Lesson 6 – Traffic Lights (2024)

Setup

Before you start working with any of the tutorials in this series please make sure you have completed the following tasks –
1. Downloaded and installed the Arduino IDE.
2. Are able to connect to the Arduino IDE from your computer
3. Have been successful in uploading a simple (e.g. Blink LED’s) example programs (that comes with the Arduino IDE) onto your Arduino UNO board
If you haven’t installed the Arduino IDE please head back to the first tutorial and make sure you’ve gone through each of the steps involved.
Once you’ve sorted all of the above you are ready to move onto the next tutorial.

Tutorial

In the previous program, we have done the LED blinking experiment with one LED. Now, it’s time to up the stakes and do a bit more complicated experiment-traffic light. Actually, these two experiments are similar. While in this traffic light experiment, we use 3 LEDs with different color rather than one LED.

Here’s the hardware you will need for the tutorials –

Arduino board *1
USB cable *1
Red M5 LED*1
Yellow M5 LED*1
Green M5 LED*1
220Ω resistor *3
Breadboard*1
Breadboard jumper wires* 4

You will find fritzing diagrams below outlining circuit connections for both the Arduino Uno and the Arduino Mega 2560.

Here’s the fritzing diagram for the Arduino Mega 2560.

Here’s a picture of what the final project might look like.

Since it is a simulation of traffic light, the blinking time of each LED should be the same with those in traffic light system. In this program, we use Arduinodelay ()function to control delay time, which is much simpler than C language.

int redled =10; // initialize digital pin 8.int yellowled =7; // initialize digital pin 7.int greenled =4; // initialize digital pin 4.void setup(){pinMode(redled, OUTPUT);// set the pin with red LED as “output”pinMode(yellowled, OUTPUT); // set the pin with yellow LED as “output”pinMode(greenled, OUTPUT); // set the pin with green LED as “output”}void loop(){digitalWrite(greenled, HIGH);//// turn on green LEDdelay(5000);// wait 5 secondsdigitalWrite(greenled, LOW); // turn off green LEDfor(int i=0;i<3;i++)// blinks for 3 times{delay(500);// wait 0.5 seconddigitalWrite(yellowled, HIGH);// turn on yellow LEDdelay(500);// wait 0.5 seconddigitalWrite(yellowled, LOW);// turn off yellow LED} delay(500);// wait 0.5 seconddigitalWrite(redled, HIGH);// turn on red LEDdelay(5000);// wait 5 seconddigitalWrite(redled, LOW);// turn off red LED}

When the uploading process is completed, you can see traffic lights of your own design. Note: this circuit design is very similar with the one in LED chasing effect.
The green light will be on for 5 seconds, and then off, followed by the yellow light blinking for 3 times, and then the red light is on for 5 seconds, repeatedly forming a cycle.

Prerequisites

This development track requires an investment a bit of hardware. See below for details –

Arduino IDE –
1. You will need to download and install the Arduino development IDE.
2. The approach to installation, configuration, setup of the Arduino IDE is covered in our tutorials.
Arduino Uno, Sensors, etc. –
1. You will need to purchase the Super Learning Kit for Arduino from OzToyLib.
2. The Arduino Advent kit has all the sensors you need to perform the tutorials covered in this development track.
3. If you do not have an Arduino Uno or Arduino Mega 2560 you might want to head over to Arduino boards and pick one up now.

The Super Learning Kit for the Arduino kit has all the sensors you need to perform the tutorials covered in this development track.

About the Super Learning Kit for Arduino

The Super Learning Starter Kit for Arduino comes packed with ~35+ different electronic bits (Sensors, LEDs, switches, LCD, servo, etc.) and can be purchased with either the Keyestudio UNO R3 or the Keyestudio Mega 2560 board. The Keyestudio Arduino boards can be used to interface with the different electronic bits i.e. sensors, LED’s, switches, servos, etc. included in the starter kit. The starter kit for the Keyestudio Uno R3 offers a great opportunity to explore the world of electronics using the Arduino Development Platform. Interact with the real world through the various sensors, create innovative projects, learn how to program the micro:bit to read data from the sensors and perform certain actions. The starter kit for the Arduino is a great way to dive into the awesome world of electronics and get started with your own STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning journey.

The Arduino advanced study kit walks you through the basics of using the Arduino in a hands-on way. You’ll learn the fundamentals of electronics and working on the Arduino through building several creative projects. The kit includes a selection of the most common and useful electronic components with a book of 32 projects. Starting the basics of electronics, to more complex projects, the kit will get you interacting with the physical world using sensor and actuators. Along with the kit you get access to detailed tutorials and wiring diagrams.

You can purchase the Super Learning Kit for Arduino from OzToyLib.

About the Arduino UNO

The Arduino UNO is the most used and documented board of the whole Arduino family and very easy to setup, play with. The Arduino UNO is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328 . The Arduino UNO has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. Here’s a listing of the some of the features of the Arduino UNO –

Microcontroller: ATmega328
Operating Voltage: 5V
Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits): 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins: 6
DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA
Flash Memory: 32 KB of which 0.5 KB used by bootloader
SRAM: 2 KB (ATmega328)
EEPROM: 1 KB (ATmega328)
Clock Speed: 16 MHz

Arduino is an open-source, prototyping platform and its simplicity makes it ideal for hobbyists to use as well as professionals. The Arduino UNO contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. The Arduino UNO differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver chip. Instead, it features the Atmega8U2 microcontroller chip programmed as a USB-to-serial converter. “Uno” means one in Italian and is named to mark the upcoming release of Arduino 1.0. The Arduino Uno and version 1.0 will be the reference versions of Arduno, moving forward. The Uno is the latest in a series of USB Arduino boards, and the reference model for the Arduino platform.

You can read more about the Arduino here – www.arduino.cc.