Swatch: LDR Light switch

For the output swatch I used this code:

 void setup() {
   Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(D2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(A0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(D3, INPUT);
}

 
void loop() {
  int lichtSterkte = analogRead(A0);
  
  Serial.println(lichtSterkte);


  if (lichtSterkte <= 300) { 
    digitalWrite(D2, HIGH);
    
 Serial.println("Blauw licht");
 Serial.println("Donkere tint");
    delay(50);
    
  }
  
  if (lichtSterkte >= 350) { 
    digitalWrite(D3, LOW);
 
Serial.println("Groen licht");
 Serial.println("Lichte tint");
    delay(50);
     
  }
  
  
}

Needs for the output swatch:

• LDR sensor

• female - male connections

• male - male connections

• Arduino NodeMCU

• Bread board

• RGB LED

• Black 10x10 paper

• Backing paper

• Copper tape

• Soft ball

This is how I made the swatch:

1. I used backing paper and cut it the same size as my black 10x10 cm paper..

2. I made two holes with a scissor in the black paper for the LDR and the RGB LED.

3. I taped the backing paper on the paper with copper tape, just for the look and feel.

4. Put the soft and fluffy ball in the middle so people could push on a soft 'button'.

5. Then I installed my NodeMCU in such a way that the LDR and the LED would fit into the holes. I made the connection cables longer by attatching them with a female-male cable.

6. And run the code!

Installation details:

THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENTS

Assignment 0 - Zine with the entire group

Produce a class zine on the RISO printer together, 2 people will be editors this week. Individual contributions in the form of zine spreads.

Zine prompt:

"In a 'post-post-it' society, I wonder what the ultimate design toolkit to train the 21st century designer could be. Rather than the usual canvases or user journey maps, this toolkit would feature a set of basic design exercises that help everyone, not only design students, to make things that move, think, communicate, sense, see, compute or augment. These exercises would help students to control technology, to assertively own it as a material, a tool, and a key factor influencing society today." - Serena Cangiano

Reflect on your experience in the minor thus far. Can you link this to the readings of this week?

This week the zine will be an ultimate design toolkit. Think, create, design an exercise that would be part of this ultimate design toolkit, Cangiano mentions. Reflect on this exercise, why did you choose this, how is it linked to the minor and to this weeks reading.

Zine this week: http://summerdanoe.nl/zine/

Assignment 1 - individual/duo

• Build an electronic circuit with at least one input (made by you!) and one actuator.

• Program a microcontroller in the Arduino IDE to control your actuator with the input

• Design an output swatch of 10x10cm that is archive worthy. How can you make hardware look interesting/appealing/evocative? Use all the techniques you learned in previous weeks.

• Document the design, building, debugging and working results step by step

Testing and prepping

Testing the LED

The first thing I wanted to test with the NodeMCU and my LED is if my LED really worked. So I attached the LED to my NodeMCU and the breadboard and run an empty Arduino code:

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

LED blink

Now I'll make a code which will let the LED blink.

I conncect everything like this:

Then I ran this code:

/*
  ESP8266 Blink by Simon Peter
  Blink the blue LED on the ESP-01 module
  This example code is in the public domain

  The blue LED on the ESP-01 module is connected to GPIO1
  (which is also the TXD pin; so we cannot use Serial.print() at the same time)

  Note that this sketch uses LED_BUILTIN to find the pin with the internal LED
*/
int werkend = D2;

void setup() {
  pinMode(werkend, OUTPUT);     // Initialize the LED_BUILTIN pin as an output
 
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
 
  digitalWrite(werkend, LOW);   // Turn the LED on (Note that LOW is the voltage level
  // but actually the LED is on; this is because
  // it is active low on the ESP-01)
  delay(1000);  // Wait for a second
  digitalWrite(werkend, HIGH);  // Turn the LED off by making the voltage HIGH
  delay(2000);                      // Wait for two seconds (to demonstrate the active low LED)
}

And it worked!

LED blink with a button

Now I'll connect the button and LED to the NodeMCU board. I'll send some information to the Serial so I know that the button will respond.

I tried out his code and my LED went on when I pushed the button:

void setup() {
pinMode(D2, INPUT);    //set the button pin as an input 
Serial.begin(9600);  
}


void loop() {
digitalRead(D2);      //reading a digital sensor on pin D1
delay(50);              
Serial.println(digitalRead(D2));    // printing read of D1
delay(50);
}

Reading Resistive Sensors - Light sensor

You can find my new try out here:

Connecting a RGB LED with a button

This worked perfectly after some help form Mickey. Make sure you attatch the button to the D6.

