Binary Buddy

Inspiration

As a visual and hands-on learner, it has always helped me to see and interact with something tangible in order to gain a better understanding of abstract concepts. Using Binary Buddy as a teaching tool has the potential to inspire people to learn about technology and bring more bright minds into the STEM world.

What it does

An educational tool to help people learn binary the easy way! LED light up bar shows number in binary representation with corresponding decimal value on the 7-segment display.

How it was built

Using a Raspberry Pi and Python library RPi.GPIO, a 7-segment display and LED bar were programmed to output numbers from 0 - 31 in binary and decimal representation with two push buttons as incrementor and decrementor inputs, and an additional reset functionality when both buttons are pressed.

Challenges

Displaying multiple digits at the same time required a workaround using a for loop with a small time delay between each update because each separate digit could not be displayed at the same time.

Wiring diagram for 7-segment display was difficult to come by and required some testing to figure out which segment corresponds to which pin.

Push buttons required pull-up resistors in order to reduce false inputs due to switch bounce.

Accomplishments

Getting the 7-segment display to work was especially fulfilling, as it took a while to wire up the different segments and figure out which one lights up which segment.

What's next for Binary Buddy

Possibly adding an LCD display screen to add more context as to what happens after each button press and how binary can be used to represent different types of information.

Built With

• python
• raspberry-pi
• rpi.gpio