arduino board
if you scroll down further
Click
on
the
breadboard and drag on to the stag and give it a label
Breadboard
Next scroll down and drag an Arduino board
Add an led and label it led1
Click on to terminal 2 output
and draw wire as shown
And then a wire back to the Gnd terminal
And change both colours Positive is red (is live) , black is negative
(connected to the earth).
Now we need to create the code to control the led
Click on the
code button
We are going to switch the led for 0.5 seconds and then switch off
for 0.5 seconds
High means “high” voltage
Low means no voltage
Switch the view to Text
And change the
code to
Then we need to change the code to 2 as the led is connected to
the output pin 2 and not 13
And then to test the code click on Start simulation
Task 2 :
Describe 2 things that are happening in your device
1.
2.
You will see the led starts flashing on for 100 milliseconds = 1
second and off for 1000 milliseconds = 1 second.
Task 3 :
Change your program so that the light flashes as quick as you can
– too fast and it will look like the light is constantly lit.
Paste your code in here ( click inside and copy and paste ( you will
need to format the image:
Your brain takes about 1/12 of a second to process an
image from the eye as it takes a small amount of time to
interpret the electrical signals that are sent from the eye
to the brain. If there isn’t enough time between images,
then the brain thinks the images are related and they look
animated. E.g. stickman animation on the corners of a
book.
Task 4 : How films are shot – what is the delay between
images
How it all works
Breadboard
A breadboard is used to build a circuit containing the
components – (no soldering required). Test circuits were first
built containing components pinned on to a wooden boards
hence temporary circuit board is called a Breadboard
Breadboard underneath top and bottom pins in electrical
contact horizontally. i.e. 1 is connected to 2. Each row the pins
are connected vertically. A and B in contact A and C , B anc C
are not
2
1
A
Components
There are many components, some are input devices,
some are output devices. Most only require about 40
mA of current = 0.04Amps, Some need a higher
voltage and current so may need to be connected to
the 5Volt output pin or have own separate battery /
power supply as too much could damage the Arduino
Circuit / components.
Task 4 :
Identify 3 input devices and 3 output devices from the above table
(i) Input devices
(ii) Output devices
Task 5 :
Write a couple of sentences about the following components –
what are how do they work.
(i)Piezo Buzzer
(ii) Led
(iii)RGB Led
(iv) Transistor
Controlling leds
If we wanted light an led we could connect it the 3v pin
and complete circuit by connected to one of the Ground
Pins ( Earth). But
wouldn’t
be able to
control it.
Note : Always
connect the longer
leg to the power and
back through to
ground through
shorter leg
What we need to do is connected to one of output pins
1 to 13 ( usually not pin1 as it is used to output to
screen) .Then write code that outputs electricity
through pin 7, but we should use a resistor to preserve
the life of the led, to reduce the amount of current
flowing through it.
To create this circuit :
Task 6:
Which circuits will work ?
GND
A
GND
GND
Pin 7 Arduino
GND
C
