Today was a day filled with team-building, bonding, growth, and pain. Today I finished my morse code decoder. After working on it for hours and hours every day, it finally worked, without glitch or error message, every time. I was hugely proud of myself, and I wanted to display it alongside all the other gadgets. To do so, however, I would have to set it up with an external power source so it could run on it’s own. A seemingly simple task that proved to be my biggest obstacle yet. I first tried a nine-volt battery, hooked up to the arduino, which was still attached via cable to my computer. Not only did this cause the arduino to crash, it caused the LCD screen to heat up to the point of burning me, and my computer, which was receiving data from the arduino, received a surge of energy, causing it to undergo a catastrophic system crash. Safe to say, I had failed. Sticking to the Cary Academy values of Discovery, Innovation, Collaboration, and Excellence, however, I knew that I couldn’t give up. I waited for my computer to re-boot, salvaged my files, and took another crack. I decided to set up a chain of smaller batteries, that way the voltage would be reduced and the capacity would be increased, based on the series vs sequence model of electrical circuitry. I set up three 2 volt batteries in a chain, and attached them to the arduino in the “power in” pins. However I failed to remember that I was still holding one of the exposed junctures, and when I plugged in the battery, the current found the quickest way between the two points was not through the circuit – it was through me. I fell back from the board with the urgency of one who had just been tasered, as, in a sense, I had been. The tips of my fingers on both hands were bright red, and I felt a strange tingling sensation all around my body. I decided to take the ultimate precautions disconnecting the arduino from the failed power source, and did so with my feet. For the rest of the day, I worked with kids on the 3D printed objects, and didn’t take another crack at the arduino. I’m sure that in the coming days, I will be able to solve the mystery of electricity, but for now, I needed a break from the wonders of technology. I learned an important lesson today- sometimes, you have to know when to stop.
