So here are Midterm Project:I want to make a couple small fan for hot beverages. It will involve a pressure sensor which will be attached on the underside of ideas a table coaster. When the sensor is activated, it will turn on the small motor included in the kit (which I'll need to slow down), which will have fan blades attached to it. In effect, this tiny fan will provide a huge leap in hot beverage drinking technology, preventing both pain and anguish. (sorry for closing the ms paint; I can't upload any real illustrations at the moment) http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii50/existentialistcat/untitled.jpg Final Project:I want to make a circuit:tongue-in-cheek commentary on President Yudof's yearly salary, which is 540,000 a year (while President Obama makes 400,000). ACTUALLY I changed my mind since uploading these picsgot a sound chip from a greeting card that plays the song "Taking Care of Business," the meaning of which is that Yudof treats the UC system like a business, raising student fees by 15 percent instead of cutting administrative salaries or cutting back on construction. It activates every time someone opens the cookie jar. I chose the cookie jar because I think this idea of the saying of "having one's hand in the cookie jar." In my opinion Yudof is taking too unrealisticmany cookies. The project is metaphorical, the technology of the speaker serving image and the image serving language, so really, it's an old-fashioned sort of project. The metaphor of "taking care of business" ceases to be a metaphor, while the act of having one's hand in the cookie jar becomes a metaphor in the act itself. The cookie jar is meant to have a very kitschy quality, Yudof looking rosy cheeked and benevolent like he knows what's best for everyone. The project was largely inspired by a New York Times interview with Yudof: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27fob-q4-t.html?_r=2He sounded incredibly cavalier, and made more jokes than he answered questions. I want imagine that he hums "taking care of business" confidently to himself while making decisions that affect the more than 220,000 students in the UC system, and giving a 9 million dollar raise to administration. Of course, the issue of funding is very difficult, and there is no way to make everyone happy. But I think the UC system should have a more involved leader. To do something with this project, I got a light sensors though sensor, and activated the sound depending of if there was enough light past a threshold of 100 coming from the analog input. Iused a 47k resistor for maximum range. I took out the batteries of the sound card so that arduino powered it. I tried it with the batteries in, but I couldn'm looking online for information on how t get it to stop playing. I decided to use themthe threshold instead of a transistor because it didn't work (I thought I might have put it in backwards, but it didn't work facing either direction). This is the code that I finally used: int sensorPin = 2; // this is for the light sensor inputint powerPin = 5; // this is proving difficultthe output pin for the audioint sensorValue = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensorint threshold = 100; // threshold for analog input of light sensor void setup() { pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); pinMode(powerPin, OUTPUT); // to power the sound chip Serial. Hopefully I'll be able begin(9600); // analog to figure it outserial monitor} void loop() { // read the value from the sensor: sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); Serial.println(sensorValue); if(sensorValue > threshold){ digitalWrite(powerPin, HIGH); }else{ digitalWrite(powerPin, LOW); // arduino will supply power unless the threshold is below 100 } delay(100); } Here is the sound chip:http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii50/existentialistcat/vis147_MG_2898.jpg Here's the cookie jar. I wanted it to have a hand-crafted look, so I painted Yudof's portrait in acrylic. It reminds me of the "raisin girl."http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii50/existentialistcat/vis147aaIMG_2904.jpgBonus noods:Here's the whole system, including the arduino, breadboard, soundchip and speaker all layered onto each other. http://blogi261.ibjphotobucket.com/blogalbums/ii50/wp-contentexistentialistcat/IMG_2906.jpg Here's the final portrait of Yudof on his cookie jar. He looks like a friendly grandpa.http://i261.photobucket.com/uploadsalbums/2007ii50/09existentialistcat/noodlesIMG_2907.jpg