[{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This scratch is a remix on the Line Follower Scratch from the text.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/scratch\/line_follower\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch"],"text":"Project Link: Line Follower Project Code: I spent a lot of time on this scratch experimenting with different ways to achieve my goals. The first thing I wanted to do was to accurately track the lap time of the cat as they ran around the track. The second thing I wanted to do was figure out a way to have the cat stop if they fell off the track. Both of those things were implemented using color sensing but I am sure there is more than one way to skin a cat. Finally, I had to implement a method to enable the user to increase the speed of the cat or they would never fall off the track. The code shown is a little small because there is quite a bit happening but feel free to take a closer look by clicking on one of the links above.","title":"Line Follower"},{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This is one of my first scratches and utilizes simple animation.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/scratch\/pacing_lion\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch"],"text":"Project Link: Pacing Lion Project Code: This simple project utilizes animation and sounds to create an immersive scene. Click on the lion and see what happens!","title":"Pacing Lion"},{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This scratch utilizes variables.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/scratch\/pressure\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch"],"text":"Project Link: Pressure Under Water Project Code: This project was a little tricky because the supplied formula didn\u2019t calculate pressure correctly becausedue to the fact that it did not correct for the absolute value of the y position. Once that was corrected for the fish correctly reported the pressure as they swam around.","title":"Pressure Under Water"},{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This scratch calculates the resistance of multiple resistors in series or parallel.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/scratch\/r_calculator\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch"],"text":"Project Link: Resistor Calculator Project Code: This project was a lot of fun and also very annoying. It was fun because I was able to do something useful with scratch and enjoyed setting up a custom background while working with multiple variables. It was challenging becuase it is quite difficult to do complex calculations with the drag and drop interface of Scratch. I really wish we could just type things in!","title":"Resistor Calculator"},{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This project builds a simple series circuit.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/makey-makey\/twinkle_series\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch","Makey-Makey"],"text":"Project Link: Twinkle Twinkle LED Project Gallery: The scratch is very simple without the Makey-Makey kit attached. Whenever you press the space bar the wizard makes a star briefly appear with a flourish. But with the Makey-Makey kit connected and the circuit constructed correctly, it also lights up the LED. It is important to note that the makey makey kit is really just an input device as far as I can tell so far. I have not figured out a way to have the computer actually send information to the board. For example, when I press the space bar on my computer it doesn\u2019t light up my LED. I have to \u201cpress\u201d the space bar on the board to light up the LED which also interacts with the Scratch program. In order to build the circuit you need to connect the key out header on the back of the Makey Makey board to a resistor and then to the long leg (anode) of an LED. Then the short leg of the LED (cathode) is connected to the ground header on the back of the Makey Makey board. Finally, I connected an alligator clip to the space bar button on the front of the Makey Makey Board and touched the other end of the clip to ground to close the circuit on the space bar button. This activates the key out header on the board and illuminates the LED as the wizard twinkles his star. In the photos below you can see the assembled project as well as the project in action. This project is intended to help the learner understand a basic series circuit and how to build one. I used a breadboard to make the circuit hold together a little better but you can do it with only alligator clips. I used the resistors and the LED from the Arduino kit I had but the actual Arduino was not used in this project.","title":"Twinkle Twinkle LED"},{"categories":null,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00-06:00","description":"This project builds a parallel circuit.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/projects\/makey-makey\/twinkle_para\/","tags":["Projects","Scratch","Makey-Makey"],"text":"Project Link: Twinkle Twinkle LEDs Project Gallery: The second mini-project I developed is the logical extension of the simple series circuit project. In this mini-project, I used multiple LEDs to create a parallel circuit. This mini-project builds on the simple circuits challenges #6 and #7 on the Makey Makey blog. In this project, the maker can explore using multiple colors of LEDs and different resistors to examine how the changes affect the brightness of the LEDs. I would like to extend this project further by having the maker use the resistor calculator I developed earlier in the course to calculate the appropriate resistors to use with one, two, or three LEDs in series or parallel circuits as well as learn how to work with Ohm\u2019s law ( Voltage(V) = Current(I) * Resistance(R)) in a practical way. For the scratch project integration, I extended the previous project\u2019s scratch by adding extra costumes to the star sprite and setting up the script so that each star twinkles to match the LEDs on the breadboard. The physical side of the project is shown above with the circuit open and closed. It is difficult to see in the bright room but all of the LEDs are on. I also show a few extra resistors that can be used by the maker to experiment with.","title":"Twinkle Twinkle LEDs"},{"categories":null,"date":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z","description":"Search my portfolio site.","keywords":null,"link":"\/maker_portfolio\/search\/","tags":null,"text":"","title":"Search"}]