Tag Archives: prototype

Week 11: Prototyping

Fortune Teller Final Project: Prototype

Capacitor Sensor: 4.10.18

My objective for today is to understand and make a working capacitive sensor.

  • Materials
    • Resistor (100k ohm)
    • LED (Red)
    • Breadboard
    • Arduino + USB cord
    • 3 Jumper Wires
    • Aluminum foil

Building it:

  1. First plug in the resistor in pin 4 and pin 8 of the Arduino
  2. Connect the touch plate (aluminum foil) to pin 8 of the Arduino with a jumper cable.
  3. Plug in the LED to the breadboard
    1. “-” to GND
    2. “+” to pin 7.
  4. Download library and sketch
    1. LED-Capacitive-Sensor Sketch
    2. Capacitive-Sensor Library

Conclusion:

So far this has been a successful second attempt at making a working capacitive sensor. As seen through the second video featuring the serial monitor and the code once the capacity passes a certain threshold (1000) the LED will turn on. Alone the capacity of the aluminum foil and the environment have stayed under the threshold, nevertheless the capacity has been changing frequently from 60s-90s to 250s-290s.

Next Step:

My goals for this week are to meet with a few people who are more capable of coding to show me how to set Boolean and if-statements according to the sensed capacity.  I’ve also ordered the Arduino thermal printer last week, now I am waiting for its arrival.