Breadboard to Protoboard

My electronic skills are still in the infant stage.  I am still working on holding a soldering iron without scorching anything important on myself or my project.  Yet, someday I will move my creations from the breadboard to a permanent protoboard.  Evil Mad Scientist has a short post about a protoboard that is built like a breadboard so soldering your creation is a bit easier.

I'll let you know if and when I get to that point.

[Image captured from Evil Mad Scientist: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/breadboardproto]

Make: Electronics Parts Packs

Saw this on Hands On: Make Electronics and quickly went over to Make to get the details. My biggest complaint, and pretty much only one, about the Make:Electronics book up to this point is having to stop and order parts.

Maker Shed is in the process of creating two component packs to go along with the book. The first one will available mid march and the second one shortly after that.  The cost of the first is $99.   I probably won't be buying this one since I've already purchased most of the items included already.  As soon as they list the parts in the second component kit, I'll make a decision regarding that one.

I figure I've dropped over $300 so far including the book and the tool kit.  Being able to buy the components like this won't be any more expensive.  You do miss out on the opportunity to figure out how to buy components, but that will come sooner or later.

Quick Soldering Guide

Stumbled across this one page cartoon giving basic instructions on soldering.  The cartoonist, Andie Nordgren, has the pdf she created as a handy reference available for download from her blog, Andie's Log.  Click here to see the full comic.

[Image captured from Andie's Log: http://log.andie.se/post/397677855/soldering-is-easy]

Make Electronics (10) Capacitator

This is the second part of my sketching/thought process for understanding the oscillator circuit in Experiment 8 in Make: Electronics.

I sketched out a simple oscillator circuit using a relay and a button.  When the button is pushed, the circuit is completed which pulls the switch up which then breaks the circuit letting the switch go back down again.  This process repeats very quickly until the button is released.

Here is the same circuit shown on a breadboard. (Note. The relay I'm using here is still the one that I carved up earlier.)

The relay is opening and closing so fast it sounds like a buzzer.


Next part of the experiment is to slow down the speed at which the relay opens and closes by adding a capacitor.

I put the capacitor in the circuit first without the LEDs to help keep it simple.  This is how I sketched it out.

This is what it looked like on the breadboard.  Push the button and I could hear the relay opening and closing at a slower rate.

Time to add in the lights.

Here's the sketch (same as the book) of the completed circuit.  LEDs added in along with a resistor to keep them from burning out.

Picture of the completed circuit.  The capacitor slows things down enough that you can see the lights blink.


I'm writing this several days after I worked it all out and I find I am still a little fuzzy on how the capacitator is hooked into the cirucit.  I need to go back and play a bit more with this setup to cement it in my mind.

Bear with me....my mind isn't as nimble as it once was.  If you are following along in the book and moving at a faster pace, check out Jim Kelly's Blog, he is much further along than I am. 

Previous Posts:

• Make Electronics (1)
• Make Electronics (2)
• Make Electronics (3) Radio Shack
• Make Electronics (4) The Toolbox
• Make Electronics (5) My First Experiments
• Make Electronics (6) More parts...More Money
• Make Electronics (7) Soldering 
• Make Electronics (8) Relays 
• Make Electronics (9) Sketching to Understand
• Make Electronics (10) Capacitator

[Images: All taken by Al Gunn: (CC: Attribution)]

Make Electronics(9) Sketching to Understand

Finally got my order from JameCo, including the capacitor  I was waiting for to move on in Make: Electronics.

My pesky teaching job kept me from getting back to my new hobby for a while.  When I finally did open up my storage box and started fiddling around, I realized I could build the relay from the last activity (Experiment 8) but I didn't really understand what I was doing.  I followed the diagram and it worked, but when I tried to explain it out loud to my dog, we both soon realized I didn't really get it.

I'm a visual thinker.  I doodle during meetings. I doodle when I make lessons. My principal picked up some of my plans for teaching last week and just shook her head.  It was a page of quickly sketched out web pages that I wanted to talk about with my kids.  Very few words....just lots of badly drawn images.

When I realized my lack of understanding regarding what I was doing, I grabbed a pencil and paper and started drawing out the circuits.  I broke up the entire circuit into it's separate parts. Once I sketched it out, then I built it on the breadboard.

This first circuit just turns on the magnetic switch inside the relay.





I built it on the breadboard and when I pushed the button, I could hear it click as the switch engaged.

So far so good.  I understand this!

In the second circuit, I added an LED to the closed portion of the relay switch.  It should be lit, until I break the circuit by pushing the button.

It also worked.

For the third circuit, I wanted it to do just the opposite.  I wanted the light to be off until I pushed the button.









(The picture for this one looks pretty much the same as the previous one, so I left it out.)

For the fourth circuit, I added both LED lights. Now when you push the button, one light goes out while the other is on.

One light is always on.

It also worked.








This takes me up through experiment 7 in the book.  The next one had to do with creating a circuit that automatically opens and closes.  I'll show the same step by step process I went through to understand that circuit too....along with some more snazzy pencil sketches!