//       RGB LED Color Control
//      circuits4you.com
//========================================================================
//Changes made by Micky van Zeijl 
 
// constants won't change. They're used here to
// set pin numbers:
 
// Make sure to change the pinnumbers when you’re using the Arduino MKR.
// For the nodeMcu you can use all pins except 0. Don’t forget to add a D
// so it’s redPin = D3; for example

const int buttonPin = D6  ; // for Arduino MKR 1010 I used 6
const int redPin = D3; // for Arduino MKR 1010 - use pin 3
const int bluePin = D4; // for Arduino MKR 1010 - use pin 4
const int greenPin = D5; // for ARduino MKR 1010 - use pin 5

int counter = 0;
bool previousbuttonstateLow = false;

void setup() {
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluePin, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {

  int buttonState;
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);

  Serial.println(counter);

  if (buttonState == LOW && !previousbuttonstateLow) {
    counter++;

    if (counter > 3) counter = 0;
    previousbuttonstateLow = true;

  }

  if (buttonState == HIGH) {
    previousbuttonstateLow = false;
  }

  Serial.print("buttonstate is:" );
  Serial.println( buttonState);
  Serial.print("previous buttonstate is:");
  Serial.println(previousbuttonstateLow);

  if (counter == 0) {
    digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(bluePin, LOW);
  }

  else if (counter == 1) {
    digitalWrite(redPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(bluePin, LOW);
  }

  else if (counter == 2) {
    digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(greenPin, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(bluePin, LOW);
  }

  else if (counter == 3) {
    digitalWrite(redPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(greenPin, LOW);
    digitalWrite(bluePin, HIGH);
  }


}

I got really inspired by this code and a YouTube video of Lisa Spark I saw earlier. I want to try if I can add a switch sensor to the RGB LED with this code.

I got an idea for my output swatch:

I want to have one layer on top with a soft fabric, which people want to touch. And if they touch it the switch goes on or light sensor gets more dark and the RGB LED will turn on.

Process to the final output swatch

Light sensor and RGB LED

I am trying to install a simple LED with the LDR sensor on this page:

Now I'll try it again but not with a normal LED, but with a RGB LED.

I have used my own code, I had made a few years ago when I had to work with a LDR sensor and a RGB LED. I think the code is a little bit more simple and more easy in use for the simple swatch I want to make.

I used the values less or equal to 700 and less or equal to 960.

 void setup() {
   Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(D2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(A0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(D3, INPUT);
}

 
void loop() {
  int lichtSterkte = analogRead(A0);
  
  Serial.println(lichtSterkte);


  if (lichtSterkte >= 700) { 
    digitalWrite(D2, HIGH);
    
 Serial.println("Blauw licht");
 Serial.println("Mooi blauw in prachtig licht");
    delay(50);
    
  }
  
  if (lichtSterkte <= 690) { 
    digitalWrite(D3, LOW);
 
Serial.println("Groen licht");
 Serial.println("Het kan wat lichter");
    delay(50);
     
  }
  
  
}

PHOTO

The code works so I am very happy about that. But now I want to change the concept. So when it gets darker the LED will become blue and I want the normal state of the LED to be green.

Now I used this code:

 void setup() {
   Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(D2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(A0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(D3, INPUT);
}

 
void loop() {
  int lichtSterkte = analogRead(A0);
  
  Serial.println(lichtSterkte);


  if (lichtSterkte <= 300) { 
    digitalWrite(D2, HIGH);
    
 Serial.println("Blauw licht");
 Serial.println("Donkere tint");
    delay(50);
    
  }
  
  if (lichtSterkte >= 350) { 
    digitalWrite(D3, LOW);
 
Serial.println("Groen licht");
 Serial.println("Lichte tint");
    delay(50);
     
  }
  
  
}

Now I can start making an output swatch.

Output swatch

Go to this page to see the final output swatch I made:

This week Summer and I were the editors again. Because of the weird circumstances we life in these days I had the idea to make a interactive zine this week. So it will not be printed with the riso printer, but it will be shown on a website. On the website you can hoover over or click on the zine pages to see a interactive change.

We made this notion page: https://www.notion.so/Week-8-Dezine-toolkit-56c8d7410b4b4cf295017ebebbdd5cb3

Text:

The final week of the minor its first period went a bit chaotic. We had to work with electronics again and not everyone in the minor was evenly skilled. But that doesn’t have to be a negative thing. My new experiences as designing as a maker have thought me that with everything you make you will have to look at it like it’s something brand new. Don’t ever think you know how the process or the end product will look like, go in open-minded and don’t rely on your skills.

Ultimate Design toolkit for every kind of designer:

Don’t ever think you now everything.

See everything as something new. Every concept or product has its own reason to exist, so don’t compare it to previous projects you had.

Do good research: Why is it a problem? What does the target group think about the problem? Are there any empathic solutions? Will my design make the problem worse or better for the target group? What are the effects for the stakeholders who are indirectly involved?

Just do good research, so you’ll know that your product/concept will be worth making.

Test everything! If you don’t test your concept/product it becomes garbage immediately.

Start sketching ideas and don’t stop at 30 ideas. The best ideas come after 150 ideas.

Brainstorm together.

Make the design understandable for your target group and make it usable.

Simplicity is (often) key.

Love the things you make and show it.

Files:

Outcome:

The website:

Interaction on the website: