Lab 3c

Fun with your LED cube

ENGR 40M
Chuan-Zheng Lee
Stanford University
19 May 2017
Announcements

• Homework 6 is not released today.

It will be released on Monday (May 22).
It will be due at 11am Tuesday week (May 30).

• Homework 6 prepares you for lab 4.

• There is still a prelab 4.

• Homework 7 will be released Monday, May 29,

and will be due Monday, June 5.

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 2
Overview of lab 3c

• Your task is to get your cube to respond to some

sort of input.

• For most of you, this will involve adding hardware.

• You choose what you want to do, subject to

minimum requirements.

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 3
Our suggestions for input

• Serial data
• Potentiometer
• Pushbutton switches (or other switches)
• Audio
• Capacitive touch sensing

You’re free (and encouraged) to propose something

else, but be sure to tell your TA well in advance!

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 4
Serial data

• You’ve already used the Serial Monitor

• You can also write computer software to interact

with the serial port directly

• If you only respond to serial data, we’ll expect to

see some impressive software

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 5
Analog-to-digital converter

• analogRead() reads the voltage on the pin,

scaled to be a number between 0 and 1023
void loop() {
int reading = analogRead(A3);
Serial.println(reading);
}

Serial Monitor:
819
819

• This takes longer than digitalRead(), but this

probably won’t bother you

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 6
Potentiometer

• Essentially a variable voltage divider

standard symbol internal mechanics photo

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 7
Potentiometer

• Essentially a variable voltage divider

R1 and R2 vary with

the wiper, but
R1 + R2 = constant

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 8
Potentiometer

• Connect the wiper to the analog input

• Read using analogRead()

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 9
Audio

• You can connect an audio output to your

Arduino… almost.

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 10
Audio

• analogRead() the instantaneous value

• The input will be “centered” at 2.5 V, so you’ll
need to process it in software
• An additional handout guides you through this

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 11
Audio—frequency response

• The ArduinoFFT3 library can process your signal

to return a frequency-domain representation

• Implements the fast Fourier transform, an

algorithm which computes a close cousin of the
Fourier series

• An additional handout guides you through this

• Video: https://youtu.be/FRXDTiOHFlI
May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 12
Audio—frequency response

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 13
Pushbutton switch

• SPST, momentary and normally open

(sometimes known as push-to-make)

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Pushbutton switch: debouncing

What we think a switch does:

What it actually does:

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 15
Pushbutton switch: debouncing

• As the switch bounces, the Arduino can register

many transitions
• Dealing with this is called debouncing
• One strategy: Ignore transitions too soon after the
last one
• An additional handout guides you through this
May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 16
Programming a pattern

• Since you’ve abstracted away the time-

multiplexing part, displaying a pattern consists
mainly of filling in the pattern array.

• Recall triply-nested loops:

for (int z = 0; z < 4; z++) {
for (int y = 0; y < 4; y++) {
for (int x = 0; x < 4; x++) {
pattern[z][y][x] = (some value);
}
}
}

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 17
Raindrop pattern

• The raindrop pattern looks like rain is falling from

the top of the cube to the bottom

• Videos
• https://youtu.be/-tZJ-3NSlhY?t=52
• https://youtu.be/DahwcDeqyA0

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 18
Raindrop pattern
Every time period (say, 150 ms):
1. Move the pattern down by one plane
2. Choose an LED at random in the top plane

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 19
Decomposition

Every time period (say, 150 ms):

1. Move the pattern down by one plane
2. Choose an LED at random in the top plane

• Decompose this into smaller steps:

1. movePatternDown(pattern)
2. chooseRandomLEDInTopPlane(pattern)
• As a principle, each function should do exactly
one thing

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Timing and inputs

• Update the pattern once every (say) second

• With no inputs, this will work:
void loop() {
static byte ledOn[4][4][4];
updatePattern(ledOn); // updates pattern
delay(1000);
}

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 21
Timing and inputs

• Stop/start whenever the button is pressed

• Why won’t this work?
void loop() {
static byte ledOn[4][4][4];
static bool running = false;
if (running)
updatePattern(ledOn); // updates pattern
if (digitalRead(BUTTON) == HIGH)
running = !running;
delay(1000);
}

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 22
Timing and inputs
• Better: Check button without delay
void loop() {
static byte ledOn[4][4][4];
static bool running = false;
static long nextUpdateTime = millis();
if (millis() > nextUpdateTime) {
if (running)
updatePattern(ledOn); // updates pattern
nextUpdateTime += 1000;
}
if (digitalRead(BUTTON) == HIGH)
running = !running;
}

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 23
Complexity requirements

• Minimum requirement:
cubes: 25; 6×6 planes: 35; larger planes: 30
• Must do one “additional handout”, or propose your own
• Details are in the “overview” handout
Points Hardware Software
5 No additional hardware Simple response
(includes serial data)
10 Minor additional hardware Minor complexity
• Raindrop pattern
15 Moderate additional hardware Moderate complexity
• Pushbuttons
• Audio non-frequency
20 Complex additional hardware Impressive complexity

May 12, 2017 ENGR 40M Spring 2017 — C.Z. Lee, J. Plummer, R. Howe 24
Breadboard style
Please don’t:

http://www.electro-music.com/forum/phpbb-files/thumbs/t_klee_bb_131.jpg
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Coding style

https://www.xkcd.com/1833/
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