My first project with Arduino; toggle between two LEDs using a switch.

Getting Started

I got the kit from the NYU Bookstore; no problems. It’s actually a nice kit, the Arduino itself, a breadboard, wires, resistors and other doodads. The only problem I had getting set up was getting the Arduino environment to recognise that the board was connected to the USB port. It took a couple of restarts for the USB driver to start working - I think this was because some other application or process was holding onto the use of a USB port. How and ever, all working now.

The Challenge

This is the second lab for week 1; it’s designed to demonstrate digital input (the position of a switch) and output (the lighting of one LED with the switch is off, or another when it’s on.

The Result

Wiring the circuit was a little fiddly; but I got there after a while. I made a few mistakes, but nothing that stepping through the circuit diagram didn’t solve. I am still not 100% sure I understand how the circuit works, but I’ll ask Tom to walk through it next week.

Here is the circuit working. It’s not sexy, but it works :)