Our little city
Our ModelThe model you see to the left is a miniature city thats powered by a battery. The purpose of this project was to learn how circuits in a breadboard work. Our goal was to make the city powered by LED's. One needed to be on nonstop, one needed to be functioned by a button, and the last LED needed to have a dimmer switch. We also needed to hide the wires by covering them with textures and/or objects. We had a choice of what we wanted to put in our miniature city. We could put cars, a house, lampposts, signals, fountains, etc... This project was a little intimidating at the begging, but it was soon easy once everything was connected. We were assigned partners by the person sitting next to us. As you can see, our city has two lampposts, and one house. The house is powered by the LED with the dimmer switch. The red lamppost is functioned by the button, and the white is always on unless you take the battery out.
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ChallengesThis project wasn't easy at first. I was still very confused with how breadboards work. There were so many holes, how do you know which one is the right one? I also didn't know where to put the resistor, button, and dimmer switch. It was also difficult to make the house, and the lampposts. I can't count how many times I accidentally burned myself with the hot glue gun. It was also difficult making the house structure. The wires were also very tiny and delicate. If you moved the model too much, something would disconnect. The wire copper was also difficult to put in the hole, it was all over the place. It was also very difficult to hide the wires, they were all over the place.
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How the breadboard works
The breadboard is a very complicated little box that's full of tiny little holes. Each little hole has one big wire connected to all parts of the box, and the battery gives power to it all. To make an LED light up, you need to put it's terminals inside the holes. You must carry the flow of electricity by connecting the positive wires to it's negative terminal. To keep the LED from exploding, you need to connect a resistor in the negative terminal. This is how you get the nonstop light to power. If you want to attach a button, you need to connect the positive terminal to a positive wire. That same positive wire connects to the terminal of the button. You then connect the other terminal of the button to the battery using more positive wires. The LED is now powered by the button if you push it. The same rules go with the dimmer, but the dimmer doesn't need to be connected to the battery, it needs to be connected to the LED's terminals. Then, you just add a resistor to the negative terminal of the LED, Everything must be connected to the battery, so you put all the positive wires in the bottom row of holes, because that's what the battery is connected to. The red wires help carry the flow. In other words, the positive wires act like a bridge. The people crossing the bride is the flow of electricity. When it reaches the other side, it then powers the LED.
Our Completed Design Model
I have definitely learned a lot of information about architecture and model making. First of all, make sure you are always checking your floor plan for measurements, I remember our group messed up the table heights which was very embarrassing during our P.O.L. I also learned that architects aren't normal artists. They design buildings and sketch floor plans to enhance their idea. They don't paint, or make random drawings. They can still be considered artists, but they aren't the "usual" artists. I also learned that architecture is different from engineering. Architecture is the art of designing the space, while engineering, or structural engineering is the act of actually building the space, or making a mechanical feature. Architecture also comes with modelur design, and the structural wall. I also learned about rebar and a foundation. Model making is very difficult. You have to cut out your pieces from chip wood, sand the edges, hot glue them together, spray paint textures or glue them, and then add electricity. It's very complicated and very difficult to not mess something up.
I learned the basics of electricity by studying parallel and series circuits I also learned that short circuiting is bad, and it will burn Isa, so don't do it. Just kidding. But seriously, don't short circuit. Anyways, I learned how to make a simple LED light up, learn about Oh'ms law, learned about current, voltage, and resistance. I also learned how a breadboard works, and make a LED light up by using it. I also learned how to use a button, a dimmer switch, and carrying the flow of electricity. I learned how to use a resistor to prevent the LED from blowing up from too much flow.