The key component of circuit 7 was using the serial connection between the Arduino and the computer. This allows the board to send output from a sensor to your computer so that you can output it onto your screen. In this case, I was given a temperature sensor and it was pretty neat to see the temperature scrolling up my screen second by second. I could blow on the sensor and see the temperature go up for a second and then float back down.
The Sparkfun Inventor's Kit guide recommended that I make a thermostat with my temperature sensor, a potentiometer, and an LED, and so I did. The thermostat reads in a temperature that I set using a knob, compares that temperature with the temperature that it senses through a temperature sensor, and then sends a signal to turn on an LED if the temperature is below a certain level.
Ok, so it isn't exactly a thermostat. It doesn't actually control an air conditioner or a heater. Still, it's pretty close, and I wouldn't have had any idea how to do this two weeks ago. I have to say that, one of the remarkable things about playing with the Arduino is that you get a sense of how the electronics in your daily life work, and then you can just create your own mini-version that does whatever crazy thing you want it to do! Amazing!
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