Electronics - Fixed

Today we met up in the Fab Lab, to set up our electronics and breadboarding circuit again, to check for any issues. Once we had set it up, it was working perfectly, which meant that the magnet glued to the classroom desk must have been interfering with the reed switch, which was causing it to react weirdly at times. We were glad that there was nothing wrong with the circuit itself, which seemed to be working perfectly today. With that acting as our proof of concept, now all we have to do is make the video before Friday's class/presentation. There are some photos below, attached to this blog post, showing the final set up for our circuit.

   

  

If we were to make this in real life, out alarm clock would consist of a similar set up. However, there would be a couple of small differences. The electronics would still be the same, and reed switches, resistors, magnets and an arduino would still all be used. In terms of the Arduino, instead of requiring a computer or laptop to supply the code, we would use a small Arduino Bootloader to upload the code. The code would consist of having a function which reverses the reed switch, which would cause the alarm to activate once the magnet moves away from the switch (just as we had done in this circuit). With regards to the trigger/catapult itself, we were looking at using some sort of servo, and speeding it up, in order to trigger the catapult. It would be quite small, with a sharp, speedy spring action to shoot the ball across the room.