Hey! Two times hello. To Medium. To Raspberry pi.
I was mulling over what should I do in the Christmas break when this awesome idea struck me. How about creating something. With that thought on mind I started to cursorily go through some Robotics publications (Mind you, cursorily!). And then I read seven papers in continuation and then my mind said “Okay, so here people are making things.”
So I went ahead and got a myself a Raspberry pi for Christmas. I got to know about Raspberry pi from a Coursera Python Course which I strongly recommend to anyone who is new to programming. I also got ModMyPi YouTube starter kit which was immensely useful for understanding the basics of electronics. It had a breadboard, resistors, capacitors, LEDs, sensors and connectors.
A brief description of the elements: On breadboard we make circuits. And breadboard has a spine (Now, that’s difficult to find these days! ;)). I used three sensors: temperature sensor, light dependent resistor and passive infrared sensor. And some connectors.
I started making the first circuit and, to my surprise, it worked! I could switch ON/OFF the LED on the breadboard :D. I was even more curious. All engineers know that LEDs can be made to work by giving high and low voltage. However, seeing it in action took my understanding to a whole new level.
The next time I wrote a small program in Python to make my LEDs blink and guess what?! It worked again. It was that blissful moment, literally blissful when I saw it. I run a program on computer an it makes the electronics work. Further, I made my circuit fancier by adding a push button and a buzzer. So now I could have all sorts of arrangements: Push the button and the sensor works. Push the button and one of the LEDs work and after 5 seconds the alarm buzzes. Basically, I made anything that came to my mind.
Now my curiosity was piqued. I wanted to try making the sensors. I made a circuit to detect temperature, light and MOTION!!
Now I’m thinking of way ahead. I still need to chalk out the progress path but I will keep you posted. Till then, stay curious!