Basic Electronics Class #2

555timer

You must register for this class on Meetup; Limited seating available.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

 

You will learn:

How to use a breadboard
What capacitors are
How to use capacitors for filtering power
How to use capacitors for basic debounce/timing circuits
Connect a 555 timer circuit for blinking an LED

This will require the purchase of a breadboard and some more expensive parts that last time (I’m thinking it will be about $15 — I may need to adjust this after I buy the parts). I will bulk-order and get everyone more parts that you need.

700pt breadboard (Like this: )
A few voltage regulators (LM317, 7805) in TO-220 packages
A few 555 timers (DIP-8)
A couple potentiometers (5k, 10k, linear taper)
More resistors (assortment)
Some capacitors (.1uF, 1uF, 10uF)
etc.

I’ll update this as I develop the slides.

You will need to bring:

1 power supply – can be a wall transformer that is between 9 and 15 VDC and greater than 200mA output. You should be able to salvage on of these from any number of places.

22ga Solid Core wire (for connecting to you breadboard)
Some kind of wire cutters. I got some of these the other day:
(Small version – will handle anything that can fit on a breadboard)

Some kind of wire strippers. I like these but any kind that can strip 22ga solid wire is fine.

The parts kit from the last class (need the resistors, LEDs, and multimeter from it) or you can buy a kit for $5 (we may not have more multimeters available if you wait too long)

Either $15 or all of the parts that I listed in the parts section above.

New Class: Beginners Electronics Part 1

basic_electronics

Chris Cockrum will be hosting another class.  This time is for beginning electronics.

There is limited seating available so Please register if you wish to attend.  Wed, March 20th.

Part 1.  Ohm’s law and Watt’s law

This class will teach the basics of voltage, current, and power.  A lab will be included that will demonstrate how to calculate the proper value of resistor to connect LEDs to power.

Parts and equipment may be borrowed from the hackerspace or you can purchase a multimeter (http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-92020.html), a few LEDs, a few resistors, clip leads, and a 9V battery for $5.    Alternatively, you can bring your own.

 

Back to Basics: Ohms Law

During last night’s Open Hack Night, while trying to explain things like how transistors and mosfets work, it was discussed that maybe taking a step back and outlining some of the basics of electronics would be beneficial to everyone.  So I decided to start with Ohms Law.

There are 3 things that Ohms Law deals with, and they are all related to each other.  Those things are Voltage, Current and Resistance.

Voltage is measured in… well Volts of course!

Current is measured in Amperes.

Resistance is measured in Ohms!  Named after this guy who put a bunch of work in discovering resistive properties electricity, and apparently came up with this relationship known as Ohms Law.  Anyhoo.

I like analogy’s to help me relate things that I know, against things I don’t know.  So everyone’s favorite analogy of electricity is water.  Some will argue this topic to death, but for my purpose I’m sticking to it.

Voltage — So Voltage is actually a potential concept, think of a large water tank on the top of a hill and a small pipe coming out of the bottom.  The difference between what is coming out of the pipe versus the pressure in the tank is the potential voltage.  So voltage is the pressure.

Current — This would be the volume of water pushed through that pipe by the voltage (pressure) and would refer to the quantity of water flowing through it.

Resistance — So this would be the pipe its self.  The larger the pipe (lower resistance), the easier current can flow through, thus having more current.  The smaller the pipe (higher resistance), the harder it is for the current to flow through the pipe, yielding less water.

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Class – Getting Bootstrapped with Git and GitHub

*** UPDATE **  This event has been canceled.  Sorry everyone.  We’ll be having Open Hack night instead.

Interested in getting started with Git? Curious about what’s so great about this DVCS stuff? Have no idea was DVCS is? Join us for an awesome night of Git and GitHub and get bootstrapped. Jared from GitHub (@ShepBook) will be presenting and will be hanging around to answer your questions!

Wed, November 7th, 2012.  7:00 pm.

Limited space available, so please register at http://www.meetup.com/Baltimore-Hackerspace/events/88080042/