Fun with electronics!
Haere mai and welcome!
This website shows you step by step how to make your very own nightlight or burglar alarm out of a computer!
- Make a nightlight!
- Make a burglar alarm!
This nightlight is set to automatically come on when it gets dark and go off when it gets light.
This is a motion sensitive burglar alarm to guard your treasures with light and sound.
Do you need to have previous electronics experience?
Nope!
Need any equipment?
Yes. Each activity has an equipment list and a diagram. Equipment is made up of supplies (battery, arduino, breadboard) and components (LED’s. resistors, cables etc).
Pick an activity and get building!
To make something work electronically you need 3 things -
- An input
- An output
- A system
An input is a place where energy or information enters a ‘system’.
It’s a place where energy or information exits a ‘system’!
It’s a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network (like New Zealand’s highways connecting together to make one big interconnected road system).
How do you tell an electronic system what to do?
You can programme a system with ‘code’. Code instructs, or ‘talks to’ a system in computer language. We will use an Arduino platform and software to talk to the system on each activity.
What do you think will happen if a system is damaged or there is a piece missing?
If part of a system is damaged or not connected (or programmed) properly, the system may not work as it should, so checking connections (and program code) is very important! This is called testing - and failed tests count as good tests!
Terms
What is Arduino? Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino Boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board.