The professional
development days allowed teachers to get hands on experience in
populating printed circuit boards (PCB's), soldering and
programming.
First PD day
Participants in the
first PD day were able to build a UniBoard and program it the
very same day! We quickly populated the UniBoard with
components, soldered, and tested each board. We had just enough
time to go to the computer lab and do some basic programming.
Above: Craig, Brendan, Phil, Odette and David are populating the
UniBoard with components.
Above: Christine is soldering the UniBoard
Above: Kathy, Pam and Wan populating the PCB.
Above: Now that soldering is complete, we move to the well
equipped Menzies College Computer room, at La Trobe University,
where we program the UniBoard for the very first time.
Above: Red light is blinking "It works!!"
Second PD day:
The second PD day allowed participants to jump into a
world of interfacing devices. Participants were lucky enough to
be able to play with some advanced and reasonably high cost
devices. This was designed to broaden their horizons on exactly
what the picaxe system is capable of. It's not just a chip that
can flash some LED's, and play some tunes, its a device that is
capable of interfacing with cutting-edge state-of-the-art
electronics.
Participants programmed the following devices:
Speech module
Ultrasonic sensor
HexWalker insect robot
LCD screen
Temperature sensor
433Mhz Radio Frequency transmitter and receiver
Light seeking buggy
Single and triple giant 7 segment displays
240V solid state relay
Above: The two light sensors on the UniBoard and the
filtered dual high current outputs allow a light seeking robot
to be built by simply adding two motors. A separate high current
motor driver board is not necessary. Here Sarah is guiding the
robot with a torch.
Above: Jenny with the HexWalker, controlled by three
servos, an off board UniBoard and battery pack.
Above: Participants program the jiant 7 segment displays,
and learn about binary numbers. These displays can form the base
of a large clock, counter or scoreboard.
Above: Bob programs the speech module and ultrasonic
sensor.
Above: Dajarra, Christine and Simon control a 240V light
with the UniBoard
Above: David and Phil programming the giant 3 digit
display
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