Introduction: ITTT L.E.D.

This is a school project for a course called If This Then That. The premise of the school assignment is to make an interactive object with the use of electronics mainly the Arduino Uno. After an extended period of pondering I decided to make something with LED. In the following steps I will explain how my object which is still in prototype phase was made.

Enjoy :)

Step 1: Gathering Resources

To make ITTT L.E.D. you need:

  • 4 LED's
  • 3 pushbuttons
  • 7 resistors
  • Arduino Uno
  • 16 wires
  • 1 breadboard

Step 2: Putting It Together

If you have everything I mentioned in Step 1 you can begin with assembling your ITTT L.E.D.

The image I added to this step shows how everything should be placed. If you place things differently on the Arduino the code from the next step won't work.

  1. You can start with putting the buttons and the LED's on the breadboard.
  2. Then put a wire from the v5 on the Arduino on the + side of the breadboard.
  3. To make the cycle complete you need to put a wire from gnd on the Arduino to the - on the breadboard.
  4. The LED's should not be given a direct positive charge since you need to regulate that though the buttons. Instead you use 4 wires to connect them to the - on the breadboard.
  5. To connect the LED's to power you need another 4 wires and 4 resistors. You connect the 8, 9, 10 and 11 to the LED's respectively and then use the resistors to bridge the gab and connect the circuit.
  6. For the buttons you need 6 wires. The first three will go from the + to each button respectively on the breadboard. This is the power for both the buttons and the LED's you want to turn on with the buttons. Then you use the other three wires to connect the buttons to your Arduino. Use the 3,4 and 5 for this. Note that the sequence is important because it will determine which LED gets turned on with which button.
  7. Lastly you need to use your 3 remaining resistors to connect the three buttons to the - on the breadboard

And now you have some wires, resistors, LED's and buttons connected to an Arduino.

Step 3: Coding the Code

Now you write(copy) your code. You need the Arduino tool which you can download for free from their site.

Arduino uses the C language.

The code is included in a pdf file. When you have the code set and you press that upload button in your Arduino tool voila your L.E.D. is completed. You can now activate 4 LED's with buttons through your Arduino. Remember the fourth LED can only be activated by pressing all buttons at once.