Just thought of this also,
In addition I'm thinking of introducing students to binary in that class
(something which you need for almost any Arduino program), and the traffic
lights could be used as ways to display up to 6 bits. Also you can blink
them really fast and create cool looking light patterns.
Other ideas are welcome. What kind of sensor should I use to detect the car
at the intersection? It should output an analog voltage.
-Geno
On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 9:52 AM, Geno Soroka <geno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I looked at the previous Basic Arduino class HackPGH did in the past, and
I would like to cover all the topics from the class we did in the past, but
to keep things interesting every year, present them in a different way.
My idea is this. We 3d print 2 of these for all the students.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14646
The student brings their own arduino (which they got and soldered together
at the soldering class), or just one they already have.
The object of the class will be to control two traffic lights at an
intersection. First just with timing, and then to introduce the ADC input
and map() function to have a small sensor which would make the light green
if a car just arrived at an intersection (like many real traffic lights at
quiet intersections do)
This will teach the student about basic arduino concepts such as I/O and
timing functions such as delay(). In the advanced course we can introduce
how to use interrupts for timing. And it will teach the students the basics
of ADC and very very basics of sensors, which they can learn more about in
the sensors class.
This can actually be a cool practical toy for your kid's RC cars or
hotwheels. They could even build real intersections for a small toy city. I
really wish I had this when I was 9. ;-)
If anyone has suggestions on how to make this class better, ideas to make
the traffic lights more cool, or even better 3d printed traffic lights we
could download, that would be awesome!
This class will most likely take place in April (definitely after learn to
solder)
-Geno
Secretary | HackPGH
Pittsburgh’s First Makerspace
1936 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
*http://www.hackpittsburgh.org ;<http://www.hackpittsburgh.org>*
