Workshop 1. Introduction to Electronics with Paul Mirel:
Materials: Arduino board, Batteries, 5V power supply, Light emitting mode, resistor, breadboard, Push button switch; FSR’s are Sensor that allows you to detect physical pressure
What are Electronics?
“Electronics are things that people have made to control the flow of electricity. Using the flow of electricity, our electronic devices do things for us. Our telephones and televisions and automobiles and computers all contain electronics that we human beings have designed to perform specific tasks. We use electronics to communicate, to store information, to allow us to perceive things beyond direct human sensation, and to control household and manufacturing systems.
If you want to make something using electronics, it helps to understand some of how electronics work. Let’s begin by looking at the nature of electricity itself so that we understand the thing we want to control.”
In Electronics Current is what we want, and Resistance and Voltage are what we control. A light bulb is a resistor that heats up, hot enough to glow. Watch the intensity of the current. Add a resistor to reduce the current.
We created a void loop.
See also Introduction to circuits by Paul Mirel
To make an electric circuit, we will need to make electrical connections between wires, and between wires and components.
Making Connections Between Wires
Electronics Workshop: Sunday, September 30th
Materials: Batteries, Meter for reading
We used the Arduino board and set up a basic program. We set the Variable: “Outpin” It is a place where I can store a number, abox in the mind of the chip on the Arduino. We then used a VOID loop and brought in a delay(200) so the lights started blinking. We also adjust the speed, in which it is going to talk.
If you are going to make a circuit that you want to use for more than a few minutes, you are going to want to make it robust and reliable. You want the electrons to consistently go where you intend for them to go, and for them not to go where you don’t want them to.
If current doesn’t flow where you want it to, that is an open circuit. This happens when wire connections break.
If current flows where you don’t want it to, that is a short circuit. This happens when insulation fails, allowing metal to metal contact in a place where you don’t want it.
Make your connections strong, and your insulation good, and you will spend more time enjoying your work, and less time tracking down faulty connections.
Using a wire stripper
Bare wires can conduct electricity on contact. Since we are trying to get the electrons to follow a particular path in the circuit, we want contacts only where we choose them to be made. A contact in an unplanned location allows electrons to skip past part of the circuit. We call that a short circuit, or short.”
Electronics Workshop: Sunday October 7
An Arduino is a little computer that was designed specifically to be easy to program and easy to use. You will need a full size computer to program the Arduino.
Load the Integrated Development Environment Software
In order to get your computer and your Arduino talking to each other, you will need to run a specific program on your computer called an Integrated Development Environment, or IDE.
You can download the IDE program for free from the Arduino group. Go online, and go to this address: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
Electronics-Glossary-2018-09-30 (1)
Use a transistor to control a larger current or voltage than the Arduino can handle. Use the Arduino to control the transistor, and the transistor to control the load.
Choose the power supply voltage to match the voltage needed by the external load.
Choose the power supply current capacity to be greater than the current needed by the external load.
Use a PN2222 transistor for loads that take 5V to 30V, for currents up to 0.5A = 500mA.
“Join FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture and the African American Quilters of Baltimore for a Monument Quilt workshop, where you will be invited to co-create quilts about the criminalization of black women who are survivors of abuse. In this workshop, Glenda Richardson and Rosalind Robinson will share appliqué techniques and discuss the history of AAQB. Shanti Flagg FORCE will provide a “teach-in” about the criminalization of women of color for self-defense, to help the collaborative group bring more awareness to the critical issue, and talk about the history of the Monument Quilt.”
Florescent and Blue Shadow Weave Draft Graph, Acrylic on Plain Weave Woven Linen, 72 x 72″, 2015
Unravel the Code 