This week in tech we learned more about circuits and batteries through the use of a Gizmos simulation that was similar to a simulation we would do in science class.

You had a side tab where you could place batteries, wires and other things. He talked about the necessary components in a circuit then challenged us to created a circuit with three lightbulbs, one battery and three switches. I was able to solve it quickly by attaching all of the wires to the battery, and then to the lightbulb directly. I then added switch at the end of each battery.

While I was searching for the solutions, I discovered that you can turn up the voltage on the batteries and turn down the resistance on the lightbulbs. With this, it allows you to create extremely bright lights, with the issue of the battery popping.

Then he taught us about fuse boxes and how they function, so when there isn’t enough resistance on the thing that needs to be powered, the fuse box snaps or flicks off the power to keep the power source from being damaged or exploding.

Overall, this week in Tech was interesting, enjoyable, and all in all, great.

This week in Tech, it was time to finally build the switches in order to play the self-driving car game.

In order to use create our switches, I had to learn how to use unknown technology, such as the ceramic knife, the scroll saw, the sander, and the glue gun.

The original ideas that I came up with weren’t working, as I would keep of making errors with the scroll saw, and I could find out how to cut hollow shapes, but the pre-cut material bin saved me at the last minute, there were hollow shapes and simple levers, but I still couldn’t create what I had designed in the previous blog post.

I switched my first design, though it wouldn’t resemble the design in the previous blog in the slightest, to be based off of one of the pre-built levers. I attached aluminum to the the side of the levers and bent it so it would face up, so when someone pulled the lever forward, it would face down, and I put aluminum wrapping of the base, so it would conduct the electricity.

For my second switch design, I created a flickable lever design. I poke a brass fastener into the top of a piece of cardboard so it would be able to rotate. I then glued the tip and end of the brass fastener to two wood blocks so it could rotate stably without me having to hold it. I then taped aluminum foil to the other end of the strip of cardboard. I then glued another strip of cardboard to the wood block on it’s side to stop the lever from falling forward. I then attached aluminum to the tip of that strip of cardboard because when the two aluminum pieces touched, it would activate the light. I then did the same as the last strip of cardboard but without the aluminum at the end.

My last switch was one of my quicker ones, I made a sort of book style switch. I cut a strip of cardboard about 60cm wide and used the ceramic knife to create a crease so it would behave like a book. I then attach aluminum to one side on the inside and then the other side on the inside. The way the switch worked is when you close the “book” it would turn on the light.

During the fifth week in technology, we started a new unit, which was about circuits and switches.

He began the lesson by talking about his neighbor, who is legally blind, and the troubles it is to be blind. He then asked us the question: What new technology could we design and develop to make it easier for blind people to get around. We worked with our table mates, (Jake was the only one who happened to be there) to design. The design that Jake and settled for a design of an electric Segway that had multiple cameras, and it would sense its’ environment and by scanning objects and instructions entered by the user. If it thought that the distance to the object was changing at a high speed, and the distance was close enough to cause incident, it would reroute, along with notifying the user by saying the distance, the object, and the direction, for example, if it was getting close to a person it would say “Person, three feet, 182 degrees”. When every group gave their ideas, everyone came up with some kind of self driving vehicle that would alert the driver of danger using audio signals. He then told us that we would playing a kind of self driving car game using switches that we make.

First we need to make the switches to play, so I came up with a pressure plate design which would activate when an object was placed on it.

My next switch I planned would be a multiple button activated. You would drag back a switch, would connect the wiring, and then push a button to send the positive current through.

My last switch, I  wanted sort of “wind up”. It would be sort of boxed in, and the light would be at the end.  So you would pull back a lever, and the light would turn on