This week in the robotics course, we have received shift registers, so we are able to complete an earlier section of our Arduino Components document. This section included using the shift register to translate data from the Serial to things happening on the physical Arduino. In this case, we input numbers from 0 to 255 into the Serial Monitor, which would then be translated into binary, and compared against a preset binary value in AND, OR, and XOR operations. These three new binary values, in addition to the initial one, would all be printed on the Serial Monitor, then written to the shift register to be displayed as binary values on LEDs, where on represents 1 and off 0.
The most difficult part of this code was learning the various bitwise operators such as “|”, “&”, and “^”, although some are self explanatory. The hardware component was very simple in terms of concept, but difficult given the shear quantity of LEDs, and in turn wires.
These were the only task I was able to complete over the week. However, I was able to start considering various routes to take my practical project next term. I would like to do something quite different from my previous project, but maybe in the same realm of robots. I am not sure yet what I will make, but I would like to have some form of wireless communication involved.
Other than my work at school, I competed in the PeCan CTF 2022 competition on the weekend, where my team and I were able to come second place within our division, and tenth overall. This was unexpected to me since I was not very confident with the content of the presentations in the practice day prior. I did manage to complete far more challenges than I expected, definitely contributing what I feel I should have. I have realised that web exploitation, as well as reverse engineering programs, are not my strengths, and that I am much more confident with steganography and cryptography challenges. I enjoyed this competition a lot and look forward to more opportunities to compete in this and similar challenges in the future.