Digital Meter with Pinoo

Purpose of the Project: To create a digital measurement system with distance sensor and LCD display module using the Pinoo control card.

Duration: 2 lessons

Age Group: 9 years old and above

Pinoo Sets: Maker set and full set.

Benefits:

  • Learns to code Pinoo control card
  • Learns to code the distance sensor.
  • Learns to code the LCD display module.
  • Improves the skill of setting up algorithms.
  • Improves coding skill.

Materials to be Used: Mblock 3 program, Pinoo Control Card, Distance Sensor, LCD display Module, Connection Cables

 

 

Materials Required for Design: Empty small cardboard box, utility knife, various materials to decorate.

 

 

Project Preparation:

 

1. Let's start our project with the design of the box. For this purpose, we mark the place where we will place our distance sensor on the box in the sensor size and cut.

 

  1. We do the same operation to another part of our box, inside the LCD screen
 
 
 
 
 
  1. Let's make the connections of the distance sensor and the LCD display module to our Pinoo card. We connect the distance sensor to input number 5 and the LCD display module to input number 10.

 

  1. We place our circuit in appropriate places in our box.

 

 

  1. Finally, we drill a suitable hole in the box so that we can attach our connection cable to the Pinoo board.

 

 

 

  1. We have completed our connections, now let's move on to the coding part. For this, we will use the mblock-3 application.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  1.  Let's connect our Pinoo control card to the computer with the help of the connection cable and enter the Mblock3 application. Then, let's introduce our Pinoo control card to the computer. To do this, we first click on the serial port option from the Connect tab. Then we select COM3. (The number may differ depending on the computer and the port.)

 

 

  1. After making the serial port connection, let's select the card we will use from the Cards tab. We are working with Arduino Nano model.
 
 
 
  1. After selecting our card, we click on the Pinoo option from the Extensions tab. We will write our codes with the Pinoo extension.

 

10.  We go back to the Extensions tab. Here we click on the Pinoo option. We will write our codes with the Pinoo extension.

 

11.   In the coding part; Since the LCD screen can only run the code blocks, which are unique to the arduino card, we start our codes with the Pinoo program block in the robots tab.

 

 
 
 
 
 12. We are introducing the type of our lcd screen. The type of lcd screen we use is 0x27 model.
 
 
 
 
 13.   Since the distance we measure will be a constantly changing data, we will use variables here. We create a variable named distance from the Data & Block section.
 
 
 
 
 14.   We determine the value of the distance variable as the value we will get from the distance sensor.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
15. In order to print the distance value we read from the distance sensor to the LCD screen, we will first create a title called distance to the first line and the middle of the screen.
 
 
 
 
 
 16.While reading the distance sensor, we will use it by rounding the values ​​as it mostly produces fractional values. We get the round command from the operations menu and place the distance variable on its left side.

 

 

17. To indicate that the measured value is in cm, we want to write cm next to the measurement result. For this, we will use the combine command from the operations tab.

 
 
 18.  Let's print our measurement value on the screen. Since we want to print the text on the second line and middle part of the screen, we change the line part to 2 and the column value to 4.
 
 
 
 

 

19. Since we want the measurement process to be done continuously, we place all the code blocks in the continuous repeat command in the control tab.

 
 
 
 20. Since the measurement values ​​will change very quickly, we add a 0.05 second waiting time to our codes to make a more accurate measurement. For this, we take the 1 second wait command in the Control tab and change the number 1 to 0.05.
 
 
 

 

21.  We had to load our codes into arduino to see if there was any problem in the operation of our project. For this, we right click the Pinoo program on the code block and click the Upload to Arduino option.

 
 
 
 
 22. We are waiting for the codes to be uploaded to the card. After the installation is complete, we close the window and disconnect the Pinoo control board connection cable from the computer.
 
 

 

 23.  We power our Pinoo control board with the help of a 9v battery and a battery cap. We also turn the on / off button right next to the battery input to the ON position.

 

 
 
 

Let's observe how the value displayed on the LCD screen changes when you move an object closer to and away from the distance sensor.

 

 24.  Finally, you can decorate your digital meter box as you wish.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

WITH PINOO SETS, CHILDREN CAN MAKE HUNDREDS OF PROJECTS WITH MATERIALS THEY CAN EASILY FIND IN THEIR HOMES.

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