I personally got into electronics (knowing basically nothing, not that I know that much now!) from the Arduino point of view. I am a programmer and have always been interested in the physical interaction of hardware and software so decided to ask my missus to get me an Arduino for Christmas a couple of years ago. Some really good tutorials out there as well cheap kits with lots of bits to get you started. I'm sure there will be some more experienced people along soon with some better advice but that is how I started to learn! Quite satisfying writing some code and then seeing your theoretical code spring into life in the real world, even if it is just flashing an LED or getting a speaker to bleep out a tune!
***Official Electronics Thread of Officialness (it starts off with lots of Nixie Tube Clock goodness
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I personally got into electronics (knowing basically nothing, not that I know that much now!) from the Arduino point of view. I am a programmer and have always been interested in the physical interaction of hardware and software so decided to ask my missus to get me an Arduino for Christmas a couple of years ago. Some really good tutorials out there as well cheap kits with lots of bits to get you started. I'm sure there will be some more experienced people along soon with some better advice but that is how I started to learn! Quite satisfying writing some code and then seeing your theoretical code spring into life in the real world, even if it is just flashing an LED or getting a speaker to bleep out a tune!
Soldato
Pft, N64 portable... You want a DreamcastBoy 
What screen is that? PSOne?
As for the PCB, I'm just using perfboard sprayed black on the blank side. Did look into custom PCB, like you I am using a boarduino. I'm hoping to squeeze all the components onto a thin strip along the bottom of the panels and have the circuit on display.
frying_pan_cat - get an Arduino Uno, a book like Makezine series, and then buy your components from eBay! Sometimes the two week wait for Chinese LEDs kills me, but there's always options Having an idea of something you want to achieve is a good starting point. Arduino is so well documented and supported, so pretty much anything you want to do, someone will have done it or similar and be able to help
What screen is that? PSOne?As for the PCB, I'm just using perfboard sprayed black on the blank side. Did look into custom PCB, like you I am using a boarduino. I'm hoping to squeeze all the components onto a thin strip along the bottom of the panels and have the circuit on display.
frying_pan_cat - get an Arduino Uno, a book like Makezine series, and then buy your components from eBay! Sometimes the two week wait for Chinese LEDs kills me, but there's always options
Having an idea of something you want to achieve is a good starting point. Arduino is so well documented and supported, so pretty much anything you want to do, someone will have done it or similar and be able to help
I started with LEDs and resistors, progressed to 555 timer circuits, then sequencers, simple audio amps and basically now anything that I fancy making.
Still haven't got into Arduino and Micros so I'm still working with the old analogue stuff.
What you choose to start with depends on what you want to achieve from a hobby in electronics. I quite like watching youtube vidoes on electronics and get a bit from that and Dave Jones' EEVblog is also worth a look.
Still haven't got into Arduino and Micros so I'm still working with the old analogue stuff.
What you choose to start with depends on what you want to achieve from a hobby in electronics. I quite like watching youtube vidoes on electronics and get a bit from that and Dave Jones' EEVblog is also worth a look.
Soldato
Yep, never enough LEDs. Oddly Tealc, I'm from the other end of the spectrum - never really got into the analog stuff, bar some Arduino PWM LED control, all digital logic
Pft, N64 portable... You want a DreamcastBoy
..............
Decided to go for the better of the two consoles
Aye, it was the PSOne screen before I attacked with a dremel!
Soldato
Very nice 
Are you going full battery powered? I fancied doing a DC portable a while ago, but decided to wait and see if the GD-ROM SD card emulation hardware actually happens first. Once (if) that is in the bag, my beloved DC is getting ripped apart!
Last night I finally got round to modding my USB FTDI adapter so it can reliably reset boarduinos, no more faffing about with tactile buttons and resistors
If anyone is interested, I've got my boarduino component count down to 4 items and a mighty £2.60: ATMega328P-PU, 2 x 22pF caps and 1 x 16MHz oscillator (pin13 LED + res for blink test only). It seems the P-PU version of the chip is far more robust and accepts a greater range of voltage.
Are you going full battery powered? I fancied doing a DC portable a while ago, but decided to wait and see if the GD-ROM SD card emulation hardware actually happens first. Once (if) that is in the bag, my beloved DC is getting ripped apart! Last night I finally got round to modding my USB FTDI adapter so it can reliably reset boarduinos, no more faffing about with tactile buttons and resistors
If anyone is interested, I've got my boarduino component count down to 4 items and a mighty £2.60: ATMega328P-PU, 2 x 22pF caps and 1 x 16MHz oscillator (pin13 LED + res for blink test only). It seems the P-PU version of the chip is far more robust and accepts a greater range of voltage.Very nice
Last night I finally got round to modding my USB FTDI adapter so it can reliably reset boarduinos, no more faffing about with tactile buttons and resistors
Aye, going to rip apart a couple of canon video cam batteries as they have the charge protection circuits built in, should only take a couple of them to get a few hours play from it! I don't think I would have sacrificed my only n64 for this, I just happened to come into a spare one so it was go time!
Soldato
My DC no longer reads disks, pretty common for the console unfortunately, so if Deunan ever finishes his project that's where it's going. Or perhaps a mini arcade cab...
