Lab 4 - Servo; Analog Output

I'm looking heavily into upgrading my documentation capabilities with a better digital camera, having enlisted advice from Rob, ITP students, my Dad, and consumer reports online. I can't decide whether to go really high-end or just find a better portable camera (money may make this choice for me). Anyway, for kicks I checked out the worst camera from the ER for this lab and it still worked better than mine, plus I tried a couple short movies with it which you'll also find below. Today I'll go to B&H to try out some cameras.



By now I understand the basics behind preparing a simple circuit on a breadboard, and following the photos and schematics is never that hard. Still, it took me a minute to realize the servo outputs can't go directly into the Arduino but need a bypass first on the breadboard - this involves tampering with the 3 header pins with needle-nose pliers to get them long enough to seat. I color coded the analog output leads to match the servo's leads, and used one blue lead in series with my photoresistor, since I didn't own an FSR with 2 entwined leads (as shown in the lab demo picture). I followed the code exactly and it did produce physical results, a 180 degree turn with every pinch or light variation on the resistor, however the serial monitor did not display any data. Also, the motor did not respond well to a thermistor, so that and the serial issue together leave some unanswered questions.

But look at my movie!



For kicks I tried the $15 stretch sensor I'd bought a few days back - I didn't bother to solder leads to it but if I use this in a project down the road then I probably should. For lab purposes, the servo responded fine to my stretch sensor.



The main issue I'm having, and with all the labs is, what can I do with all this? I'm not conjuring anything original like some of the students have shared, and wondering when my stroke of inspiration will begin. I'm not even quite sure how to attach other blades to the servo and what kinds of things it can power, so I'll have to read some forums online I suppose. Not being an ITP student, I'm not as "immersed" in the culture here as much as some, so I took it upon myself to check out some of the advanced projects currently on the floor... knowing now how much effort goes into one little lab, I'm amazed by the things I've seen: The inkjet cartridge guitar string machine, the scantron test robot, the Torrini magician documentary box, and a seesaw with an Arduino on it that I didn't get to see work but seems really interesting too.

When it gets to project time, I would like to incorporate materials for both this class and my Adv MAX/MSP class. On the Arduino site I found an arduino2MAX object, so once I get more comfortable with MAX I should start thinking of a creative sensor to trigger a patch with.