Jason's notes

Week1 Intro to Pcomp

Labs

  • Electricity: The Basics
  • Understanding DC Power Supplies

    Much of the technical work of physical computing is about figuring out what forms of energy a person is generating, and what kind of transducer you can buy or build to read that energy.

  • Components
  • Setting up a Breadboard
  • Electronics and using a Multimeter
  • Switches

As an electronic nerd, I already have most of the stuff at home. The arduino nano 33 IoT is a very charming board given its size and performance. The only problem is that its pin names are placed under the board, so you can’t see them when you attached it on a breadboard.

Tips: Power adapters are easy to find on old routers and other electronic devices. I now have three of them.

My desk, full of parts and tools

A simple test of LM7805 converting 12V to 5V which light the green LED.

Breadboard with a LM7805 5V voltage regulator and a glowing green LED

Important Notes

  • Not all voltage regulator have the same pin configuration even if some of them share the same package.
  • Always check before measuring Amp to avoid damaging the multimeter.

Readings

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

Problems of Pictures under glass:

  • Lack of feedback
  • Manipulations such as slide are not natural

fallacy of invisible interfaces