Electronics > Beginners
Traffic light circuit
<< < (9/9)
JohnnyMalaria:
Maybe it's just me but the place to start is a simple breadboard, 74 series logic chips, a timer, battery, LEDs and resistors. This will teach the basics of binary logic and rudimentary electronics. Pair it with a very simple truth table she creates with your guidance for the simple green-yellow-red-green-yellow-red then progress to a more complex table for the red-red/amber-green-amber-red). Once she gets the concepts then move to some simple programming language (e.g., VBA) and then progress to the complicated world of the Arduino, PICAXE etc. I just think jumping straight in to the latter isn't as educational.
Ian.M:
Yes, its easy to get lost in the fancy technology.  It may even be better to start with gearmotor driven mechanical switching to introduce the fundamental concepts of sequencing before advancing to sequential 555s or a clocked 4017.

VBA is not at all simple.   I mentioned MIT Scratch previously, as that is largely drag and drop and is popular with the STEM education community.
NivagSwerdna:
http://www.primaryscience.ie/media/pdfs/col/dpsm_traffic_lights_activity.pdf
Zero999:

--- Quote from: NivagSwerdna on June 12, 2018, 05:06:09 pm ---http://www.primaryscience.ie/media/pdfs/col/dpsm_traffic_lights_activity.pdf

--- End quote ---
I agree. That's the sort of thing I started out with, except it was an old doll's house, which my father installed a light in. I think the average 7 year old, perhaps even younger, will be able to understand the concept of a circuit and switches Then it becomes easy to introduce them to electromagnets and relays: the most basic active component.
Navigation
Message Index
Previous page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod