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Physical Computing for Museum Displays
How do computers use code to get something to work?
Microcontrollers are miniature computers and they are used for one task. For example they are used in cars, cellphones, fridges, microwaves, and lots more! We made a “bee box” to demonstrate how a microcontroller works. Our bee box is similar to a video game or an electronic museum display where you press a button and the microcontroller inside controls the images you see and the audio files you hear. Our bee box works using code and wires that are connected to the microcontroller. We made a hole wherever we wanted a button and we put a brad in that hole. We cut and striped wires to connect our buttons to our microcontroller.
Our museum display describes bees because our school raises bee colonies. We have a student bee team that teaches people about bees and processes honey for sale. We thought we would combine our interest in bees and at the same time demonstrate how coding and electrical wiring works.
Striping the wires
For the buttons on our box we used brads because they are conductive.
Putting our wires in the
Microcontroller ports
We had to cut and strip
all of our wires.
Introduction
Microcontrollers are miniature computers and they are used for one task. They are used in cars, cellphones, fridges, microwaves, and lots more! Cars have over 250 microcontrollers! Some examples are the; power breaks, steering wheel, the buttons to move your seat, radio station, power windows and door locks.
Research
This project is about physical computing.Physical computing involves coding, microcontrollers and electrical wires. My partner and I had to learn about all these three things. For two and a half years we have been using Scratch. Scratch is a computer coding language created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The code is what controls the microcontroller. The microcontroller is what send the electrical signals to get the metal brads to work.
We also learned how to strip electrical wires and connect them to our microcontroller. In order to get our microcontroller to work we had to remap or recode it.
Our demonstration on physical computing is a museum display about bees. Our museum display describes bees because our school raises bee colonies. We have a student bee team that teaches people about bees and processes honey for sale. We thought we would combine our interest in bees and at the same time demonstrate how coding and electrical wiring works.
Results
We made a “electronic bee box” to demonstrate how a microcontroller works. Our bee box is similar to a video game or a electronic museum display where you press a button and the microcontroller inside controls the images you see and the audio files you hear. Our bee box works using code and wires that are connected to the microcontroller. We made a hole. We cut and stripped wires to connect our buttons to our microcontroller.
Electrical Circuit
Power plug
Input port you plug your wires into here
Cpu ( central processing unit ) this is the “brain” or what controls the microcontroller. This part understands the code when it receives the code it sends electrical signals to all the parts.
Input port
Ground wire you need this to complete your circuit
Copper traces very tiny wires that connect all the parts to the brain
Results: How to code on Scratch
To code our microcontroller to work we used an “event” code line “when ______ key pressed.”
This makes the input to the keyboard letters A, B, C, D, E, and F. We also added an extra code line to stop all the sounds when the space bar is clicked.
To create the backdrops we made the backdrops on Google Slides and uploaded them to Scratch. Then we assigned the slides and recordings to each letter.
How did we make the recordings? First we went to the sounds tab to record our voice. We looked at our slide show to know what to say. We added a code line to “stop all sounds” when people press a different button.
Coding for bee project
Code for bee project
We had to make a slide show for all the images. Here is the link to the slide show. We imported those slides into Scratch
Recordings for bee poject
Recording sounds for our bee box.
Results: How to program input keys to a microcontroller
To make the CPU (Brain) of the microcontroller know what to do you need to “remap” your makey-makey. This means to change the way the microcontrollers work.
The CPU knows that when it receives the code “A” from your computer it looks for a certain pin. You can remap your pins to whatever letter you want.
To remap your microcontroller you first have to go on the Makey-Makey website, and follow the instruction carefully. First you have to put alligator clips through the holes of the micro bit and plug the USB cable into your computer. Once you did that, you use the arrows on the backside of the makey-makey to move the keys to remap the makey-makey and change the letters to the input pins.
How do you wire a microcontroller?
To wire a microcontroller, you first need to get a board or device to wire it up to, after you do that you will have to then put buttons, or some type of input device to let the wires wrap around, after you do that, you have to wrap your wires around the input device (for me it was brads for buttons) and then you have to put the wires into the microcontroller along with you ground key. After you done with all of that, you will have to get a USB, you will plug it in to your microcontroller and your computer, after that, you will be able to press the input device and then the output should be whatever you coded it to be.
Wiring the bee box. We had cut and strip the wires.
Testing the bee box. We had to check the code to make sure there was no problems.
How we learned about microcontrollers
This was our first time with microcontroller. We made an interactive board about Castles. https://youtu.be/-fQcDw4eHWI
Code for Castle Project
At the bee barn. We were learning about how bees make honey and how they pollinate flowers to get honey.
Mr. Byrd was demonstrating how to properly put on a bee protection suit.
We got to taste the honey. The honey was really sweet and delicious.
This is the honey that our school gets from our bee colony.
Dissecting flowers. We dissected flowers to learn about how bees pollinate.