Challenge Build 4: Dice

 Challenge: Design, build, program and test an electronic dice machine.

Code: 

Completed Board:

Electronic Diagram:

Video Explanation:

Challenge Thinking: I started by going to the Arduino site and looking at the circuit and code. This all looked very confusing. I first thought I would not be able to complete it because it suggested using different resistor than what I had in my kit. I decided to try using the 330k and the 10K. I then hooked up all the LEDs and the button. After I connected a 330K resistor to each LED on the positive side and the resistor to a port (2-8).The negative side of the LED was connected to the negative side of the board. Then I connected each side of the board to the negative to negative and the positive to positive to give each side ground and 5v power. After that I connected the  button to a 10k resistor and to the positive side. The last wire from the button connected to port 9 on the circuit. When I first compiled it, nothing worked so I unhooked all the wires and resistors. I carefully put them back in. I then realized that some of my LEDs were backwards, so I turned those around.  I also forgot to plug back in the last LED and the button. Once I fixed these errors on the board, it worked! 

Final Reflection: I felt like this one would be a piece of cake and seemed really neat. I was sure to check out the discussion to see who all attempted it and any tips they had. I really thought the first time I compiled all my work, it would be successful. This was definitely a little bit of a let down and I didn't think I would be able to fix it. I was double checking all the wires and thought I had everything right. I was really confused because there was no errors in the code. I figured the only way to fix the board was to start over. This is what I sometimes have to do when something isn't working. This can be hard to do sometimes because you have worked so hard but like electronics our thinking needs a reset! 

Possible extensions: I think this could like one of those toys with the buttons that lights up or plays sound in random patterns. I was actually at the store yesterday and was tempted to press the buttons to see what they would do. My kids definitely have had their share of light up sound toys. 

Chart: I ran my dice 100 times and found that it was very heavy on number 4. These were the four outer LEDs, so I am wondering if that had anything to do about it. I noticed those would blink the most out of all the LEDs and the two middle ones would blink the least amount. However since the red LED was only for the odd numbers I noticed it blink pretty much randomly.