Xiaoyun Liu

Mini Traffic Lights

September 13th, 2019

 

Working Process

This week is our first week to hand on Arduino. I have a long time never touch Physics since I study in art school. We reviewed electronic and had a sense of how to connect series and in parallel circuits. I have already set up the basic series on the breadboard in class. I grabbed a couple of light bulbs and switches, and wires from the shop. When I go home, I tried to reset that and change another light bulb. It still worked, which means I am on the right way. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light bulb, wire, resistance

 

 

 

I set another light bulb set next to the one I just reset, and test if it works. Then I set the third one and they all work. 

I paused to do the lab and walked to school. I have to walk through at least 20 traffic lights to school from my apartment. And the red, yellow, and green light reminds me of the traffic light. So I had an idea of making a small traffic light for this project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reset and change a light bulb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We light up! Let's dance!!!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many ideas are from our daily life, it sometimes just happened in a second. On the second day, I tried to make some changes to the series, I cut the black wire, add a red wire, and tried to add a switch on it. I tried a lot of times, the switch itself is conducted but the bottom is not working. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the black wire touches the red wire the light bulb light up

 

 

 

Then I tried different things to test if they are conducted. I tried coins and paper clips, they are all good conductors. I found when two paper clips touched it can also conduct, so I had an idea to clip the paper clips on the wire and make it as the switch when two paper clips touch each other, the light bulb went on. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper clips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coin is a good conductor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper clip conduct

 

 

 

Today is the Mid-autumn festival, we eat moon cake today to celebrate the festival. I am eating moon cake while I am doing this project. After I eat the moon, I had the idea that I can use the moon cake box to make a cover for the mini traffic light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to know what does moon cake looks like? Sorry, I just ate it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When expanding the box, it is not trash anymore, it can be a good material 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found some tools,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools to make the cover, sorry I don't have a ruler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks cleaner with the cover, sorry I made it a little bit dirty

 

 

 

I also found the stickers of my planer, it can be the label of the lights. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Color stickers from my  planner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easier to know which paper clip is controlling which color of light 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, I simulated the process of turning on the light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Dear drivers, the red light is on, please consciously abide by the traffic rules, courtesy pedestrians, and to be a nice driver.”

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

It is very useful and important to know the basics of how to set up series and in parallel circuits. In our future projects, we may need to use Arduino a lot. I need to familiarize myself with his operating principles as soon as possible so that I can save more time when I do the project.

This time I couldn't connect to the switch because I wasn't familiar with the theory. I hope to improve the Mini Traffic Light project through future studies. Maybe you can add a twisting button to set a frequency for the three lights so that they can turn on themselves.