For my input devices, I added what I had laying around, which was a small potentiometer (knob) from the starter kit. I used this to control the fan speed. When the system gets too hot, I can manually adjust the fan speed to go faster, slower, or just right.
I only had to tweak the code a little bit with the help of ChatGPT (aka "Sparks"), and we got it working. Before everything was running correctly, I ran into an issue where the board was not getting power from the RP2350. After troubleshooting, I realized the legs coming out of the microcontroller were not making a good connection.
After trying multiple things, I pushed the board slightly down and to the left, and suddenly the power came on. From there, everything started working and I was back in business.
The system worked just like before: when I held the TMP36 sensor, the red LED would turn on and the motor would start spinning. As I turned the potentiometer knob, the fan speed increased or decreased. When the heat disappeared, the green LED came back on and the motor stopped.
I did not get a chance to mill this PCB board yet because I was still working through the CNC software internet issues. However, I do have it made in KiCad. It is basically the same as Week 8, but I added a spot for the potentiometer.
