Efan Altaee

Chapter 6 Challenges
Phototransistor Voltage Output Circuit

Questions
1.What does a transistor regulate?

The amount of current it allows to pass into its

collector and out through its base.

2.Which phototransistor terminals have leads?

The phototransistors collector and emitter

terminals are connected to leads.

3.How can you use the flat spot on the

phototransistors plastic case to identify its
terminals?

The lead thats closer to the flat spot is the emitter.

The lead thats further away from the flat spot is
the collector.

4.Which color would the phototransistor be more

sensitive to: red or green?

The wavelength of red is closer to the wavelength

of infrared, so it should be more sensitive to red.

5.How does VA3 in the circuit above respond if the

light gets brighter?

VA3 increases with more light.

6.What does the phototransistor in the circuit

above do that causes VA3 to increase or decrease?

The phototransistor supplies the resistor with more

or less current.

7.How can the circuit above be modified to make

it more sensitive to light?

Change the 2 k resistor to a higher value.

8.What happens when the voltage applied to an

I/O pin that has been set to input is above or below
the threshold voltage?

If the applied voltage is above the threshold

voltage, the input register bit for that pin stores a
1. If its below threshold voltage, the input register
bit stores a 0.

9.If the amount of charge a capacitor stores

decreases, what happens to the voltage at its
terminals?

The voltage decreases.

Exercises
1.Solve for VA3 if I = 1 mA in the circuit above.

V = I R = 0.001 A 2000 = 2 V.

2.Calculate the current through the resistor if

VA3 in the circuit above is 4.5 V.

V = I R I = V R = 4.5 2000 = 0.00225 A =

2.25 mA.

3.Calculate the value of a capacitor that has

been stamped 105.

105 10 with 5 zeros appended and multiplied by

1 pF. 1,000,000 1 pF = (1 106) (1 1012)
F = 1 106 F = 1 F.

4. Write an rcTime statement that measures

decay time with pin 7 and stores the result in a
variable named tDecay.

It would be long tDecay = rcTime(7);

 5. Calculate what the ndShade measurement
would be if the Arduino measures decay values of
1001 on both sides.

ndShade = tRight / (tLeft+Right) - 0.5 = 1001

(1001 + 1001) 0.5 = 0.5 0.5 = 0.

6. Write a for loop that displays fifty equal sign

characters in the Serial Monitor.

Solution:

for(int i = 1; i<=50; i++) // Repeat 50 times

{
Serial.print('='); // one = char each time
through
}

Projects
1.In Activity 1, the circuit, along with
the HaltUnderBrightLight sketch, made the BOE
Shield-Bot stop under a light at the end of the
course. What if you will only have a limited time at
a course before a competition, and you dont know
the lighting conditions in advance? You might need
to calibrate your BOE Shield-Bot on site. A sketch
that makes the piezospeaker beep repeatedly
when the BOE Shield-Bot detects bright light and
stay quiet when it detects ambient light could be
useful for this task. Write and test a sketch to do
this with the circuit in Activity 1.

This is a modified version of HaltUnderBrightLight

/*
* Robotics with the BOE Shield - Chapter 6,
Project 1
* Chirp when light is above threshold. Will
require updating value of
* threshold & retesting under bright light to get
to the right value.
*/

void setup() // Built-in initialization

block
{
tone(4, 3000, 1000); // Play tone for 1
second
delay(1000); // Delay to finish tone
}
void loop() // Main loop auto-
repeats
{
if(volts(A3) > 3.5) // If A3 voltage
greater than 3.5
{
tone(4, 4000, 50); // Start chirping
delay(100);
}
}

float volts(int adPin) // Measures volts

at adPin
{ // Returns floating point
voltage
return float(analogRead(adPin)) * 5.0 / 1024.0;
}

2.Develop an application that makes the BOE

Shield-Bot roam and search for darkness instead of
light. This application should utilize the charge
transfer circuits from Building the Photosensitive
Eyes.

The solution for this one is to make a copy of

LightSeekingShieldBot, and add one command to
the loop function: ndShade = -ndShade.

3.Develop an application that makes the BOE

Shield-Bot roam toward a bright incandescent desk
lamp in a room where the only other light sources
are fluorescent ceiling lights. The BOE Shield-Bot
should be able to roam toward the desk lamp and
play a tone when its under it. This application
should use the charge transfer circuits
from Building the Photosensitive Eyes.

Use LightSensorValues to determine a threshold.

Its best to take tLeft + tRight. You can use the
LightSensorValues to test this.