Getting to know my tools! My first Arduino project, working with Resistors, Switches, and LED's

 This was my first project working with the basic tools the Arduino provides. It was broken into three parts:

 - Setting up a basic switch to turn on the LED

 - Setting up a parallel circuit switch to turn on the LED

 - Setting up a series circuit switch to turn on the LED


BASIC SWITCH:

This was the easiest of the three to complete, but came with its difficulties and realizations. I have now realized that when I put my breadboard onto the Arduino stand, I glued it on backwards, so I will have to make sure to pay extra special attention to diagrams showing what to do, because half of mine will be reversed. I also didn't realized it mattered which prong of the LED was placed into which slot, which made it so my LED didn't work, and gave some confusion. But all in all, it was super simple to complete and super fun!



PARALLEL SWITCH:

This was the one where I realized that the wires the base Arduino gives you are not going to be color coded to pos and neg, which gave me a little confusion when searching the box for short red and black wires. But other than that confusion, creating the parallel circuit went off without a hitch. Since it is a parallel circuit, it means I have to hold both buttons for the LED to light up, since they are connected.



SERIES SWITCH:

This was the hardest of the three to complete, mostly because I kept plugging wires into the wrong holes. Fumbling around with the small connectors without a organizer to hold them makes it extremely difficult, especially cause you don't want to lose them. The series circuit took a lot of trial and error, because I kept plugging in wires in wrong, but I am sure this is a problem that will go away with time, as the more I learn in IGME 470, the less I will have to rely on diagrams given by the book, and can instead know where the wires go on their own. Because this is a series switch, I can push either of the buttons and the LED will light up, along with pushing both at the same time and it will light up.




I really enjoyed this project, as it was nice to get my hands dirty as a first fully "hands on" experience in this major. It was nice not having any code to worry about, and instead just circuity and diagnosing issues on the breadboard as I learn!






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