Open-Source Hardware, Tinkering, and Physics Education

http://bit.ly/PER_Sparkfun14

Open-source Hardware, Tinkering, and Physics Education:

Integrating DIY Sensors and Data Acquisition with Arduino

Physics Education Research (PER) Group Meeting

October 9, 2014


Background / Introduction

● Spent 8 yrs working in industry○ ADC Telecommunications○ Ball Aerospace○ ...

● Attended CU-Boulder - MA+ program● Taught HS Physics / Engineering / Robotics

○ Centaurus HS (Lafayette)○ Overland HS (Aurora)

● Now?○ Work at Sparkfun Electronics as an Education

Engineer.


What I do now?

Education Engineer at Sparkfun Electronics.- Design and lead professional development workshops

for teachers / educators.- Develop curriculum, activities, projects for classroom

use.

http://www.instructables.com/id/LilyPad-Arduino-Blinking-Bike-Safety-Patch/


Sparkfun Electronics

Started in 2003 by Nathan Seidle (CU Alum) as a Junior in EE.

- Burned out a programming board- Found a supplier (Olimex) in Bulgaria

- good prices, bad website, poor payment options- Made a website- Sparkfun was born...




What the EDU team does here...

Promote “tinkering” and messing around with hardware, microcontrollers, and circuits to empower people to build and make new things!

Support formal & informal education built around making things -- whether with code, electronics, or physical fabrication.



What is Physics?

“...physics is about asking fundamental questions and trying to answer them by observing and experimenting.”


Craft Tech InspiredCopper Tape & Basic Circuits

Using Copper Tape, resistive ink (Bare Conductive) to build paper circuits provides a 1:1 analogue between the circuit diagram and the actual circuit.


With which you can now make...

https://learn.sparkfun.com/resources/68


Ohms Law & Conductivity?


Copper Tape Investigations

Parallel vs. Series Circuits

Ohm’s Law →

Is the adhesive conductive? - Design and implement an experiment w/

data to support your conclusion.

Paper PCB?


Copper Tape + ATtiny85 (Arduino-compatible 8-pin DIP)


For comparison:- Apple II : 1 MHz clock, 4K

RAM- IBM XT (8088) : 4.77 MHz,

128K RAM

In 2005 -- Enters Arduino → 8-bit, 16 MHz Microcontroller, 32K flash, 2K EEPROM

Arduino is a low-cost, open source, easily programmable device → operates on as low as 3V -- 2 AA batteries

Arduino Board

“Strong Friend” Created in Ivrea, Italy

in 2005 by Massimo Banzi & David Cuartielles

Open Source Hardware

Processor

Coding is accessible & transferrable → (C++, Processing, java)


Programming environment (C / C++)


Let’s try something new…http://codebender.cc


Protosnap Pro Mini


Hello World!

Blinking an LED → 3 instructions (functions) to know:

pinMode([pinNum], [INPUT\OUTPUT]);

digitalWrite([pinNum], [HIGH\LOW]);

delay([time_ms])

https://codebender.cc/sketch:52993




Let’s see what this all looks like?





Open Challenges

● How fast can you blink an LED? How fast can you see it blink?

● Morse Code Challenge -- … --- …

● Heartbeat → Halloween is right around the corner!

● Make a light sculpture?


Dos Pueblos Engineering AcademyLight Sculpture project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEMtAE0COts


We’re physicists, right? Let’s talk data...

8-bit Microcontroller → handles 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit data types:

byte / char: 0 to 255 / -128 to 127int / unsigned int: -32,768 to 32,767long / unsigned long: +/- 2^31float: decimal values


My first project → ReactionTimer





Why I like the Reaction Timer

- Data is personally meaningful.

- Emphasizes accuracy / error / uncertainty in measurement.

- As a tool -- it gives students to ask more questions…

- Physics is about measurement, observations, and patterns.


What all can we do with this?

● Nature of Science: Real data is messy!

● Nature of Science: Variance / Error Analysis / Statistics?

● Kinematics: Reaction Time vs. stopping distance

● Kinematics: Reaction Time vs. falling distance

● Add Sound -- Using tone() command and a buzzer -- does it sound make a difference?

● Other ideas? How about experimental design?


“New” vocabulary / concepts for physics teachers

- Microcontrollers- void setup() / void loop() ???

- Vcc and GND- Clock speeds

- Analog vs. Digital- A/D Converter & Sampling- Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)


Other fun demos / activities:

Simiple Fading → https://codebender.cc/sketch:53011

Button Fading → https://codebender.cc/sketch:7977

Button Tones →https://codebender.cc/sketch:53013

Color Mixing →https://codebender.cc/sketch:53012










A different way of drawing circuits?

Vcc

ANALOG INPUT (A0)

GND

6 Analog Input “channels”10-bit A/D -> resolution of ~48.9 mV

Empirical testing:~115 uS per measure~7.3 kHz max sampling rate





RC Time Constant Meas.https://codebender.cc/sketch:51144

Vmax = 5V




All of the other stuff I didn’t talk about...

- Integration with Arduino & Vernier.- Robotics (mechatronics) → what better way

to teach kinematics, forces, rotational motion?

- ATtiny85 -- the “tiny” Arduino- Voltage vs. Current vs. Power vs. Energy- RF \ Wireless transmission \ RSSI & inverse

square losses.


Physics Education & Reform

Interested in piloting / researching new methods in lab & physics education reform

- Develop new ideas and identify where these fit in “traditional” physics (& engineering) education.

- Increase engagement & participation for ALL students.

- Encourage, Inspire, and Motivate “tinkering,” play, and creativity!


Questions?


Thank you!!!

[email protected]@bri_huang

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]