I found drawing out the circuits really helped me to understand what was going on.  It also helped to cement the different symbols into my memory.  By the time I hit the fourth sketch, I was drawing the components without looking at the book.

Previous Posts:

• Make Electronics (1)
• Make Electronics (2)
• Make Electronics (3) Radio Shack
• Make Electronics (4) The Toolbox
• Make Electronics (5) My First Experiments
• Make Electronics (6) More parts...More Money
• Make Electronics (7) Soldering 
• Make Electronics (8) Relays 
• Make Electronics (9) Sketching to Understand

[All images taken by Al Gunn: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.]

Make Electronics (5) My first experiements

Worked my way through the first five experiments in Make: Electronics tonight and had a great time. Some things I already knew. Some stuff I am still working to clarify in my own mind. Up to this point, I am still pleased with my purchase. I was wishing I had a kid in the house who could share this with me. Too bad my nephews all live so far away. My wife says we aren't going to start a family in our late fifties just so I can have a playmate. She can be stern that way sometimes.

The author has you burn up a couple of things to see what happens. This includes putting too much power through a LED that stops working with a satisfying little pop. I also burnt up two more accidentally while I was messing around a bit with some of my own circuits.

Learning through destruction!  My kind of lesson.

The picture is of Experiment 3 in the book. Various resistors and an LED are hooked to a battery to see what happens. Directions are also given on how to check a resister with your multimeter to determine it's resistance rating. This is something that frustrated me tremendously in high school. I was always reading the stripes incorrectly. For those of you not in the know, a series of colored stripes tell you the rating of your component. This is all fine and dandy unless you are color blind, a disability I didn't even know I had until my physical for college.

My instructor and I in high school both assumed I was a lost cause when it came to electronics.  I felt a great deal of satisfaction tonight as some thirty years later as I figured out the ratings on each resistor without having to figure out the colors. This is going to be fun.

Went as far as I could today with the components on hand. I skipped ahead a bit and messed around with the breadboard. Set up the same circuit from Experiment 3. Later tonight, I'll be going online to buy what I need for the next few lessons. While I'm waiting, I am going to practice soldering.

Previous Posts:

• Make Electronics (1)
• Make Electronics (2)
• Make Electronics (3) Radio Shack
• Make Electronics (4) The Toolbox
• Make Electronics (5) My First Experiments

[Image: Photographed by Al Gunn (CC:Attribution)]

Soldering Kits

I've been lurking around various electronic sites and have found alternatives to the kit you  get with Make: Electronics through MakerShed.   (Shown to the left) If you bought the kit alone without the book, it would cost a $114.

Here are a couple of different choices.

Spark Electronics
Tool Kit - Intermediate
$69.95

I like this one because it has a Third hand with a magnifier and a nicer set of wire strippers.  Both items I bought shortly after starting this whole electronics thing.

I'm thinking for the $30 you save, you could buy the spools of wire, a set of screwdrivers and a Panvise and still come in around $100.

They also had two other packages available. One cheaper.  One more expensive.

Adafruit Industries
Ladyada's Electronic Toolkit
$100

 This setup is very similar to the MakerShed kit.  Has a small breadboard and parts to build a power supply.  Doesn't have the screwdrivers and Maker's log.  It's $14 cheaper.

(Note: The multimeter shown here is not the one that comes with the kit)



I saw lots of kits that included a soldering iron and minimal tools in the 15-25 dollar range.  I tried to find a list somewhere of the essential tools every beginner should have, but to no avail.  If anyone has a link to such an animal, let me know. Or links to other beginners start-up kits.

[Image: MakerShed Kit: Captured from Makershedsite: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKEE1]

[Image: Spark Kit: Captured from Spark site: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9466]

Make Electronics (4): New Tool Box

One little detour today in my study of electronics. I have been keeping all my stuff in a cardboard box. I don't really have a place to set up a permanent work bench at the current moment. So, I decided to go buy a big toolbox to hold everything neatly and let me stow it out of site in the garage when I wasn't messing around.

I figure this would be a useful addition and help maintain a healthy and happy marriage. My wife is patient but she does like to use the kitchen table for meals occasionally.


I headed down to a nearby Lowes to see what I could find. This toolbox caught my eye because it had the small parts bin built into the top of the box. That seemed like a good idea and would let me hold off on buying some small parts containers to hold all the components I am sure I will end up with eventually.






I also splurged and bought a better wire stripper than came with my kit for $8. The original is adjustable but you have to tighten/re-tighten a screw for the different gauges of wire. I decided to keep that one set up for 22 gauge wire and keep this one handy for other sizes. It may end up being a frivolous purchase....I'll let you know.











All the bigger tools fit into the main body of the toolbox. I may cut down a few small boxes to organize things a bit better in the bottom compartment, but for now it all works out nicely.











A feature that I didn't plan on was how the wire spools sit so nicely in the top compartment.

