Soldering my own circuit!

All my training had been leading up to this moment, I was ready. I had my bread board plan prepared. I’d just practised doing 10 Hershey kisses on a fake bread board. Soldering is really fun, plus I believe I may have done the most perfect Hershey of Hershey kisses ever. It had a nice rounded base and it arose to the top perfectly. But now I was ready!

I grabbed what I needed:

• Solder wire
• Soldering iron
• Soldering fan
• Bread board
• 2x resisters
• 2x lights
• Battery
• Red wire
• Black wire
• glasses

Fan on; check. Iron on; check! Let’s do this. !Insert intense music here! I grab my red wire, thread it through the loop, grab the wire and I soldered. Perfect ready for the next one. Black wire through the loop, get the solder and BAM, black wire not so done! I may or may not have accidentally stuck the wire in the wrong way, whoops! Well luckily it’s an easy fix I just placed the iron on the solder and came clean off, or should I say grey off! No, I shouldn’t say that, see the joke was that solder is grey and yep I should stop now anyway… Next I got my resister placed it through the holes and I did another perfect solder! I’m on fire! Next resister, done. I then cut the rest of the unneeded wire off. Wow this is a lot easier than I expected it to be.

Now it’s time to get my lights on. I was a little nervous about my lights to be honest, because I was scared that they wouldn’t work and I would have to start my whole circuit again. I slowly grab my first light out of the bag, I double check if it is going through the right hole. I grab the soldering iron and wire and begin. Slowly I make the most amazing, incredibly wonderful Hershey kiss ever! It was so beautiful I could cry… Next light… Piece of cake!

Now it was time for the moment of truth. My sweaty thumb reaches for the button, a slow click and… ONE LIGHT! Wait one light! Well I realised that I put my light in the wrong way, whoops. Try again, lights, solder, action. And now no lights… Well isn’t this just the greatest day ever. Could things get any worse, yes, yes they could. My board decided to have a hissy fit a gave me an overly large electric shock, I felt my arm jiggling. I don’t when, I don’t know how but my electric shock told my board to light the second light! I’d done it, a complete light circuit! I felt like this was the best day of my life.

So in the end I finally finished my box…

Today in STEM Kate K, Bebe and I tried making the straw circuit to explain how our bread board will work. Below is a photo showing the explanation of the straw circuit! The colour straws connect with the same colour (except pink )

The red is the bridge connecting to the light which is the blue. The deep red is the red cord that connects into the battery. The black cord is the cord that connects into the battery. The battery is the deep blue. The button is the green.

CONNECT:

I already knew that it was important to solder in order for all the components on your board to stay where they are but I never realised that without soldering we cannot create a basic board. Soldering is important as after the solder wire melts and is placed on the board it dries up. This causes the component on the board to be stuck inside the metal solder shield meaning it doesn’t fall out!

EXTEND:

Personally, I was amazed at how tiny the circuit board actually was! That thing is minuscule, tiny, petit! I’m a little nervous now because I do not want to mess up my circuit board because it’s so tiny. This information really extended my knowledge as I used to think that all circuit boards were huge… I was clearly wrong! I really hope I don’t mess up my circuit.

CHALLENGE:

I found it challenging when the lady made the circuit because I was wondering how do the electrons move through the circuit; there are so many breaks in it. A while later I realized that soldering is melting iron; iron is a metal and electrons can travel through metal. Wow, I sound like such an idiot. So, after that I realised iron in a metal and electrons can travel through metals!

Connect Extend Challenge

CONNECT:

Soldering has connected to previous learning as at my old school we learnt basic soldering skills. We learnt how to make a remote for a program. Hopefully I will learn more skills to help me and my soldering future. I would like to learn how to use an iron properly because last time the teacher had to do that part for us.

EXTEND:

The soldering video extended my knowledge as I never knew that you could make lights light up using soldering. Hopefully I will be able to make my light box light up with my handy dandy soldering skills. The video also extended my knowledge because I didn’t know that you had to solder in a place with fresh air, I mean I could of dead if I didn’t know!

CHALLENGE:

I found the video challenging when she told me about attaching the parts to the board. How does solder attach materials to the circuit board? I would really like to find an answer to this question before I start to solder.

I’m ready, I’m pumped, so lets tackle these challenges! Second lesson of 3D printing and I more ready then ever. I’ve already done the first challenge which was basic controls so now it’s time to complete the others. First challenge of the day… Making a troll! This was pretty easy, you just needed to adjust the settings and make your troll move by clicking a button, easy! Next challenge colouring, 3, 2, 1 done! After about half an hour I had finished all the challenges, yeah! So now I studying carpentry joints in order for my final light box to stay together.

After studying carpentry joints I decided to mess around with maker’s empire, you know seeing what I could do, by the end of the lesson I made what I thought was a pretty cute dog. Unfortunately, my laptop got re-imaged and now my dog has disappeared!

R.I.P Dog 2k17

To remember my dog, here is a bunch of cute dogs to brighten up your day!

My first lesson of 3D printing, I’ve done 3D printing before so hopefully I kinda have an idea of what I’m doing. The video we watched was about using 3D printers to the benefit of people with disabilities, by making making hands for people who don’t have them. This looked extremely hard, and to be honest I was a bit nervous, but luckily I’m not making hands for anyone anytime soon! We started by downloading a program called maker’s empire, which by the way took for ages to download, 20 minutes to by exact!

