Week 5:

Electronics design

Fritzing:

We started the session looking at the programme Fritzing. Fritzing is an open-source programme which allows you to design circuits, it allows you to do this in three different formats: a schematic, a PCB and a breadboard. I began with the schematic format and created a copy of the first LED and switch circuit from last weeks assignment. It was quite straight forward. There is a side menu on the right from where you get different components and you can simply drag them into the circuit. You connect these by dragging points from one to another.

I then added a switch (I did not do this immediately as there are many different switches and I was not sure which one until I looked closer at the tables instead of just the images) .The end result looked like this:

Micro-bits:

 all tutorials on :

To start you plug the micro-bit into a computer with the cord provided. An orange light should show when it has connected successfully. I began with one of the simple tutorial of the ‘smiley buttons’.

All this involved was indicating which button is pressed and then what subsequent image will appear. In this case when buttons A and B are pressed together an animation of 2 different faces will appear.

The next tutorial I looked at was a light level meter. Before I started this I soldered a breakout board so that I could connect an external LDR (light dependant resistor). This was the most complex bit of soldering I have done yet due to the number of connections that had to be made and the proximity that they were to one another. I had to make sure each connection was a good shape so it took longer than usual.

The next challenge was soldering wire ends together to add the resistors into the breakout board. I had to try several times to get them together. The main difficulty I had was holding 2 wires still whilst soldering them together. The result was quite a messy joint which worked nevertheless.

This is the block code for the light level meter:

This was the result on the micro:bit :

This set-up reads light level using the LDR. It shows light level using a graph made up of the LEDs on the microbit. When button A is pressed it displays this reading as a number.