Homework 2: Spaceship interface

The title of this project was a bit of an exaggeration, since all the project did was flash 2 of the LEDs whilst the switch was on, then turn on the last one when the switch was off, but I did start to see how useful the ability to control the digital pins can be.

Building the circuit

To start with, I began by collecting the components I needed, which I struggled with a little since I found it a little difficult to identify the resistors since it isn’t obvious which band is the thinnest, and it’s a little hard to differentiate the colors fully, though, I believe that I am getting better at it. After that I assembled the circuit as according to the booklet.

Next, I opened the arduino IDE and loaded the example spaceship interface sketch to test the circuit, however it did nothing and the LEDs didn’t flash as expected. Luckily, my first guess as to what went wrong, was that I reversed the LEDs, which turned out to be the problem. I then put the cover on and completed the spaceship interface.

Programming

After confirming that the circuit was working, I began writing the code which felt very similar to writing in C#.