Class Session

In Week 3 of PCOMP, we covered fundamental electricity and circuit concepts while gaining hands-on experience with Arduino programming. After learning about electrical basics like series vs. parallel circuits and different switches, we spent significant time navigating the Arduino IDE and uploading various sketches to our nano 33 IoT boards. We experimented with different LED patterns - creating blinking sequences, adjusting brightness levels using PWM, and implementing conditional logic to change LED behaviors based on input states. We debugged common errors in the IDE, learned how to use the serial monitor to track our code execution, and explored how changing delay times affects the visual output of our LEDs. By the end of the session, everyone had successfully created several interactive lighting patterns and gained comfort with the upload process and basic Arduino syntax.

Basic Terminology

• GPO: General Purpose Output - pins that can be set to output signals
• Arduino's loop() function works similarly to p5.js's draw() function
• void and func serve essentially the same purpose in different languages

Programming Essentials

• Compiling checks your code syntax before uploading
• Use Command+T for auto-formatting your code - keeps things readable
• Digital values: 1/HIGH/true vs 0/LOW/false
• Arduino loops as fast as possible, while p5.js is limited to 120 frames/second

C Language Specifics

• C is strict with syntax - use "int x = 7" instead of "var x = 7"
• Delays are measured in milliseconds
• Unlike p5.js, Arduino requires explicit delays

Timing Challenges

• Single delay approach limits you - can't easily have one LED blink 3x/second and another 5x/second simultaneously

Programming Practices

• With physical computing, we're both designers and programmers