Love this! Super 😃

Our breadboards didn't have nice Vcc or Ground sections like those pictured in the activity, so we decided to use one row of pins at the top of the board as Vcc and a row at the bottom as the ground.

I worried about this but the smaller ones are so cute! @zengirl2 worked on some materials for the smaller boards when we were at #makerfaire ... the larger boards are not much more expensive. I'm torn. I'm glad you didn't seem to think it was a terrible problem.

I would LOVE to see your written instructions! We're thinking of doing an activity like this with Clara S. from Brown and this is really great to see. Thanks for sharing!!

This is a great write-up on this activity. As @warren mentioned I did this activity at MakerFaire with a very broad age range 6-60. Because I was brand new to Coqui, and the new tiny breadboards were different than those used in the original write-up, @warren helped me to figure out new wiring that would work. Since our booklets no longer matched the new wiring, I made a Fritzing diagram to make things easier to understand. These diagrams became like little placemats at the table (we taped them down so they wouldn't walk :D). Anyway, with parts in cups in the middle of the table, it became very easy to get this activity to work in about an hour. I only did handholding for first placing the timer to make sure that it was positioned properly, and from then on all the kids were able to do the wiring themselves. These boards are tiny and the positions are very difficult to read for older people or children with vision issues. Anyway, I'm happy to say that out of about 60 people or so that did this activity, only 2 had issues, but I'm sure they figured it out once they got home. We did a quick test simply using two wires taped together as a probe in two solutions of water--one from a drinking fountain and one from a bottle of spring water. It was great to hear the two different tones and kids were excited to take it back home to test their own water.

Hi @zengirl2 , you are awesome for re-working the wiring diagram! i just followed your updated instructions in preparation for doing this activity with young people in a couple weeks. Works great. Would love if you could post this diagram in its own note so we can promote it as the primary assembly activity for the store's version of the Coqui. Let me know if i can help make a draft or something.

My next goal is to slow the high-pitched buzzer down to be lower in tone and slow enough to be able to hear the separate clicks that are slower or faster depending on the conductivity of the solution. I am trying the different capacitors -- the black one that looks like a small barrel, and one that looks like the tan-blob-on-stilts. Can you recommend / draw how to either use the various capacitors or somehow add the resistor? The parts that i have available are depicted here: https://store.publiclab.org/collections/education/products/coqui-bbv1-0-conductivity-sensor

Thank you!

I'm having trouble getting our demo Coqui to work -- these breadboards don't really last... but just to break out this one point, @liz - you mentioned on a phone call that you're looking for more volume but here you are asking for lower frequency -- did you want both?

Would you mind posting this at https://publiclab.org/coqui? I think I have an answer for at least one of these Qs, and will try getting this old Coqui to work to test it out.

Hi, all, i finally got it working... you know, I think i'd had a couple things wrong, but also the long wires (although easier to insert) make it really hard to see where the wires are going, and come out more easily.

What do you think about this type of wire, which while it's harder to assemble, is much easier to debug and more similar to the Fritzing diagrams?

@warren - that looks great. Waiting on some 555 timers so I can try this out too.

OK, also just a note, i had trouble w the placement of the orange wire, which in Leslie's diagram goes to a spot one pin higher than in my version. Mine is a red wire and basically my circuit swapped the two circled wire endings in order to work.

I think it's almost identical because the top two rows could almost be swapped to counteract my change, but i need to test it to be sure.

@warren I like these short wires because they tend to stay in place better when inserted, and they also aren't like sloppy spaghetti. :) If you like this configuration we can always update the Fritzing diagram. So, @liz once we agree on the diagram where do you want a new note placed on the site?

I think an activity on /coqui would work.

I was also able to confirm that adding a resistor in-line with one of the probe wires lowered the frequency! Much lower and less annoying. Updating on the question too.

I have never seen wires like that, and they look awesome! I would love to give my kids the choice of which style of wires to use!

Also, these are the written instructions we used (courtesy of my friend and coworker, who also made the bottle cap probes).

If I were doing it again, I'd place the 555 chip for them, and leave it there to avoid damage, and adjust the instructions accordingly.

@liz it would be super cool to have a module where the participants could build it this way, and then add components or otherwise change the circuit to achieve those slower clicks!

