In order to get better at soldering I practiced on a kit from Amazon, which has all the parts to assemble a clock on a circuit board. The clock would run on military time. After assembling it and soldering the parts together for the first time I faced an issue. Two parts of my display…
Tag: Ianina Kotova
Diameter in AutoCAD
After yet another day in the Engineering Drafting Course I learned how to work with formatting circles in AutoCAD and how to draw dimensions from a different view of the object. I’m getting much more comfortable with using the program, and plan to expand even further out into it. One difficulty I did run into…
Starting With AutoCAD
As part of my classes this school year I’m also taking an engineering design class, and this is my second drawing in AutoCAD. It took a little while to get used to as a software, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. This is the top and side view of a three dimensional…
Animated Eye on a 1.28″TFT GC9A01 Display
Halloween is a fun time of the month, which could be made even MORE fun by filling it with exciting and spooky projects. As an addition to my costume, (on which I have not yet decided) I decided to make a project that I’ve seen floating around for a little while – an animated eye…
Using the Scanner Class in Java
Following my introduction to Java through the AP Computer Science A course I examined the use of the Scanner class, which takes in user input and stores the data in a variety of ways. In this simple exercise I imported the scanner class, instantiated a new element of it by the name of “kb” and…
Magic Five Coding Exercise
This is one of the first programs in the AP Computer Science A course at school. That course mainly focused on the basics of Java programming, following the Codeio exercises as means to practice. The magic five is an exercise in which a user inputs a number greater than 0, and through a series of…
Trying out Fusion 360
In order to move forward in the technological world I need to know my way around industry standard software. I was originally going to focus on some 3D modeling software, but when I saw that Fusion 360 also offered electronic schematics my decision was set. After going through the tutorial I went straight to recreating…
Sketch up House
Our Computer Science Class Just went over a unit about Sketch up. In order to learn how to use it, we followed a series of tutorials done by the Harwood Podcast, which led though the process of creating a house in Sketch up. Below are the different stages of the described project. 1. Walls The…
Chameleon 3D Print
Having just received the freedom of a 3D printer, I decided to try out an articulated print just to start with something more exciting. My model of choice was a very cute chameleon that I found on printables, and I got to work. The model turned out great for the exception of the eyes, which…
The Beginning of a New Era
I finally bought a 3D printer! After some though, I decided to go with a resin printer rather than a filament one, because I have more experience using them. I also prefer them because of the finer quality. The set up was successful, and so was the printing of the default test model. I’m looking…
Arduino UNO Pushbutton Circuit
This circuit was a part of my Computer Science Discoveries Class curriculum. The components include: The Arduino code for this circuit is shown below.
Trans7-segment display using a decoder
7 segment displays are used to display digits ranging from 0 – 9. They are made up of LEDs arranged in the shape of the number 8, as any of the ten digits can be formed from the shape. A different number is displayed based on the combination of the lit up segments on the…
Otto Quad Assembling
The next step to expanding my future robot army was creating the Otto Quad. It resembles the original Otto model, with the exception of having four legs instead of two. Below is the image of the final product. One of the main difficulties was adjusting the parts so that they could fit together. Since I…
PWM(Pulse Width Modulation) Study
PWM is a way of regulating the power/brightness/revolution speed by changing the duration of voltage pulses. The relationship between the duration of a pulse, to the duration of a pause is called duty or power percentage. PWM pulses can be generated by an electric circuit or by a micro-controller. Arduino, for instance, has a command…
RGB LED Study
An RGB LED has four outputs: three LEDs (red blue and green), as well as either a common cathode (-) or a common anode (+). The RGB LED referred to in this post is a common cathode. By scaling the voltage of each of the LEDs within, the RGB LED is able to produce different…
Otto Reacts to Signals From a TV Remote
The next step after testing out the walk cycle is to have it be controlled with a TV remote. In order to do this, Otto needed an infrared sensor, which will allow it to receive signals from the remote. Then, I used the infrared library for Arduino in order to convert the signals sent by…
Otto Walks On Its Own!
In order to create my own walk cycle for Otto, I needed to see how the walk cycle was done within the blockly software. The video below shows the most basic walk within the software. The speed is set to slow.