The parts bin works great with one possible problem. You have to be sure to close it tightly before opening the main box. If not, you could spill all your tiny little pieces all over the floor. I had looked at another box ($15 more expensive) that let you remove the small parts bin off the top. I think that may have been a better choice, but until I do a few projects, not really sure about my workflow.


Tool box and wire strippers cost: $27.08
Total cost up to this point: $193.76

Previous Posts:

• Make Electronics (1)
• Make Electronics (2)
• Make Electronics (3) Radio Shack
• Make Electronics (4) The Toolbox

[Images: Photographed by Al Gunn (CC: Attribution)]

Make Electronics (3): The Shack

Went down to my local Radio Shack to buy some of the parts I needed for my Make: Electronics experiments. It's been a while since I was in Radio Shack and the walls of electronic components have been reduced to a small corner of the store. They are more efficiently organized but you can no longer stand around looking at the various bits and pieces. Now you have to open a drawer labeled resisters or LEDs. Luckily, I had a list of things I needed and didn't feel intimidated. The bad news is they didn't have everything I was looking for and some of the items had to be purchased in different configurations than stated in the book.

For Example. The author recommended an assortment of resisters in a bulk pack that are usually cheaper when purchased this way. The Shack didn't have anything like this in their store and I ended buying three packages of specific resistors for 99 cents a package.

I will be doing most of my purchases online from this point on. The book lists several online vendors along with Radio Shack. They could have ordered the items for me at the store but once again, I wanted to get home to play. I didn't want to wait another couple of days before actually getting my hands dirty.

I bought:

• (10)Mini Aligator Clips
• (20)Assorted LEDs
• (15) Resistors (three packages)
• (2) Potentiometers
• (5) 9volt battery clips (they didn't sell them individually)
• (1) 4 AA battery holder
• (1) Breadboard

Total cost: $42.68 with tax. The largest cost item was the breadboard which set me back $19. I could have bought a slightly cheaper one for $16, but instead opted for one that included terminals to hook up your power source. Seemed like a convenience that might come in handy. I'll let you know.

Total cost of initial kit and supplies up to this point: $166.68

Related Posts

• Make Electronics (1)
• Make Electronics (2)

[Image: Photos by Al Gunn (CC:Attribution)]

Make: Electronics (2)

My Deluxe Make Electronics Tool Kit arrived and at first glance I am very pleased. I spent a couple of hours this evening reading the first couple of chapters of the book and skimming the rest. The tools and parts that came with the kit are acceptable. I probably could have got most of the tools and items for about the same price, but it was nice to get them all at once as I wouldn't have known what to look for in some of the items. Hopefully this will help me skip some of the bumbling around that occurs when you start a new hobby.

My first complaint about the kit is that I don't have the parts I need to do the first couple of experiments. It's a minor thing, but I would have liked to have started tonight. This means I need to shlep on down to my local Radio Shack to pick up a few things tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted.

[Image: photographed by Al Gunn (creative commons: attribution)]

Make: Electronics (1)

I bought an electronics book a couple of years ago with the idea that I'd teach myself enough so I could tinker around with simple projects in my free time. It was a failure and I never built that killer robot I had rolling around in my daydreams.

Make published a new book, Make: Electronics, just before Christmas and I thought, maybe it was time to try again. I committed all the way and bought their Deluxe Electronics Tool Kit so I would have most of the basic items I needed to get started. The kit included (along with the book):

(1) 30w adjustable soldering iron
(1) Deluxe Solder Stand & sponge
(1) 1/4 lb Spool of rosin core solder .031" (60/40)
(1) 5ft Solder wick
(1) Digital Multimeter
(1) Wire strippers
(1) Deluxe Wire cutters
(3) 25ft spools of solid core 22AWG wire
(1) Deluxe Needle nose pliers
(1) 5 piece miniature screwdrivers kit
(1) Desolder pump
(1) Panavise Jr for holding PCBs
(1) WeeBlinky Kit - Requires soldering
(1) Maker's Notebook

Total Cost: $124 (I got free shipping because of a promotion at the time)

This was my Christmas present to myself this year and am hoping that by this time next year, I will be on my way to building that world dominating robot.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[Image from MakerShed: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKEE2&Show=ExtInfo]

Nuts and Volts

While reading the latest issue of The Technology Teacher I came across a reference to this website, Nuts and Volts. The article referred to it being a good resource for teachers. So, I grabbed the URL and took a look.

First thing I discovered was that it's a combination print/online magazine. There were several projects I was interested in reading about but couldn't access because I'm not a member. To access all the content, you need to be subscribed. I saw several things I would of liked to read but couldn't get to. Enough to subscribe to the magazine? Not sure yet.

There is a lot of content here for the non-subscriber. They have an active blog that I enjoyed reading. I found a lot of tech related news and links to the source articles. There is enough here to bring me back even if I'm not a member.

You can sign up for a trial issue and subscription before laying your money down. I'm not sure I have time for one more monthly magazine? If anybody else out there is a subscriber, let us know what you think.

[Image captured from http://www.nutsvolts.com/preview.php?issue=69]