2. Understand
- Task: Build an 11x17 inch dancepad attached to a lightstation that flashes when you
step on the switches using the following...
• 6V Lantern Battery
• Aluminum foil
• four light bulbs
• 2 11 x 17-inch sheets of corrugated cardboard
• Duct tape
• Electrical wire (22-gauge works well)
• Plastic wrap
• Scissors
• Wire strippers
3. Explore
Using a circuit simulation website on http://phet.
colorado.edu, we learned things like to use aluminum foil
to touch the wires together in order to turn it on and how
the battery should connect to the lights
4. Define
The specifications provided outlined that we should have
- Switch 1 must illuminate light 1
- Switch 2 must illuminate light 2
- Switch 3 must illuminate light 3
- Switch 4 must illuminate light 4
- Switch 5 must illuminate lights 1 and 4
- Switch 6 must illuminate lights 1,2,3,4
5. Ideate
Here are our brainstorming sketches
Schematic diagram
Switch and Board Model
6. Prototype
- Our prototypes for this project were done by revising the
project instead of remaking it entirely
- We used the materials given to us by Mr. Rod
- We realized we would need individual switches for the
buttons with multiple lights
7. Refine
- At this point, we had a working dancepad
and lightstation but it wasn’t visually
appealing
- We decided to cover the switches with paper
to hide exposed wire and label them with
their correct number
8. Solution
This was the completed version of our light station and
dancepad. It worked correctly with the lights illuminating
upon the pressing of their corresponding button, however
the lights on the light station were not in numerical order
(it went light 3,4,1,2)
(Picture on next slide)
9.
10. How it works
- The dancepad works by allowing each switch to turn on and off the light
simply by stepping on it. This puts each side of the aluminum foil together
connecting the two wires to complete the circuit
- Switch 1, 2, 3 and 4 each have wires running from the battery to the
aluminum foil, and from the aluminum foil to the light, then back to the
battery
- Switch 5 illuminates lights 1 and 4 so it has a total of 4 of these wires, 2 for
each light
- Switch 6 illuminates all the lights 1-4 so it has a total of 8 wires, 2 for each
light
11. If we would do it again
-We would sandwhich all wire (instead of half)
beneath the top board and on top of the
bottom board to make it look better
- We would wire the lights so they could be
ordered 1, 2, 3, 4
