Photocell to control multiple LEDs

Whoa! This project was a lot of things not working! Originally I wanted to try out the force-sensing resistor (FSR) as I was not able to get it to work properly in the class. So I looked up a few tutorials but the best one that I could find was from this site:

 https://www.makerguides.com/fsr-arduino-tutorial/

At the bottom are the instructions I followed for this project. First I used the code provided to us by Bryan, readVariableResistor, to get the raw data in the Serial Monitor but no matter what I was not able to get a reading higher than 0 when pressing down on the FSR. To test that I circuit was set up properly I switched the FSR with a photocell and even in my low light set up was able to get a reading between 0-55. This is probably my favorite part of using a sensor and the Arduino, you can make a photocell trigger your project no matter the lighting conditions, so no matter where you need to set up one's project it will always work!
After playing around a bit I still was not able to get the FSR to read so I decided to stay with the photocell since I knew that was working.

I decided to still use the code provided by the makerguides website as it was working well with the new reading inputs but I did want to change it a bit. One thing I wanted to add is the consolidation of the pinModes as we learned to do in class. Changing the values of the numbers to 3 and 7 as those where the pins that I was using.

Serial.begin(9600); for(int i = 3; i <= 7; i++){ Serial.println(i); pinMode(i,OUTPUT);

But the verification did not like that one bit and I would get the error message:

Arduino: 1.8.9 (Windows Store 1.8.21.0) (Windows 10), Board: "Arduino Uno" sketch_jan20a:14:3: error: expected initializer before 'Serial' Serial.begin(9600); ^~~~~~ sketch_jan20a:21:2: error: expected unqualified-id before 'for' for(int i = 3; i <= 7; i++){ ^~~ sketch_jan20a:21:17: error: 'i' does not name a type for(int i = 3; i <= 7; i++){ ^ sketch_jan20a:21:25: error: 'i' does not name a type for(int i = 3; i <= 7; i++){ ^ exit status 1 expected initializer before 'Serial' This report would have more information with "Show verbose output during compilation" option enabled in File -> Preferences.

After changing the code by to the original bulky pinMode setup. I also took out most of the defined pins, except for A0, as I feel like that is redundant since they are also defined in void setup. This left me with the code looking like this:

// Define pins: #define fsrpin A0 // Define variables: int fsrreading; void setup() { // Begin serial communication at a baud rate of 9600: Serial.begin(9600); // Set LED pins as output: pinMode(3, OUTPUT); pinMode(4, OUTPUT); pinMode(5, OUTPUT); pinMode(6, OUTPUT); pinMode(7, OUTPUT); } void loop() { // Read the FSR pin and store the output as fsrreading: fsrreading = analogRead(fsrpin); // Print the fsrreading in the serial monitor: Serial.println(fsrreading); // Control the LEDs: if (fsrreading > 10) { digitalWrite(3, HIGH); } else digitalWrite(3, LOW); if (fsrreading > 20) { digitalWrite(4, HIGH); } else digitalWrite(4, LOW); if (fsrreading > 30) { digitalWrite(5, HIGH); } else digitalWrite(5, LOW); if (fsrreading > 40) { digitalWrite(6, HIGH); } else digitalWrite(6, LOW); if (fsrreading > 50) { digitalWrite(7, HIGH); } else digitalWrite(7, LOW); }

Fairly similar to the original but I could not figure out a better way to condense it.

Now to the next issue! I could not get the LED on pinMode 3 to trigger at all, as you can see in the photo and video. It must be something in the code that I am not seeing because I took out and replaced all the components on the breadboard twice to no avail!

 The final set up

A better few of the Arduino and the wire set up

All in all, even though the FSR did not work, and I would like to understand why at the moment I prefer using photocells with the Arduino to trigger events because with long enough wires they are so easy to hide from a viewer.