In this lab, we were exploring electricity and learning more about circuits. the analogy that was the most helpful to hear was the idea of electricity as water going through a pipe.  voltage would be how much water is being pushed through (measured in (V)volts), current is how strong the water is being pushed through (measured in (A) Amperes or milliAmps (mA), and last of all resistance (in Ohms) is likened to the size of the pipe, which will oppose both current and voltage.  that’s so hot right? yea, so movin’ on.

Part I. Measuring Voltage

Working with Winslow on this lab, we first set out to test our skills at measuring voltage. after soldering the DC power jack, we connected it to our breadboard, along with our voltage regulator.  taking our multimeter, we measured roughly 15V going in and 5V coming out.  so far so good.

Part II. Basic LED circuits.

Here we connected the LED, switch, and 220-ohm resistor in a circuit.  again no problem.  measuring our voltage with the:

switch on (0 V)      :  LED (1.78V) + Resistor (2.89V) = 4.67V TOTAL

switch off (3.75 V) : LED (0 V) + Resistor (0V) = 3.75V TOTAL

Part III. Components in Series.

Here we were connecting two LEDs in a series (power to ground).  the voltage reading across both registered at around 2.4V, which makes sense since together they should add up to roughly 5V.  the second we added the third LED however, it dropped, and the third LED would not light.

Part IV.  Components in Parallel.

HOLY SMOKES! so we had a few LED casulties on this one.  someone suggested replacing our voltage regulator with another one, even though it had the same numbers on the front, the new regulator had a top section that was slightly different.  it might be the reason, but regardless of which, our LEDs lit up sporadically.  it was a little confusing at first to figure out how to connect our multimeter in circuit to our existing parallel circuit on the breadboard but we figured it out eventually, reading 1A.

Part V.  Generating Variable Voltage w/a Potentiometer

Finally we added our trusty pot to the mix. watch our conclusions in the video below.

Winslow and I decided to observe people when they least expected it.  on a friday night.  we wanted to observe people in a private setting than see how it differed with people out on the streets in the east village and LES.  At the party, people were thoroughly stimulated so the only time they relied on technology was to improve their social experience, ie. music, locating friends, etc. People on the street however, used technology as a social crutch, finding easy outs for awkward social situations, relying on their cell phones and other devices as a means of avoiding a situation at hand, keeping themselves occupied, or even as a comfort device–holding it in their hand even though they weren’t interacting with it. for the most part, cell phone-use by our subjects prohibited real direct human interaction with the people who were standing literally inches away.

I was thinking of Yoko Ono’s “Box of Smile” as the inspiration behind this piece.  In that piece, the viewer would approach a closed box that simply said a box of smile and upon opening the box, it would reveal a mirror in which the viewer would “get it” and start smiling, fulfilling the work’s name.  For my own love-o-meter, the concept aimed to accomplish two ideas: (1) love is special and frankly, who is more special than yourself (didn’t your mother tell you that)?; and (2) in order to love freely, you must first learn to love yourself.  To demonstrate this, I placed a mirror inside a box with a photocell sensor that would detect how far a person’s face was from the mirror.  I than set up a set of conditions that would give a range for how far a person’s face was from the mirror, in which the red LED would light up when the person’s face was literally pressed up against the mirror in embrace.

I at first tried the love-me-meter with a passive infrared motion sensor but was limited in the fact that it was only a digital output, telling me whether or not something was moving.  Not willing to spend the money on a more analog-type of proximity sensor, I decided to use the light sensor as an indicator of how close an object was to something (would block more light).  The results are below.

so everyone talked about that first rush of elation when you first manage to hook up the arduino board to the breadboard correctly and you see the LEDs light up, and don’t get me wrong, i felt that rush.  i also felt a rush when i held that soldering tool in my hand and started to smell the fumes coming off the metal…but i believe some would call that a different rush.

i felt like i wanted to understand the lab more in depth however because i didn’t feel confident understanding how each part was being controlled and how the commands in arduino were controlling the LEDs.   so i added another switch and another LED light to see if I could get it to light up correctly which i did.

finally i wanted to see if i could come up with my own version of a combination lock.  i at first was toying with the idea of having it somehow monitor a coin flip but i couldn’t think of a conceivable way of detecting a difference between heads and tails.  so i toyed with the idea of having a color combination lock.  the idea is that a person would have a series of secondary colors lit up, purple, orange and green in the outside ring and that in order to unlock it, you would have to hit the switches corresponding to the primary color LED (tho i couldn’t find a blue LED light) in the right combination to get the secondary colors.  currently having some difficulty programming this in arduino however but i’m going to keep trying to figure it out.