Author: haroonkhan
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Introduction
Pushbutton Multicolor Flasher Here’s a cool trick you can play on a friend using the Arduino and an RGB LED. Build an RGB flasher with a mini pushbutton switch on an Arduino MakerShield. Show your friend the MakerShield and tell him the mini light bulb is magical and it can produce three colors: red, green, and…
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The RGB FlasherThe RGB Flasher
The RGB Flasher is an awesome Arduino microcontroller gadget that displays three colors (red, green, and blue) on one LED. You can easily build the circuit on the MakerShield, which will make it portable so you can carry it in your shirt pocket. You can use either the Fritzing diagram shown in Figure 9-4 or the circuit schematic diagram…
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Circuit Theory
Figure 9-2 shows a typical RGB LED with the wiring pinout names. There are three pins, one for each color, and one common pin for positive attachment to a power supply. Like the ordinary LED, the positive and negative pins are wired to the positive and negative points of a DC (direct current) circuit. To illustrate, Figure 9-3 shows three SPST (single…
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Introduction
Free Running Switcher In past projects, one or two LEDs, usually red and/or green, were used as visual indicators, letting us know that the Arduino had completed a task or operation. But why limit ourselves to red and green? There is a type of LED that has three different colors all in the same package.…
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The Up-Down SensorThe Up-Down Sensor
A simple Arduino microcontroller flasher can easily be turned into an Up-Down Sensor by adding a tilt control switch. As shown in Figure 8-3, the tilt control sensor is mounted on the MakerShield. When the tilt control switch is in the horizontal position, both the red and green LEDs will flash. Placing the MakerShield on its side will…
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Circuit Theory
As shown in Figure 8-1, the LED wiring is quite different from previous projects, because an electrical ground and a +5V battery are used to individually operate them. The idea behind this wiring technique is to allow one LED to be on at all times. The circuit schematic diagram in Figure 8-2 on the left shows LED1 on while LED2 is off.…
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Parts List
Figure 8-1. The Up-Down Sensor block diagram TECH NOTE A tilt control switch is sometimes called a tilt sensor.
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Introduction
Up-Down Sensor The FrankenBot toy illustrated the method of flashing two LEDs wired in parallel. The Arduino microcontroller made it easy to change the flash rate of two LEDs using a 10KΩ potentiometer. How cool would it be to control an LED’s flash rate by moving an electronic box in an up-down motion? This project is a…
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Upload the Arduino OR Logic Gate Sketch
With the Arduino AND Logic Gate built on the MakerShield, it is time to upload the sketch. Example 7-1 operates the green LED using a pushbutton switch and a photocell. Here are the steps you’ll need to take: The Arduino OR Logic Gate will turn on the LED when the photocell is covered or the pushbutton switch is…