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frying_pan_cat - get an Arduino Uno, a book like Makezine series, and then buy your components from eBay! Sometimes the two week wait for Chinese LEDs kills me, but there's always options
Thanks guys, I'll take a look at the Arduino UNO and the Makezine series. I'll also check out some youtube videos too. I was more thinking of getting into LEDs and resistors etc. as I quite like the idea of being able to solder together a circuit to get something working. I do fancy the idea of micro controller programming too but was more interested in learning the basics of components and how to build circuits first so was really looking for suggestions of good books/websites that could maybe step me through it with little projects along the way so I can progress into designing a circuit for my own projects but I'm open to ideas if anyone thinks there's a better route into it
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Does anyone have any other suggestions? Preferably any more books or websites to help getting into building circuits?
Thanks
Wha are the fuel cell things called, that produce electricity when heated.
Like used in this, and can you buy them?
http://www.gizmag.com/halo-fuel-cell-charger/27920/
Like used in this, and can you buy them?
http://www.gizmag.com/halo-fuel-cell-charger/27920/
Here's something I knocked up out of mainly junkbox parts.
It's a small speaker amplifier. Purposefully made to look an absolute mess, with plenty of snot to give it that 'I hope the wires don't touch look'
I find this method of contruction takes up a lot more space but gives less problems than say building on veroboard which sometimes suffers with stray capacitance for me.
The power supply is made from a 18v Centre tapped transformer, a few old caps, an LM317 and LM337, a few resistors and a bit of copper clad. The heatsinks are made from a bit of an old Zalman flower heatsink and a high current fuse carrier.
The amplifier itself is a simple affair.
A cheap but cheerful NE5532 feeds an amplified diode biasing circuit and then onto TIP41/TIP42 power transistors. The 5w 1 Ohm output resistors are total overkill of course. The circuit gives no oscillation whatsoever, even before I added the bypass poly caps.
Sound output quality is pretty good considering the crapness of the speakers. Input is at the top and output at the bottom. Gain was set at 11 using 1k and 10k resistors.
At maximum volume, the only distortion I see is probably from the IOS based function generator, which I imagine is just a digital signal converted to analogue.
I suppose I also should build an enclosure for it.
It's a small speaker amplifier. Purposefully made to look an absolute mess, with plenty of snot to give it that 'I hope the wires don't touch look'
I find this method of contruction takes up a lot more space but gives less problems than say building on veroboard which sometimes suffers with stray capacitance for me.
The power supply is made from a 18v Centre tapped transformer, a few old caps, an LM317 and LM337, a few resistors and a bit of copper clad. The heatsinks are made from a bit of an old Zalman flower heatsink and a high current fuse carrier.
The amplifier itself is a simple affair.
A cheap but cheerful NE5532 feeds an amplified diode biasing circuit and then onto TIP41/TIP42 power transistors. The 5w 1 Ohm output resistors are total overkill of course. The circuit gives no oscillation whatsoever, even before I added the bypass poly caps.
Sound output quality is pretty good considering the crapness of the speakers. Input is at the top and output at the bottom. Gain was set at 11 using 1k and 10k resistors.
At maximum volume, the only distortion I see is probably from the IOS based function generator, which I imagine is just a digital signal converted to analogue.
I suppose I also should build an enclosure for it.
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Nifty indeed... but before you build that enclosure please fit some real draw knobs instead of the fat screws, which will then give credit to your amazing self build
That's brilliant.
It really should n't be put in a case, just a few signs saying "High Voltage - do not touch".
No, leave it naked, for all to enjoy. My only suggestion would be a variable capacitor made of Meccano plates wrapped in sellotape with a wood screw to adjust the spacing. Underneath would be a label "Tone".
Alan Sugar made his fortune on less well designed electrical gear.
It really should n't be put in a case, just a few signs saying "High Voltage - do not touch".
No, leave it naked, for all to enjoy. My only suggestion would be a variable capacitor made of Meccano plates wrapped in sellotape with a wood screw to adjust the spacing. Underneath would be a label "Tone".
Alan Sugar made his fortune on less well designed electrical gear.
This seems like a good place to ask, if anyone would be kind enough to oblige!
If you were to have some LEDs in a series circuit, is there any point having a fuse before the first LED to protect them in case of any failures? I'm thinking that since it's a series if one LED blows/fails, the circuit is broken and the rest should avoid any harm anyway, or is there something else I'm not considering?
tl;dr put a fuse in a series of LEDs to protect the system or not?
Thanks!
If you were to have some LEDs in a series circuit, is there any point having a fuse before the first LED to protect them in case of any failures? I'm thinking that since it's a series if one LED blows/fails, the circuit is broken and the rest should avoid any harm anyway, or is there something else I'm not considering?
tl;dr put a fuse in a series of LEDs to protect the system or not?
Thanks!
Soldato
No reason.
That's what my instinct was, just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing
you;'re thinking of thermo electric generators (TECs) also klnown as pielters, they can make things cold too. they work purely o nhot side cold side. that thing si actualy combining hydrogen fro mthe flame with oxygen to make power.
so it's not from heat it's actually from the fire.