BLINK and MORE

This is a little clip of a blinking led.. a slight elaboration by connecting one leg to pin 13 and the other to ground .

Went through the other labs , watched the videos.. need to watch repeatedly.. but are great..

ready for next step..

I have encountered most of information before .. but needs to be burned into my brain so I can finally feel comfortable... 



I found the video on setting up a breadboard especially helpful. Although I thought I already knew how to do it , the explanation was very clear and I believe it will make my next project with a breadboard much cleaner and workable. It is great to have the experts at ITP provide this information. I am thrilled.The voltage regulator is still a little mysterious as I have never used one. I have used resistors and hooked up power supplies.. I did not know VR's were usually included. Perhaps we can clarify in next class.

 I am noticing a lot of the components are three pronged . It seems to mean power ,pin and ground.. How exactly to position 3 prongs in bread board is still a little fuzzy.. The transistors and their differences were explained in the video but their function was not demonstrated so am not so clear on how to use them. I just looked at the servo video and infered that if one was to use a separate power source in addition to the 5v of the arduino one would use a separate voltage regulator.. 

The soldering video from Adafruit was very informative.. I for one will get goggles as I am far sighted and take my glasses off for close work.. I do not like to take chances with my eyes.. Also as suggested I am getting a fume extractor.. not that I am paranoid.. but I've had friends get sick from art related health hazards.. The video is something again I will watch several times even though I solder fairly well.

I am hoping that this class will hone the few skills I have in Pcomp and greatly expand my abilities.. Motors have always been very mysterious and as an animator who wants to apply that sensibility to physical components, it seems to be necessary to have a clear understanding of,  which I hope this class will guide me towards. I am also very interested in how the many projects I admire by artists who use Pcomp not only achieve their technical mastery but also what are their theoretical and philosophical underpinnings. There are many other things I want to learn.. It probably is much more than one class can cover. I hope however we can talk about wearable and soft circuitry (something I have experimented with and am becoming obsessed by)...