1:30: Break
1:45: Capacitive Sensors
2:00: Sensor fabrication workshop: make a capacitance-based sensor. Discuss appplications and calibration.
1. Use a sensor to measure a physical quantity with your microcontroller. Calibrate your sensor (describe the range between its min and max values, and whether/how you can control this range). Show data in the form of a table or graph.
2. Do the same as (1) with a capacitive sensor you have fabricated yourself using copper tape, aluminum foil, Velostat, etc.
Examples: Dan (thermistor), Silvia (IR phototransistor), Andrew (Hall sensor).
Review SparkFun's pages on Analog to Digital Conversion, Voltage Dividers, Capacitors, and Series and Parallel Circuits.
Read chapters 5 and 6 of Making Things Move
Pulse Width Modulation