<aside> 🔴 Summary: The first week was extremely painful. I studied the definitions and reading materials, and logically I understood them, but still had no idea where and how to start. I have a terrible sense of spatial understanding and eye-hand coordination and was overwhelmed by the components and how small and intricate they are??? Felt like I could have broken them out of frustration/anger any time. I really appreciated support and help from my cohort. Shout-out to David Currie for the guidance & creative switch idea, Viola He & other peers who helped me on the floor or let me hover awkwardly over their workspace, trying to learn and re-learn PCOMP through them.

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• Labs

• Readings & Viewings

• Day 1 — After stabbing the breadboard mindlessly, I made the LED lit up and made notes of what I thought was the thing that worked.

  • The LED worked but there was a slight delay every time I turned it on/off
  • I connected the Arduino and was lighting up the LEDs using code.
  • Also made them do small animation through code, blink every 5s
  • Also should not do physical computing on top of my Ipad

• Day 2 — Recreated what I did yesterday, assuming it will work again, but it did not work. Not sure why. Cue breakdown.

  • Update: Made it worked later on during the day, but not sure if it was the code or the circuits.
  • It was reversed, so the LED is lit, and pressing the button turn it off.
  • Realised later on that I could make the LED lit up without code, and that coding was part of Week 2's homework.

• Day 3 — Tried to recreate the single LED setup & used Multimeter. Did a multiple switches setup + LEDs

  • David helped me cleaned up and enlightened me with the knowledge that I can lit up the LEDs with fewer wires and without code.

  • Learned more about Arduino Nano.

  • This led me to tried and made the multiple switches worked.

    

    

    

    

    [video width="1080" height="1080" mp4="https://wp.nyu.edu/anh/wp-content/uploads/sites/19019/2020/09/IMG_6606.mp4"][/video]

• Day 4 — Creative Switch

  • Took one day off to let the PCOMP knowledge settles.
  • Took an embarrassingly long time to understand how switches work.
  • Also learned how to use the regulator via Viola.

  

  

  [gallery size="large" columns="2" ids="48,47"]

  [video width="1080" height="1080" mp4="https://wp.nyu.edu/anh/wp-content/uploads/sites/19019/2020/09/IMG_6646.mp4"][/video]

  

What I learned:

• My peers are my best resources
• What helped me tremendously is being able to see the final setup, then work backwards from it. I am a visual learner and realised I learn best when I can clearly see and connect what goes where, then poke around to see which does what, or what works and what doesn’t. I enjoyed plugging and replugging to learn the role of each component in the overall setup.
• I made some notes of how I (mentally) understood the system, like a visual journey: what kind of story I would tell myself to help me better visualise this process? It's quite informal and not always theoretically correct, but that helped me remember and familiarise myself with ... whatever that is going on.
• I learn better with live demonstration and debugging, I'm still not knowledgeable enough to be able to debug what goes wrong, but hopefully one day.
• I should start experimenting sooner rather than later. It helps to try a little each day, document, then recreate and learn more the next day.

What I struggled with:

• Understanding the circuits and what goes where
• I also accidentally jumped ahead and tried implementing code with Arduino Create, which is supposed to be next week’s homework.
• I read about the schematics, and I know that the faster I understand this concept, the easier my life will be … but right now I have not fully grasped the concept yet.
• I struggled to reconcile the demo (which used Arduino Uno) with what I have (Arduino Nano). I know now that the difference is not much, but for someone who is new and extremely anxious, it was a nerve-wracking experience trying to comprehend and translate these Arduino Uno-based tutorials with Arduino Nano. I wish the demo was more in sync with the material list, or that there were demos for different Arduino.
• Some tutorials or examples are done with Arduino Uno or with a DC Power Voltage, and I could not understand how to adapt that to my setup
• I realised I have zero understanding or knowledge of any physics or electricities ... high-key took me a while to understand how the creative switch assignment worked.