Physical Computing Entry #4 Project(Failure)
For my P-COM project I wanted to make a circuit that would respond to sound. For this I looked up sound sensors I could buy to work into my project. After some research I found this sensor about 72 cents (RS 120).
Components for this build include: an Arduino Nano 33 IOT, a breadboard, pre-cut jumper cables, a set of male to male jumper wires, a 220 ohm resistor, an LED and a sound sensor.
The sensor can only detect high or low sounds, the blue potentiometer on it determines if it detects loud or quiet noises. After finicking with it I decided to set it to detect loud sounds. The next part was determining what would be the output of this circuit. I decided to use LEDs as a means to show whether the sensor detected anything. If it heard a sound then the LED would light up, if it didn't then nothing would happen.
Making the actual circuit wasn't that tedious, it took some trial and error. I connected the ground wire to the ground end of the sensor (the middle pin) and the wire carrying the current to the input pin. I also connected male to male wires for easy removal if I wanted to adjust anything on the breadboard. I used one pair of male to male wires to serve as input for the circuit, going from the sensor to pin3 on my Arduino. The other male to male wire went from anode of LED in the circuit which was connected to the digital output pin of the sensor to pin 12 of the Arduino as an output. The cathode of the LED was grounded with a 220 ohm resistor.
Here comes the sad part. When I first took these pictures my circuit was working great. But when I went to show it to my parents the sensor stopped working. I started panicking. The wiring was correct. I went back and changed my code following this YouTube video, thinking that I must have messed it while plugging in the USB cable. (which I'll show below was working) but the sensor wouldn't turn on. When I would plug in my USB cable the LED would light up without the sensor even working. The orange LED on my microcontroller doesn't light up either. I'm super worried now. The only time both the microcontroller's orange LED and the sensor's LED light up is when I try to upload my code to the Arduino. They glow for a few brief settings before powering off.
I've tried so many different things, I tried to look up solutions online but they were very vague. I tried to reset my microcontroller by rapidly hitting the reset button twice in a row but that only works until I try to run my sketch again. I'm utterly stumped.
This is the code for the sketch:
This is how the circuit looked just before it stopped working last night.