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 small window into the inner workings of gesture controls used to operate video games, robots, and electronic toys using simple body motions. Now we’re going to build and use orientation control, in the form of a tilt switch, to operate an Arduino flasher. The parts for the project consist of a tilt control switch, three resistors, and two LEDs. Figure 8-1 shows the Up-Down Sensor block diagram.