After 20 minutes of downloading, we finally started! I started challenges teaching me the basics, the first challenge was the controls of maker’s empire, this was pretty easy, but because the downloading took so long the lesson was over, darn!

I look forward to the next 4 weeks of 3D printing! YAY!!!! Paul Sullivan via Compfight

This term in STEM I have developed many skills throughout this coding journey. Before I started the topic of coding, I was very nervous because I was not at all a technology wiz. Though, in STEM one of the main skill or character strength I learnt was persistence. Many people wouldn’t have thought of this strength when they thought of coding, but persistence is one of the most important skills in coding. Many times in my STEM I was very confused by my code, so I tried to find where my code was going wrong. This may have taken a long time but I was persistent because after carefully studying my code I could find my errors and fix them before I got frustrated.

During this term I believe that I tried my best to be engaged in the coding experience. I used my class time very well because I sat next to people that would help me and not distract me from my work. Many lessons I worked extremely hard in order to finish my priorities. I believe I listened to my teachers and showed them plenty of respect when they were talking. I mainly worked with Kate Kyros in this coding task because she helps me focus and get my work done. We also help each other in areas that we get stuck so I believe that we make an excellent team. I usually didn’t have much homework because I finished most of my work in class time but if I did have homework I would complete it thoroughly to the extent of high effort.

I have worked very hard this term but there are still areas of which I can work on to improve my coding experience. One habit of mind that I wished that I had used more often is managing impulsivity, because sometimes in my coding I worked too fast causing me to make many mistakes that could have been avoided in the first place. If I had managed my impulsivity a bit better, I may have gotten more work done instead of wasting time trying to fix the problems that could have been avoided.

Before I start this blog I would like to say, as you can tell by my title I am terrible at alliteration.

I’ve finally finished my Ping pong game, took me three weeks but I got there. Now it was time for the next step up…

SUPER SNAKE!

This game involves a snake eating an object whilst rapidly growing until it either hits the edge of the game square or eats itself. So I thought, this game quite easy and surprisingly it was! I started with my background, Scratch told me to have two colours but I preferred one. Next step was to get my sprite, I myself was feeling pretty snobby because I got the background to work, I felt like a pro. Anyway, I got my ball and unfortunately, I couldn’t be snobby for long because I was stuck. After five minutes of frustration, I found the change shape button after looking at it for the previous five minutes. Next was to give Gerald (the name of my snake) some eyes, so I get one dot copy and paste it and now I have to snake eyes. Now it was time to make my snake grow, my snake’s food source is…

PUPPIES!

Yep, my snake eats puppies and grows, brutal aren’t I? After eating multiple puppies I felt pretty proud, I had used my time well and I was almost done! I set up my border and made sure my snake couldn’t cross it, then I had my make my snake poisonous so if it touches itself it will DIE! Last but not least the time, I had to create a data script and place it in the tab. Now my score counts how many seconds your snake lived for, my high score… ten seconds. Yeah, I know I suck at video games! But my Super Snake SSS…Monday was a snakey success. I finished my game in two lessons and I have had time to write this blog. Below on the left is my snake script and on the right my food script.

So, it was the last step, getting my ball to count the scores. Kate was stuck on the same step and we couldn’t find out how to figure it out. I became really frustrated and was ready for a nap! I asked Mrs. Kemp and we began the struggle of scratch. We changed the paddles and the ball but nothing was working, we were done for, and it didn’t help that my mouse was too fast for Mrs. Kemp. But then when all hope was lost, we changed the perimeter and… BOOM!

I was back in the coding game ready for any problems that faced me! I was excited that I couldn’t contain it, I squealed a little but I was ready to focus and finish my game. Last couple of steps the GAME OVER code. Well, I didn’t help that I didn’t know the GAME OVER code. But luckily Kate my trusty partner in crime came to my rescue showing me the code that was it I was done I tested my code and…

DONE, PING PONG GAME COMPLETE!

Today in STEM I started creating a game on scratch. I was hoping to create a game with two paddles and a ball that bounces around until someone misses it. But with my so called handy dandy tech skills this wasn’t going to be very easy. I started off with my background, and you may say a background how hard can that be, well it wasn’t easy! Fortunately, I have Super Kemp to come save the day by showing me how easy it actually was to change the background.

Next was the ball, as easy as it was to spawn a simple ball bouncing it off the walls was even harder. I pressed so many keys until eventually my whole computer crashed! But guess how came to save the day again… Super Kemp soaring through the skies like a technology wiz! As Mrs. Kemp showed me the steps it occurred to me how easy scratch actually was. So I continued through my game making paddles, changing colours and so fourth, then it came to getting my ball to react to the paddles.

See I got my ball to bounce of the walls but I couldn’t quite get it to bounce of the paddles. So you guessed Super Kemp to the rescue. Unfortunately, Super Kemp was having some trouble of her own. Being straggled by the madness of scratch, the lesson soon ran short. Will I make my game and will Super K make it out of her scratchy trap… Tune in for the next lesson of SCRATCH! Bob M ~ via Compfight