PoE: Working on Lab 1

For the second class of "Principles of Engineering," my partner and I began where we left off last class -- just beginning the second lab. Consisting of two parts, Lab 1 focuses on ensuring the students attain a certain level of familiarity with the ArduinoUNO's coding language and applying the board in an electrical circuit. Specifically, the first part asks us to generate a code where three LEDs experience four sets of light patterns with the use of a single button.

My partner and I started off well: we wrote out what we wanted the code to do; broke the procedure into steps (stages); and sketched a draft of how to structure these stages -- coding-wise. We wrote out the entire code to, at least, try something out. We uploaded the code -- and nothing. And, so, the troubleshooting began.

• Simplifying the code and removing the last two stages to test out the "switching" mechanism did not have an effect.
• Removing the second stage did not have an effect.
• Creating a "test" code to see if it could switch between two single LEDs did not work either.

We eventually concluded that there must be an issue with the hardware or circuitry. Using a multimeter, I tested the connections between the power and GND points and, initially, went into panic mode as I thought that the power output of my board was defect. Fortunately, it was a false alarm and discovered that the circuitry indeed worked. The third option was hardware: there could possibly be a broken LED or button. However, all the LEDs were functional and we connected the button as was shown, by using the diagonal pins to route the current. We continued troubleshooting until the very end of "clean-up" time and still found no answer. While walking out of the course and talking to others, the inevitable and simplest mistake that all engineers will make was weeded out: our device most likely was oriented wrong. 

Words to the wise: ALWAYS take note of indicating arrows and marks that show the first pin or how to orient properly. Although we had used the diagonal pins as instructed, it did not occur to us that we should rotate the button to ensure that the first pin was actually connected to the power supply and its diagonal (not horizontal) match was connected to GND. At least, we have our code and can make significant progress in the next few days.