• Just building the circuit is like, ok that's pretty cool, but what's the point of building one vs buying something already put together
• Showing how easy it is to modify a homebuilt circuit is like opening a whole new world - if you can build it and understand it, you can do anything!

One thing i unexpectedly really liked about the current high pitched nonsense is that, when first built with the photodiode, and brought gradually from the shade into the sunlight, we heard it rise and rise in pitch - until it seemed to drop down again an octave or two, and start rising again. Is was really cool and we all wondered why it did that.

Translating instructions to spanish in 3, 2, 1...

@xose awards a barnstar to pdhixenbaugh for their awesome contribution!

SPANISH INSTRUCTIONS

-1) Antes de empezar familiarizate con los elementos. Recuerda realizar un paso de cada vez y ayudar a otros grupos antes de seguir adelante si acabas antes que ellas.

0) Coloca con cuidado el chip temporizador 555 en el centro de la breadboard. Es difícil de reubicar. Si necesitas ayuda, pregunta por favor.

1) Conecta el pin 4 del chip 555 a la corriente (+Vcc)

2) Conecta el pin 8 del chip 555 a la corriente (+Vcc)

3) Conecta el pin 1 del chip 555 a tierra (GND)

4) Conecta el pin 3 del chip 555 a una columna separada en la breadboard. Llamaremos a esta columna ''columna #1'' y haremos en ella otras dos conexiones.

5) Conecta el pin 2 del chip 555 a una columna separada en la breadboard. Llamaremos a esta columna ''columna #2''.

6) Conecta el pin 6 del chip 555 a la columna #2.

7) Conecta la columna #1 y la columna #2 con la fotoresistencia.

8) Conecta la columna #1 a tierra (GND) con em altavoz piezoelectrico. Puedes conectarlo en cualquier orientación.

9) Conecta la columna #2 a tierra (GND) con la resistencia.

10) Conecta la batería. El cable rojo va a la corriente (+Vcc) y el cable negro a tierra (GND)

Amazing!

I've been trying to further simplify the wires-as-diagram version to make adding a resistor easier and also just have fewer weird routings and avoid the tiny wire that's hard to insert w fingertips... How's this version? Watch the white wire, sorry I ran out of colors...

I could also have those wires go over the chip, would that be confusing?

Like this... Sorry, now running out of light!

I personally think it's cute to have the wires do a criss-cross over the 555-timer, and it kind of keeps them out of the way....does it mess up the function at all?

Nope, just thought it might be confusing in a diagram, but it saves space. 

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I personally think it's cute to have the wires do a criss-cross over the 555-timer, and it kind of keeps them out of the way....does it mess up the function at all?

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I think that crossing the wires over the top makes it harder to see which pins are connected. It does save space, but as a teaching aid I think it would be confusing.

@warren I'm with @Liz that it looks cute. Also, on a Fritzing diagram I think this will be clear enough. It is actually easier to find the hole for a wire when you can count its proximity from a nearby wire that is in a hole--especially since the letters and numbers on these small boards are so hard to read. That's how most of my kids were navigating--by a previous placed part or wire. If you think this is a good final version I can do the update on Fritzing and post.

I tried doing a layout as @akshaya has done on a bigger board (https://publiclab.org/notes/ashkaya/09-17-2016/build-a-coqui-a-simple-water-conductivity-sensor), but it wasn't very straightforward; uploading in a sec...

So just finally circling back here; I'm happy to post step-by-step photos and to put notes on all existing Coqui docs if we are pretty much OK with the smaller board. For me, the #1 reason is actually that so far I haven't been able to simplify the larger board... strange but the smaller board seems actually simpler. @zengirl2 if you would be willing to Fritzing the diagram, I can photo the build steps and we can post a new revision of the board with these.

What I'd like to propose is posting a "response" to this, and then adding a notice at the top of each Coqui-related page that links to this latest version, to try to get all the docs across the site synced (but without deleting old versions). How does this sound?

Thanks, everyone!

Hi all! With help from @zengirl2, @asnow and @bronwen, we've posted a new Coqui activity with a smaller breadboard and flatter wiring here: https://publiclab.org/notes/warren/03-01-2019/build-a-sound-generating-coqui-conductivity-sensor