Servo Motor Lab

This lab got the best of me in class. I think we just go to fast and sometimes I don’t have time to process this. I couldn’t get it to work then, but taking the time and going at a slower pace I managed to make it work without a problem. I started by setting up the circuit exactly like in the lab and making sure everything was set up properly. From there I coded the Arduino in the three steps provided, and it worked!
I ran into the issue that the computer was not recognizing my Arduino port for some reason, but after a quick restart it ran just fine.
I have one question regarding this lab, and a thought/concern that I feel is sort of hindering me form really experimenting with this.
Question: I don’t understand why the resistor goes to ground in the servo motor lab. Shouldn’t it always be connected to somewhere else and have clear ways to power and ground?
Concern: I can’t figure out how to code the Arduino. It’s so daunting and frustrating. Will there be a day that we focus on that, or is there something that can be done to get a better handle on it?

Tone Output Lab went well, with no hiccups.

Melody pitch Lab

This lab blew my mind. I think it’s the first time I’ve realized the giant potential of PComp–I’ve seen giant projects, yes, but seeing it and doing it are different things.

I coded everything exactly how the site had it (I wrote everything out, to really learn it) but it wasn’t working. I tried fixing the syntax and playing around with it, and even went to the Arduino site to see if I could figure out the error message. Nothing.
I caved and copy/pasted the code on the site to my sketch, and that worked, but then I got another message saying basically the same thing and again, I copied/pasted the code and it worked. I don’t understand what the difference is. I basically wrote it exactly (EXACTLY… with spaces, commas, everything) how it was on the site, but my version just didn’t work.

After copying all the code from the site and uploading the sketch, it worked.

Musical instrument lab

I could not get this to work. From the look of things, everything was plugged in the right way and the code was getting checked off without any errors–which it should mean it was coded correctly. It should’ve worked. I double and triple checked it and even had some other peeps come over to take a look. Nobody could figure out what was wrong. I think this reinforces my concern stated above. So many things can go wrong and I feel like I don’t know enough to trouble shoot them. I move stuff around, re-wrote the code but it still didn’t work.