In 2019 I was a freshman in Memorial High School, taking an introduction to engineering lass with Mr. Grosinger. One of the projects that we had in the beginning of the school year was to make a flashlight that would compete with others to see who could pass the three tests Mr. Grosinger assigned. We first had to learn soldering to start off the flashlight.
How did we test our flashlights? (here's a video)
We used a gram scale to measure the weight of the flashlight, a Light Meter to measure the brightness of the LED, and dropped the flashlight from 5 feet.
What is soldering?
Soldering is when you melt a filler to join two or more things to make a joint object. I learned to solder wires and pennies together. I learned how to strip wit to expose the copper in the rubber.
How did I start?
Mr. Grosinger drew up a diagram to show us how to make a circuit for the flashlight. He explained the circuits parts and how to put them together. The circuit had to have a switch, LED, and batteries.
What were my first steps to making the circuit?
After learning to solder, I started to gain the materials I needed for the circuit. My first part was the switch so I soldered the striped wires to the terminals I would use to turn the circuit on and off.
My first circuits progress?
circuit was complete in a span of 3 days and I soldered the LED to the wires to make the connection better. I taped the two wires together to keep the LED straight.
My first fix to the circuit?
My circuit was finished but it weighed more than I expected it to weigh. I started to make things light buy taking of unnecessary materiel. I made the wires shorted and decided to use two batteries instead of three.
What did the new circuit weigh?
I shortened the wires, used rubber to keep things together, and heated the rubber to shrink the rubber on to the wires and batteries. The rubber kept things in place better, then the tape did. After showing it to Mr. Grosinger (teacher), I started to make the container to place the circuit.
What were the requirements for the circuit?
The container had to have five sides on them so I needed materials that were light enough to add not even a gram to circuit. I looked around the class for materials and started to think of ways to make the circuit or container lighter.
What did my new circuit weigh?
My new circuit was 10 grams and there was 6 gram difference from my original circuit. I thought I could make the container out of something clear so It could change nothing and I would meet the requirements as well.
How bright was the circuit?
My second test for the circuit was using the Lux meter to measure the brightness of my circuit. We were assigned to past 100 lux but my circuit was 249 lux. I was over the limit so I was satisfied with that, but I wanted to start making a container to place the circuit in.
What was my first container made of?
My first container was made out of Popsicle sticks I though would be light enough to not add weight since one stick weighed 1 gram. I cut them in half to make them fit on my circuit better, then weighed the whole flashlight on the gram scale and got 12 grams.
My new challenge?
After using the Popsicle sticks, I though I could make the case lighter so I started to look for things that were lighter then wood, but I could also expose the wires. The new case only reduced the weight by 1 gram so my teacher recommend taking things apart to make it light weight.
My final circuit?
I then took apart the circuit components like the switch and wires. I made my own switch by getting a strip of metal and pushing it forward to turn the LED on and pulling it back to turn off the LED. It turned on since the strip didn't touch the negative and positive side of the batteries, but pulling the strip back would make them touch and turn of the LED.
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