Teaching Otto to Walk
After testing a program using the Otto blockly software, the next step was to manually teach it to walk. I used the set up with my remote, and connected it to each of the four servos of the robot. Using the serial monitor, it will be easy to record the positions of the servos. This…
Solving Factorials Using a Recursive Function
This program will print a range of factorials from 0 to the number given by the user. I begin by defining my function. Every recursive function has two major cases: a base case, and a recursive case. In this program, the base case is x being less then or equal to 1. The recursive case…
Otto Assembling
After testing the servos with the remote, I started to assemble Otto, using the manual on their website. During the process, I had to pay special attention to connect the servos to the correct ports. They had to be calibrated correctly before doing so. The 3D printer that I used wasn’t very precise, so there…
Distinguished Honor Roll – 2nd Quarter
This distinguished honor roll award was given to students with outstanding academic performance during the second quarter.
Analog Input Blink
I used an example from Arduino.cc to practice receiving analog signals through the analog inputs. In this example, the wait time between the blinks of the embedded LED are going to be sent to the Arduino UNO board from the potentiometer. The potentiometer sends voltage to the analog input, which in turn converts it to…
Storm the Castle VEX VR Challenge
Storm the Castle is one of the challenges on the VEX VR website that had to be completed for my STEM class. The goal of the challenge is to knock down the four towers around the castle without falling off the playground. The first step to completing this challenge was to make sure the robot…
Finished Otto 3D Printing
This week I finished 3D printing the parts for the open source robot Otto, which I began printing last week. This was possible due to my access to the 3D printers at my school. The next step in creating Otto will be assembling.
Otto DIY – Walking Robot Project
Otto DIY is an open source robotics project. I have already 3D printed the leg parts of the pre-made model, and prepared the stl files for printing using Tinkercad. After the rest of the parts are printed, Otto will be ready for assembling. I’m planning to teach him how to walk by creating movement functions…
Astable Multivibrator – PCB Soldering
The next step in learning about the astable multivibrator circuit is transferring from a breadboard prototype to a PCB and soldering it. The circuit is powered by three 1.5 volt AA batteries. You can find my post about the prototype version here.
Nice to Meet You, GitHub!
The next stop in my programming journey is GitHub. Its a website that allows programmers to store their code safely, while also giving them the ability to easily restore every saved version of it. I recently made and account on GitHub, and began learning the git commands for working with local and non-local repositories. Knowing…
Astable Multivibrator
The astable multi-vibrator uses two transistors, and turns on first LED1, then LED2. This happens because the two capacitors charge and discharge, sending signal to the base of the transistors. I recreated this circuit on a breadboard to see how its outcome. The breadboard is powered by a power bank.
Transistors Study
A transistor is a semi conductor device that is able to direct the amount of electric power. It is often used to amplify electricity and sound waves. It has three electrodes: the emitter, base, and the collector. The current of the load flows from the collector to the emitter. The main advantage of using a…
Weather API: Pulling Resources from the Web
The goal of this script is to show a six day forecast from the command line. It would include the date, temperature, and one word summary. In order to pull up the necessary information, I used an API from https://openweathermap.org/api Formatting The output of the program should be formatted as the following: **Sample Output:** date, average temp, summaryNov 30 – 23 C, sunnyDes 1 – 30 C, cloudyDes…
Christmas Tree Soldering Kit Assembling
As an activity for Christmas, I decided to practice soldering with X-mas tree soldering kit. The layout was very simple, and I was able to finish it in a couple of hours. It contained three circuit boards, two for the tree and the third one for the base. It’s electronic components included: AA batteries wires…
Distinguished Honor Roll Award
This distinguished honor roll award was given to students with outstanding academic performance at the end of the second semester.
