In class, we had a project applying the study we did, by making a solar lamp. We learned starting from what current is, what a circuit is, resistance, potential difference and how all these work. The goal of our project was to get a full understanding of circuits and check it by trying to making a real one, which had a power source, a load and be a closed loop. My partner was Oumar and our first idea, was to make our solar lamp with a 3D printer. However, when we found out that it takes more than 10 hours to finish it by a 3D printer, we quickly changed our plan, and decided to make the lamp with wood. We designed our lamp, with a solar panel in the outer surface, a battery in the inside, the switch just under the solar panel and finally the LED on top of the wooden lamp. We chose our measurements for the wood and made our lamp a cube shape, so we can turn it whenever we want to use the light or charge with solar panels. To spread the light, we painted a bulb shaped glass with orange color, then attached it on top of the LED, to make it like a light bulb. Last time in the game project, our group did not do very well in the game project, because we didn’t have a lot of ideas and also did not understand the rules fully. This made it hard for me to participate in the game and enjoy. However, for this project, I think I got a better partner than last time, because I feel we used our time wisely, not doing random things. I’m confident with the fact that we used most of our given time, making our solar lamp. And for result we got a pretty satisfying result. Our construction of the lamp protected the battery, had the solar panel positioned in a way that it will absorb a lot of light, the light was functional, no electrical tape was holding anything together on the outside of lamp and the switch was secured. The design also looks fairly nice so I’m content with our results. If next time I’m again asked to create something based on class content, I would look at the criteria and listen to the teacher carefully, because I might miss some parts. I think it’s also important to understand the topic 100% if you want good quality, so I’ll stay well in class.
The reason why our LED lighted up was because we knew the essential parts and criteria for lighting up LED. The definition of a circuit is a path in which electrons from a voltage or current source flow. It needs to be a closed loop of conductive materials, a load and a power source. In our circuit, we made our closed loop with wires, which is a conductive material, power source as a battery and the load was the LED. They all need to be connected by wires, and the way we did this was by using an On-on switch. Also while making our solar lamp, I’ve got to learn how to do soldering and use saw. We used soldering to connect metals with metals, so it can be connected, but still conductive. I had a hard time doing it at first, but soon figured out. Saw is another tool I’ve got to learn during this project. Cutting wood was actually harder than I thought, because the blade had to be really straight when you are cutting. And of course for me, it was hard at first but soon got over with it. The only bad part of sawing was that there were too many sawdust after the work…But I still enjoyed it, and feel that I have progressed through this project.
