PhysComp Lab 2 - The Arduino

Today this handheld device, in one fell swoop, was to help me create a blinker, a switchlight and a combo lock-driven light, and it supplied USB power to my breadboard, rendering the DC power unnecessary for this lab.

Still, I kept the LED on the far end of my board to indicate that the board was indeed powered when I plugged in the Arduino. I also put an LED in the digital output and ground of my Arduino to make sure power worked in that as well.



Once power was determined on all fronts, I created an LED circuit much like in the first lab, but also wrote a simple program to create a blinker with .5 sec delay.





void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
delay(500);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
delay(500);
}


I was now ready to try a toggle switch light with the Arduino. This was done in the 1st lab without code, but it's more satisfying to make something work with it.



void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
pinMode(2, INPUT);
}

void loop() {
// check the digial input. If it's high, do something:
if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH) {
// set the digital output HIGH (turn on the LED):
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
}
else {
// turn off the LED:
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
}


I furthered the code in a 3rd application by adding one LED and allowing for the switch between one light being on while the other was off, and vice versa:


void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
pinMode(12, OUTPUT);
pinMode(2, INPUT);
}

void loop() {
// check the digial input. If it's high, do something:
if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH) {
// set the digital output HIGH (turn on the LED):
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
}
else {
// turn off the LED:
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
// check the digial input. If it's high, do something:
if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH) {
// set the digital output HIGH (turn on the LED):
digitalWrite(12, LOW);
}
else {
// turn off the LED:
digitalWrite(12, HIGH);
}
}




Finally, my combo application was a simple recursion in the code - an "if" statement inside an "if" statement - that allowed the 1st switch pressed followed by the 2nd to cause the LED to light up.

void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
pinMode(12, OUTPUT);
pinMode(2, INPUT);
pinMode(3, INPUT);
}

void loop() {
// check the digial input. If it's high, do something:
if (digitalRead(2) == HIGH) {
if (digitalRead(3) == HIGH)
{
// set the digital output HIGH (turn on the LED):
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);}
}
else {
// turn off the LED:
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
}
}




The venture was a success, and I was pleased to realize this could imply much more than powering lights. Motors and sound cues could be the stuff that dreams are made of from here on out.