Let's Make (Almost) Anything Husani Sallah

Home Principles and Practices Computer Aided Design Computer Controlled Cutting Electronics Production 3D Scanning and Printing Electronics Design Molding and Casting Embedded Programming Computer Controlled Machining Input Devices Composites Interface and Application Programming Output Devices Networking and Communication Mechanical/Machine Design Applications and Implications Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income Project Development

Input Devices This weeks project is to pick from various circuit boards that contain different input devices. I chose the temperature circuit board with the thermistor input device attached to it. I downloaded the trace and outline files and uploaded them onto the Roland Modela system. I milled the temperature circuit board and soldered the necessary components. I tested the board with a multi meter and all connections were good. Next, I saved the make file and the related .c file for my board and then I followed the tutorial as I programmed my board with the correct development environment. Things went smoothly as I uploaded the software, onto my computer which enabled my newly programmed board to display a temperature reading. I did however experience a few concerns. My readings began to freeze at certain points. They would stay at a certain point(around 29.82) until a drastic change in temperature occured; a cold jar out of the refrigerator was placed on the thermistor dropping the temperature reading from a "frozen" 29.8 down to much lower reading. The readings varied with the temperature after the very few glitches came and went. My second and third attempts proved to be much smoother with less read freezes occurring. I then changed the pin response code from 1-2-3-4 to 2-3-4-5 and back again in order to understand programming commands and what they mean to the programmer. I learned that this code change in the python file and the .c file will not change the functions of the programmer because the numerical order read by the programmer simply prepares it for the executable command to come. My input has proven itself to work and will accept other input commands that I set or change in the .c file. From this lesson I learned a few functions of a thermistor and discovered ways to communicate and control how it reads temperature and at what ranges it can sense temperature change.