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In lieu of the recent budget cuts and increase in tuition costs, I've decided to comment on the current peril of public higher education. I've installed a speaker in a textbook and programmed my Arduino to perform an S.O.S. signal a number of times, which turns into the sound of a cardiac monitor, followed by a simple rendition of the Funeral March.
The circuitCircuit:
[[Image: CIRCUIT_500A.jpg]]
When I first wired the speaker up with the Arduino and the breadboard, the signal was very weak and produced a very quiet tone. I decided to add the TIP120 and the diode to increase the volume of the signal. I wanted to make the piece self-contained and not require a laptop for power, so I powered the Arduino with a 9V battery. In doing so, I discovered that my DC in on my Arduino didn't work, so I clipped a micro USB plug from and old cell phone charger and soldered it to the wires from the battery. I then cut out a section of a textbook to house the electronics. Finally, I added a push-to-break switch so that the program could be triggered without having to open the book. The switch shuts the Arduino off momentarily, causing it to restart the program.