***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness (it starts off with lots of Nixie Tube Clock goodness

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what would be a nice spread/mix of components to get to start off?


things that you use commonly/come in useful for things/general tinkering/playing with (especially on a bread board) and also useful for doing stuff with an arduino/maybe getting into remote control stuff?


save having to buy everything specifically for task and taking a whack in delivery fees and times
 
Tefal said:
what would be a nice spread/mix of components to get to start off?

things that you use commonly/come in useful for things/general tinkering/playing with (especially on a bread board) and also useful for doing stuff with an arduino/maybe getting into remote control stuff?

save having to buy everything specifically for task and taking a whack in delivery fees and times
Click to expand...

First thing I did was strip a few old and unwanted electronic items of their components. I then got some 555 timers, a selection of resistors, various potentiometer and small diodes. Best to start somewhere I thought.

Pick a project that you fancy learning about and start with those sorts of things. Buy more than you need as the components will probably become useful in a future project.

I've got stock of loads of capacitors, resistors of loads of values, several Op-amps, comparators, series 4000 CMOS ICs, transistors, mosfets, power mosfets, voltage regulators and diodes of a few types. It's surprising how quickly stock builds up.
 
While we are on the subject of showing off our electronics projects I just thought I'd add my little creation. This one is a LED sequencer for 18 LEDs but with a little fader circuit on each output. It uses a 555 timer to speed up and slow the sequencer which sends a signal to two (one at a time of course) 4017 CMOS ICs.

Originally it was a project in the Case Central section.

Here's the basic circuit.

completedmainpcb.jpg


compelted5.jpg




The circuit isn't exactly pretty and it doesn't even have a nifty enclosure but as a first proper electronics project I think it worked out ok.

And here is my second project that's reached almost done stage (I have fiddled with PWM circuits, RGB LEDs in between but only on breadboard).

A CMOY headphone amplifier.

P1030100.jpg


Using ridiculous large polypropylene capacitors and an old 5 1/4" Hard drive enclosure.

P1030108.jpg


I need to blank off the ends and have a proper insulating floor. The sound is great though so I'm in no particular hurry. It's very ghetto. :)
 
The final result is excellent! The fades are really satisfying. It's quite refreshing to see something like this executed with logic rather than a PIC these days. Kudos!
 
Tealc said:
First thing I did was strip a few old and unwanted electronic items of their components. I then got some 555 timers, a selection of resistors, various potentiometer and small diodes. Best to start somewhere I thought.

Pick a project that you fancy learning about and start with those sorts of things. Buy more than you need as the components will probably become useful in a future project.

I've got stock of loads of capacitors, resistors of loads of values, several Op-amps, comparators, series 4000 CMOS ICs, transistors, mosfets, power mosfets, voltage regulators and diodes of a few types. It's surprising how quickly stock builds up.
Click to expand...


Sadly my dad has recently performed some kind of Stalinist purge on the garage and the only old electronics are my old computer bits :p
 
Tefal said:
Sadly my dad has recently performed some kind of Stalinist purge on the garage and the only old electronics are my old computer bits :p
Click to expand...

I did the same with loads of stuff around six months before starting too including 2 or 3 CRT tellies and a motherboard or two which would have been quite useful. All I have now is a couple of dial-up modems and a Audigy 2ZS which sadly have zero useful components. I did strip an old Sky box, a Medusa headphone amplifier and 2 clock radios recently though, some useful resistors and caps in them and even some regulators.

It's always the same. As soon as you throw something out you find a use for it.

eBay is my port of call for components but I also came across this site, bitsbox which I find useful (and the postage doesn't cripple at only £1.50 per order. I did almost make an order with Farnell once as they carry a massive range but they have a minmimum order value requirement.

Dr.EM said:
The final result is excellent! The fades are really satisfying. It's quite refreshing to see something like this executed with logic rather than a PIC these days. Kudos!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I really enjoyed the project and glad I didn't go for PICs, although the component count and flexibility of the circuit obviously suffers as a result.
 
Not that complicated, but a lot more complicated than using something like an LM386, also a bit more dangerous due to the voltages involved. Wouldn't be very practical to battery power it either.

If you're not that experienced i would start with a small IC chip amp then work your way up. Plenty of schematics out there, and they can sound very decent in the right config. Definitely good enough for all but the most high end headphones, anyway.
 
I'm currently gathering parts to modify a Xiang Sheng 708B valve headphone pre amp.

Problems I'm encountering:

-New caps I bought are a bit big (I'll sort something out, probably drill the PCB).
-200R resistors I bought were 0.6W. Thread on Headfi recommended 0.5W. The resistors that came out of the amp are more like 1W going by the size.
-Front panel too thick for new power switch.

Also, I managed to get some decent quality resistors, and some pretty average ones. I'm thinking I'll shop around and get some Kiwames or similarly priced decent ones.
 
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Can some help me please with the Nixie clocks, the guide says and i quote

"Output 12V DC
Minimum power output capability of 250 mA"

My 12v power supply reads

"Output 12v 2.0A"

Is this too many amps for my nixie clock circuit, the guide says "minimum" 0.25mA so does it matter if im putting more amperage through the circuit but the volts are correct at 12.

Dammit should have listened better at uni in our electronics labs as part of my product design course , doh ! :p
 
I'm not sure but i think as long as you have no shorts it will only draw it's required current.

but if you have a short it will draw the full 2 amps/whatever the short works out at and fry it.
 
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