Lab 2 - Getting started with the Arduino!

As mentioned in the previous article, the Arduino microprocessor played a key role in this project. It functioned as the power supply, and enabled us to manipulate digital and analog inputs with C code. We started by programming the Arduino to make the basic LED blink, and then added a potentiometer to control the blinking of the LED.

After becoming pseudo-experts on the LED, we challenged ourselves by integrating all different kinds of sensors into our circuit (photoresistor, FSR, photo-interrupter and Hall-effect sensor). We waved our hands to interrupt light coming to the sensors, used different magnets, and bent and twisted sensors to see how this varied the LED frequency. It was quite fun!












Blinking LED





















Serial output of sensor behavior


After familiarizing ourselves with each sensor's characteristic, we started to think about which sensors we should choose for our musical instrument. Following are three videos of how we checked/played with switches, photo-interrupters and potentiometers.