Can you post course summary or something so that we can get a better idea of things that we can do? Does "basic electricity" include electrostatics and magnetism? Who will visit this event? What age group?
Hi Tech, I'm in a basic electrical class...
Hudson Hill
Joshua Sanders
We already have a Jacob's ladder, but the instructor wants something interactive so that people walking by will not just stop and look at the booth and walk away, but stop, interact, and talk with us so that we can upsell the school and the program.
I'd go this route but it's for an Electrician's program instead of an Electronics course. If I was in the Automated Control Technology course I would do this, but since it's basically just the entry level into being an Electrician, I wanted to try to have something where we could 'flip it' or open it in a way to show that all of the 'computing' was done only with the switches and wire connections to the lights.
I think that blackout is the name of the game. It's one of those puzzle games where you have to match all of the colors and it unlocks something, usually they're in video games where you press a button, and it turns the tiles next to it on or off, based on what they were before hand, and the goal is to either illuminate all the tiles, or turn them all off. In this case, I'm trying to have four lights be the lights you're shutting on and off, with the fifth light only being an indicator of when you've done it. I feel like by its nature, it might be something I can't do, to where it only has a single solution, but I wasn't sure because my math skills are at the level where i'm training to be an electrician.
It's hairy.
Sure.
"AC/DC Circuits I addresses the basics of direct and alternating current. This course addresses more complex theory such as Thevenin's and Norton's Theorems, inductive and capacitive reactance, impedance, and resonance, power factor, vectors, true power "
"An introductory course on residential wiring methods that includes practical applications and hands-on experience in implementing code requirements."
Components we've handled, and that I really have a firm grasp on go up to diodes but that's really it, we stopped before we discussed transistors, so from the basics we've covered what electricity is and its generation, so we can use, with relative ease
The class really covered the math of calculating the resistances for parallel and series circuits, how the relay works, the way power is transmitted from where it is generated to where it's needed, and things like that. Really it's just a step up from a highschool physics class but focused on electricity.
The event is targeting Juniors and Seniors, and it will be Junior and Senior classes [groups of 20-30 students from each school, broken into teams of 4 or 5] from around the region [within 60-90 miles]. The switch thing was just my idea, but I wasn't sure if it was feasible. I know that there could be a way to do it with resistors and LEDs to make it so that when you've successfully flipped all the switches so the RED are all off the path gives enough current to light GREEN, but I'd been trying to do the math for it, and kept getting lost. I was thinking a way to help me would be to write down all of the possible combination of switches and lights and try and solve from that
Something like that, to describe all the possible states of the lights, with the only solution for light 5 being something like "when switch 1 3 6 8 9 11 are ON, Light 5 is On " with 11 being the main power switch, like in the original pictures.
Nathan Campbell
Also, now that i'm sitting here thinking of it, i'm realizing i might be able to have it so that my inputs and outputs are represented with 1's and 0's just to make it easy to mentally keep track, so like.
0000000000 > 11110
1010010110 > 00001
I'm not sure if that really makes it better for me, or worse.
Oliver Green
damn op i'm too retarded to figure out what's going on. last time i see problem like this, it was written like this: How to turn on lamp in 1st AND 2nd floor FROM 1st floor and turn off all 1st floor lamp after you get into 2nd floor while keeping all lamp in 2nd floor turned on. you only given 120v AC source, wires, lightbulbs and switches.
what a sorcery
Ethan Lee
Are you saying I might be able to figure out how to do my switch mechanism if I work through an easier problem like that first? I'll give that a try, thanks user! I know that a lot of the time, solving harder problems IS easier, if you just break it down into pieces and tackle them one at a time. I'll try it today, and give some feed back in a few hours if I've figured anything out.
Jack Myers
Switches in series form an AND gate, switches in parallel form an OR gate. For light 5 to turn on wire switches 1 3 6 8 9 and 11 in series. From example for light 3 since 4 is off and 7 is off light 3 will stay off. Only problem is you can't make a NOT gate with just switches or diodes and resistors (you need NOT operation for last switch, NC goes to directly to light 5, NO contact is then used to power other switches). You'll need a relay for that. Switches and a relay with NC contact form a functionally complete set of logical operators, which means you can implement any logical function you want. You won't be able to do logic like this with just resistors in series and parallel.
Brayden Johnson
Make a puzzle game using switches light bulbs and relays. Look to the book of projects for the amateur scientist from scientific american magazine, published late 1960's Here is the pdf. Start reading on page 377.
sciencemadness.org
Owen Cruz
debounce some switches in hardware to demonstrate capacitors.
Camden Reed
So which is it, OP? Something you're describing is very possible using relays, but you need to decide on what your materials are going to be first, and you're going back and forth, here.
If you want a schematic for something like this, unironically look up minecraft calculators and things - wiring something like this physically with light switches will be a FUCKING. NIGHTMARE. and you will need DOZENS and DOZENS of switches if you want to make even a simple 4x4 LED grid.
NO you will not be able to use only light switches to control the color temperature of LEDs unless you have analog I/O i.e. "get so many volts at the input, make them red, now make them blue," etc. but that will be so far detached from your audience that it will make no sense.
What you are describing is a truth table.
If you want something mildly fun and more accessible, grab you some small mag starters, some time-delay relays, and make either a sequential logic circuit, or a circuit where the relays pull in back and forth, and put lights on it everywhere you can.
Three and four way switching.
Blake Sullivan
Thanks! I guess I wasn't being clear in my typing there, but I will use all the avalible materials which includes the relays and things. I'm going to use the resources
Provides, and proceed with the project from here. Now that I sort of 'realize' how I can use relays to accomplish what I want, I think I'm going to have a much easier time moving forward. It sort of clicked and I understand how to tackle the problem I was having. I appreciate the feedback and these are good tips for tackling problems I have in the future. The people that have replied to the thread have been incredibly helpful.
I think my teacher would like this too, and it's something I already know how to do! I'll do this too, to try and get people interested, even though the schools Electronics Program was canceled [Lack of interest]