Phototransistor Voltage Output Circuit

Questions
1. What does a transistor regulate?

The amount of current it allows to pass into its collector

and out through its base.

1. Which phototransistor terminals have leads?

The phototransistors collector and emitter terminals are

connected to leads.
 1. How can you use the flat spot on the
phototransistors plastic case to identify its
terminals?

The lead thats closer to the flat spot is the emitter. The
lead thats further away from the flat spot is the collector.

1. Which color would the phototransistor be

more sensitive to: red or green?

The wavelength of red is closer to the wavelength of

infrared, so it should be more sensitive to red.

1. How does VA3 in the circuit above respond if

the light gets brighter?

VA3 increases with more light.

1. What does the phototransistor in the circuit

above do that causes VA3 to increase or decrease?

The phototransistor supplies the resistor with more or less

current.

1. How can the circuit above be modified to

make it more sensitive to light?

Change the 2 k resistor to a higher value.

 1. What happens when the voltage applied to
an I/O pin that has been set to input is above or
below the threshold voltage?

If the applied voltage is above the threshold voltage, the

input register bit for that pin stores a 1. If its below
threshold voltage, the input register bit stores a 0.

1. If the amount of charge a capacitor stores

decreases, what happens to the voltage at its
terminals?

The voltage decreases.

Exercises
1. Solve for VA3 if I = 1 mA in the circuit above.

V = I R = 0.001 A 2000 = 2 V.

1. Calculate the current through the resistor if

VA3 in the circuit above is 4.5 V.

V = I R I = V R = 4.5 2000 = 0.00225 A =

2.25 mA.

1. Calculate the value of a capacitor that has

been stamped 105.
105 10 with 5 zeros appended and multiplied by
1 pF. 1,000,000 1 pF = (1 106) (1 1012)
F = 1 106 F = 1 F.

1. Write an rcTime statement that measures decay

time with pin 7 and stores the result in a variable named
tDecay.

It would be long tDecay = rcTime(7);

1. Calculate what the ndShade measurement would

be if the Arduino measures decay values of 1001 on both
sides.

ndShade = tRight / (tLeft+Right) - 0.5 = 1001 (1001 +

1001) 0.5 = 0.5 0.5 = 0.

1. Write a for loop that displays fifty equal sign

characters in the Serial Monitor.

Solution:

for(int i = 1; i<=50; i++) // Repeat 50 times

Serial.print('='); // one = char each time through

 }

Projects
1. In Activity 1, the circuit, along with the
HaltUnderBrightLight sketch, made the BOE Shield-
Bot stop under a light at the end of the course.
What if you will only have a limited time at a course
before a competition, and you dont know the lighting
conditions in advance? You might need to calibrate
your BOE Shield-Bot on site. A sketch that makes
the piezospeaker beep repeatedly when the BOE
Shield-Bot detects bright light and stay quiet when it
detects ambient light could be useful for this task.
Write and test a sketch to do this with the circuit in
Activity 1.

This is a modified version of HaltUnderBrightLight

/*

* Robotics with the BOE Shield - Chapter 6, Project 1

* Chirp when light is above threshold. Will require

updating value of
* threshold & retesting under bright light to get to the

right value.

*/

void setup() // Built-in initialization block

tone(4, 3000, 1000); // Play tone for 1 second

delay(1000); // Delay to finish tone

void loop() // Main loop auto-repeats

if(volts(A3) > 3.5) // If A3 voltage greater than

3.5

{
 tone(4, 4000, 50); // Start chirping

delay(100);

float volts(int adPin) // Measures volts at adPin

{ // Returns floating point voltage

return float(analogRead(adPin)) * 5.0 / 1024.0;

1. Develop an application that makes the BOE

Shield-Bot roam and search for darkness instead of
light. This application should utilize the charge
transfer circuits from Building the Photosensitive
Eyes.
The solution for this one is to make a copy of
LightSeekingShieldBot, and add one command to the loop
function: ndShade = -ndShade.

1. Develop an application that makes the BOE

Shield-Bot roam toward a bright incandescent desk
lamp in a room where the only other light sources
are fluorescent ceiling lights. The BOE Shield-Bot
should be able to roam toward the desk lamp and
play a tone when its under it. This application should
use the charge transfer circuits from Building the
Photosensitive Eyes.

Use LightSensorValues to determine a threshold. Its best

to take tLeft + tRight. You can use the LightSensorValues
to test this.