Chapter 6 Challenges

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.
2. Which phototransistor terminals have leads?
The phototransistors collector and emitter terminals are connected to
leads.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. How does VA3 in the circuit above respond if the light gets brighter?
VA3 increases with more light.
6. What does the phototransistor in the circuit above do that causes V A3 to
increase or decrease?
The phototransistor supplies the resistor with more or less current.
7. How can the circuit above be modified to make it more sensitive to light?
Change the 2 k resistor to a higher value.
8. 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.
 9. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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);
5. Calculate what the ndShade measurement would be if the Arduino
measures decay values of 1001 on both sides.
ndShade = tRight / (tLeft+tRight) - 0.5 = 1001 (1001 + 1001)
0.5 = 0.5 0.5 = 0.
6. 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;
}

2. 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. Add it right
before the ifelse statement. Then, instead of indicating shade to turn away
from, it indicates bright light to turn away from. Another approach would be to
use an ndLight calculation that equals tLeft / (tLeft + tRight). You would
have to search/replace ndShade with ndLight in the sketch.
3. 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. Start with a value thats
 1/4 of the way from reaching the bright light level. So if tLeft + tRight = 4000
and 400 for bright light, use the value 400 + (4000 400) = 400 + 900 =
1300. Dont use 1300, its just an example; figure out the value for your
conditions. Next, add an if statement similar to the one from
HaltUnderBrightLight to the main loop of LightSeekingShieldBot. Careful
though, HaltUnderBrightLight uses the greater than (>) operator because its
using a voltage output circuit. We need the less than (<) operator for the QT
circuit because smaller values mean brighter light. We also need to express the
threshold as a floating point value, like 1300.0. Heres an example:

// Add this if condition to stop under the bright lamp.

if((tRight + tLeft) < 1300.0) // tLeft+tRight < 1300?
{
servoLeft.detach(); // Stop servo signals
servoRight.detach();
}

/*
* Robotics with the BOE Shield - Chapter 6, Project 3
* Roams toward light and away from shade.
*/

#include <Servo.h> // Include servo

library

Servo servoLeft; // Declare left and

right servos
Servo servoRight;

void setup() // Built-in

initialization block
{
tone(4, 3000, 1000); // Play tone for 1
second
delay(1000); // Delay to finish
tone

servoLeft.attach(13); // Attach left signal

to pin 13
 servoRight.attach(12); // Attach right
signal to pin 12
}

void loop() // Main loop auto-

repeats
{
float tLeft = float(rcTime(8)); // Get left light &
make float
float tRight = float(rcTime(6)); // Get right light &
make float

// Add this if condition to stop under the bright lamp.

if((tRight + tLeft) < 1300.0) // If A3 voltage
greater than 2
{
servoLeft.detach(); // Stop servo signals
servoRight.detach();
}

float ndShade; // Normalized

differential shade
ndShade = tRight / (tLeft+tRight) - 0.5; // Calculate it and
subtract 0.5

int speedLeft, speedRight; // Declare speed

variables

if (ndShade > 0.0) // Shade on right?

{ // Slow down left
wheel
speedLeft = int(200.0 - (ndShade * 1000.0));
speedLeft = constrain(speedLeft, -200, 200);
speedRight = 200; // Full speed right
wheel
}
 else // Shade on Left?
{ // Slow down right
wheel
speedRight = int(200.0 + (ndShade * 1000.0));
speedRight = constrain(speedRight, -200, 200);
speedLeft = 200; // Full speed left
wheel
}

maneuver(speedLeft, speedRight, 20); // Set wheel speeds

}

long rcTime(int pin) // rcTime measures

decay at pin
{
pinMode(pin, OUTPUT); // Charge capacitor
digitalWrite(pin, HIGH); // ..by setting pin
ouput-high
delay(5); // ..for 5 ms
pinMode(pin, INPUT); // Set pin to input
digitalWrite(pin, LOW); // ..with no pullup
long time = micros(); // Mark the time
while(digitalRead(pin)); // Wait for voltage <
threshold
time = micros() - time; // Calculate decay
time
return time; // Returns decay time
}

// maneuver function
void maneuver(int speedLeft, int speedRight, int msTime)
{
servoLeft.writeMicroseconds(1500 + speedLeft); // Set Left
servo speed
servoRight.writeMicroseconds(1500 - speedRight); // Set right
servo speed
 if(msTime==-1) // if msTime =
-1
{
servoLeft.detach(); // Stop servo
signals
servoRight.detach();
}
delay(msTime); // Delay for
msTime
}