Hi my name is Alex and during my first few days at Bluestamp Engineering, I made the gram piano. It is an electric piano that uses capacitive sensing to detect when my fingers are pressing the keys. When I was making the piano I found that the piano wasn’t getting powered because the battery connnecter was loose. I fixed this by using tape to secure it.
The piano uses resistors, capacitors, 2 LEDS, a switch, a battery, a potentiometer, a speaker and a microprocesser. The switch allows the batteries to power the piano. The LED lights up to show that the piano is on. The keys detect my fingers, and the microprocessor tells the speaker to play the note. The potentiometer changes the octave of the notes. The button turns on the second LED and the microprocessor plays a pre-programmed melody through the speaker.
My next project will by a parking sensor.
For my second project I made a mini parking sensor. It detects the distance of objects infront of the sensors and it beeps when an object comes close enough. At first the parking sensor would randomly beep, but when I re-soldered the sensors, it worked.
It uses capacitors, resistors, microcontrollers, a buzzer, 2 ultrasonic sensors, a quartz crystal oscillator, a potentiometer, diodes, and a transistor. When the sensors detect that the object is at a certain distance or less, the buzzer beeps. The first sensor emits a soundwave that bounces off objects infront of it. The second sensor picks up the soundwaves as they rebound the object. The microprocessor can calculate the distance of the object with the time the soundwave took from the first sensor to object and to the second sensor. The range of the sensors is 5cm – 15m. The resistors limit the current flowing through it and the capacitors store energy. The diodes let current flow in 1 direction but blocks it from flowing in the other, and the transistor amplifies the current flowing through it. The quartz crystal oscillator creates a clock so that all the microcontrollers can synchronize by vibrating the quartz crystal at 5MHz. The potentiometer changes the maximum distance the object can be for the buzzer to beep.
For my last project I made the MintyBoost. It is a portable charger powered by 2 AA batteries and it can charge anything with a usb cable. The end of one of the legs of the microprocessor was broken, but the piece still attached was long enough to touch the metal inside the IC socket.
It is made using resistors, capacitors, 2 AA batteries, a power inductor, a microprocessor, and a usb port. The resistors limit the current flowing through them. The resistor used is determined by what device is connected to the MintyBoost. The capacitors are used to stabilize the current flowing through the circuit. The diode is used to make sure the current is flowing from the battery to the usb port and not the other way. The power inductor stores energy in a magnetic field and it resists any changes in the amount of current flowing through it. The MintyBoost uses a boost converter to make its output voltage higher than the input from the batteries. The boost converter uses the diode, inductor and capacitors.