AQA GCSE Product Design: 1.4 - Understanding a Systems Approach When Designing

Systems Approaches:

The 3 Components of a Systems Approach

  • What happens to allow it to work? - Input
  • How does it do it? - Process
  • What does the product do? - Output

Inputs:

  • What the product reacts to

  • LDR: Light-dependant resistor

  • Thermistor: Temperature sensors

    An LDR

Processes:

  • How the product reacts

  • Microcontrollers: Electrical processes performed on these.

  • PIC chips: Reprogrammable flash memory.

    Types of Processors

Outputs:

  • The reaction
  • LEDs: Light-emitting diodes. Filaments made of tungsten
  • Buzzers and speakers: Give out sound as an output. Used in alarms, timers, computer mice and loudspeakers.