zero-waste design

I started out by planning specifically which how to split up my dinosaur kit into differentelectronic system components. I decided to use the mammoth as a prototype, and studied the shapes of all the parts available and where would make most sense to place, the input, outputs, microcontroller and batteries. This was a more complex process than I had imagined, as the number of connections between each of these components has to fit with the number of physical connections on the host 'bone' of the mammoth. Furthermore, each connection has to make two electrical connections: ground and live. So I set about trying to work out a simple way of achieveing this, coming up with a system of wirefixed into holes in the ply wood and running through the slots where the bones fit together:

The circuit:

* LED attached from pin 8 to ground

* pushbutton attached to pin 7 from +5V

created 2005

by DojoDave 
 modified 30 Aug 2011
 by Tom Igoe

 This example code is in the public domain.

 */

// constants won't change. They're used here to
// set pin numbers:
const int buttonPin = 7;     // the number of the pushbutton pin
const int ledPin =  8;      // the number of the LED pin

// variables will change:
int buttonState = 0;         // variable for reading the pushbutton status
//#include 
//#define rxPin 0
//#define txPin 1

// set up a new serial port
//SoftwareSerial mySerial =  SoftwareSerial(rxPin, txPin);

void setup() {
  // initialize the LED pin as an output:
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
  // initialize the pushbutton pin as an input:
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
  digitalWrite(buttonPin, HIGH);
// Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
//  mySerial.begin(4800);
//  mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
}

void loop(){

  // read the state of the pushbutton value:
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
//mySerial.println(buttonState);
  // check if the pushbutton is pressed.
  // if it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
  if (buttonState == HIGH) {
    // turn LED off:
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  }
  else {
    // flash LED on:
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
    delay(500);
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
    delay(500);

  }
}