Build Your Own Arduino Light Sculpture! Part 1
Making blinking LED patterns is fun and has real-world uses.Copyright 2009 Dr. James Hughes, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:330ci_LED_tail.jpg
Students create projects that introduce them to Arduino—a small device that can be easily programmed to control and monitor a variety of external devices like LEDs and sensors. First they learn a few simple programming structures and commands to blink LEDs. Then they are given three challenges—to modify an LED blinking rate until it cannot be seen, to replicate a heartbeat pattern and to send Morse code messages. This activity prepares students to create more involved multiple-LED patterns in the Part 2 companion activity.
In the 21st century, acquiring the basics of programming and computer science, as well as a basic comfort level with electromechanical devices, are foundational knowledge for all engineers, and required components of engineering education. In these projects, students apply an understanding of sequence and control to create a variety of specified LED blinking patterns.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Blink an LED on an Arduino at a given rate.
- Create a specific blinking pattern such as mimicking a heartbeat or representing a message encoded in Morse code.