Bricks – Pygame
I made this project as a birthday gift to my awesome older brother, Max. He helps me learn programming in his spare time, and is always very supportive towards me. Moreover, this was a great opportunity to learn more about the structure of the PyGame library. Originally, this project came from the book “Python, PyGame…
Climbing Snail – Python Challenge
A snail climbs a pole, “H” meters in height. It climbs up “A” meters during the day, and slides down “B” meters during the night. It is known that A > B, and B is greater than or equal to 0. On which day, will the snail reach the top of the pole? My solution…
Digital Clock Python Challenge
The goal of this Python challenge was to create a program which would convert the amount of seconds given by the user (starting from 0:00), to an h:mm:ss notation. The amount of hours must not go over 23, just like on a digital clock. My solution is displayed below. First, the program takes in the…
Sweep the Castle – VEX VR Coding
One of the activities on vr.vex.com is sweep the castle. The main goal is to knock off all the blocks off of the virtual playground without the robot falling off as well. The setup of the blocks on the playground changes every time. My solution is displayed in the images below.
Traffic Light PCB
As the next step in the Traffic Light project, I transferred the circuit from a breadboard, to an expansion prototype board for Arduino UNO. In order to do this, I took all the elements from the previous project, and designed a wiring diagram, and soldered the parts on to the PCB. As a result, the…
Diode Study
A diode is an electronic component which allows the electric current flow one way, and not the other. It is often represented as an upper case D on diagrams. A diode has a positive side called the Anode, and a negative side called the Cathode. In order to showcase this, I created a circuit on…
VEX VR – Disk Maze
For this project in STEM we had to program the VR Robot to move through the Disk Maze from Start to Finish using the FrontEye Sensor to detect the disk colors. Detect at least 5 disk colors before moving to the finish. The green square is the starting point, and the red disk is the…
VEX Robotics at School
STEM is the elective that I picked in Dwyer Middle. During this first part of the course we built VEX Robots from the manual and took part in a small competition. As part of the competition we had to join another team to stack blocks on the field in under three minute. The amount of…
Arduino Traffic Light
In this project I created a traffic light prototype with an Arduino UNO. The LEDs would have to light up at the sequence of a real traffic light and work in a constant loop. Materials used in the project: Arduino UNO breadboard 5mm LED 220 ohm resistors wires I used the Arduino programming software to…
Glendale Library Bookmark Contest Winner!
This year as a part of the Summer Reading Challenge, public children’s libraries in Glendale held a bookmark contest. I was the student from my age group whose bookmark design was selected by the judges! You can find all the bookmarks that won the 2021 bookmark contest by clicking here. I received a prize that…
Programmable CarBot
Contents: idea layout execution programming gallery Idea The next step in the journey of CarBot was to make it programmable using Arduino software. With this feature it will be possible to write code to move the robot around in every way, thus providing more possibilities for further projects. Layout Car-Bot’s Arduino UNO board is powered…
DC Motor Driver Module
The goal of CarBot’s next upgrade is to make it able to move backwards without having to turn around. Before we do that, however, its really important to learn how a motor driver works and explore how it can be incorporated into CarBot. Here is a study of the DC motor driver board. Materials breadboard…
Ohm’s Law; Resistor
In this project I explored the basic properties of a resistor and discovered some important electronic formulas. “A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element.” (Wikipedia). In a simple circuit which powers a light emitting diode (LED), a resistor limits the amount of the passing electric current….
MESA 2020-2021 Participation Award
Participation award for members of the MESA club, for the 2020-2021 school year.
MESA 2020-2021 Winner :)
I received second place in the Scratch-it Up competition for the year of 2020-2021 of MESA day, for my “Firewall” scratch game. Here are some screenshots of the game and the silver medal.
CarBot Relay
This project was intended to understand the function of a relay on a breadboard, and working with an Arduino UNO controller to complete simple tasks. I started by creating a circuit on a breadboard that would use relays that will control CarBot’s motors. Connecting the circuit to the Arduino board will allow us to control…
Equation Solver
As student it can be boring to do math, especially if its just repeating the same thing over and over. Well, to solve that problem, I created a function to solve many equations at a time, using well – more math. Here I use string manipulation methods in order to solve these proportion equations in…
Fifa Scratch Project
This year I wanted to create something special for my brother’s birthday, and decided on a scratch project about his favorite video game – Fifa. This game is only in the least bit interactive, but it was a really fun idea which turned out as a success. Happy birthday bro!