Week 9: Output Devices

About 📓

  • Group assignment: Measure the power consumption of an output device

  • Individual assignment: Add an output device to a microcontroller board you've designed, and program it to do something

    • Process ✏️

    Goal: Turn on an LED with a button

    This was a big week, and I am still learning a lot when it comes to electronics. If knowing the correct terminiology and asking the right questions can be a bit intimidating, but I'm grateful for the teamwork in the Harvard section.

    I still had a lot to work on from last week’s input devices, and my project this week was directly building off of it. Last week I was on a mission to get input data from my MPU6050 accelerometer. this week I wanted to connect an LED to this board so that I could have both the accelerometer and my LED working in unison.

    However this was a bit tricky because I was still solidifying my input device so it was pivotal that I laid the groundwork for that in understanding it and was able to view all of my data in the serial monitor.

    I found simulating my electronics in Wokwi as an initial step to be extremely helpful before moving to my PCB design.

    Moving to Hardware

    Once I knew that my electronics would work (in theory & in a perfect world), I started to build my electornics.
    I used Bit Runner instead of KiKad for my PCB board design. I was AMAZED by the UX/UI,
    and pretty cool to be working alongside Leo on his own project.


    Output dev process

    There is still a ton of work to be done on this week, but I'm really proud of the growth I've made in the process!

    Reflection 🤔

    Working with the electronics and building my own Hardware has been one of the most challenging but rewarding parts of this year.
    When I look at all the hardware devices I use I've never really considered how much thought goes into the board design, the
    specific components and how important everything communicates with each other.

    While a lot of the time is spent on simply downloading new software or just looking at tutorials on how to actually use the machines,
    the more experience I have in The REEF, the more familiar and better equipped I am with these tools.

    I really am starting to feel more empowered by the skills I have acquired and my potential (and limitations) as an enginee

    Project Resources 🔗

    Wokwi Simulation

    Bit Runner Link