getting started with electronics

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi All

Well i finaly managed to get to Maplins today ,,This is what i came back with
A small breadboard and some jumpers,,


and a GCSE electronics kit



I no a few of you lads don't like breadboards ,but i thought i would give it ago for putting together  basic curcits,and i can sit on the sofa in the warm and fiddel about with it 

Cheers Rob and i hope everyone has a great new year

[John Rudd]

Wise move there Rob, the plug in boards and wires will help you quickly build and change...

The strip board isnt as versatile and you need to master the art of soldering.....

Enjoy!

[Rob.Wilson]

Cheers John

I thought it would be the best way to go ,as i will be able to re-use components as i go along , i will move on to the strip board when i start to get to grips with things ,
Now that strip board has been mentioned ,,i notice in the shop it comes in all sort of sizes , i take it you cut it to size,,,Whats the best way of cutting it up ?

Regards Rob

[John Rudd]

Now that strip board has been mentioned ,,i notice in the shop it comes in all sort of sizes , i take it you cut it to size,,,Whats the best way of cutting it up ?

Regards Rob

Rob,

It can be cut with a hack saw either along the tracks or across...If you need to make breaks in the tracks to segregate signals/components etc, use a small drill bit, around 1/8 should do..But...you must make sure the break is clean..ie there arent any 'whiskers' of copper. I use a small mag glass to check ( my eyesight aint what it used to be.. )

Another tip, if you need to make wire bridges to jump from track to track, Maplin sell some solid copper wire, bit like the flexy stranded stuff..just strip the pvc off, straighten with a pair of pliers..

[Bernd]

Rob,

Very nice start. May I suggest a vairable DC power supply to power the projects. A supply that will supply from 0 to 12V DC max would be a great start.

But here's an idea. Look for plans for a simple power supply that will give you the voltage that you'll be working with to make your circuits. This is usally one of the first things a person new to electronice would build. It will give you insight to where and how a power supply works.

Cutting the boards can be a bit tough. They are usally made from fiberglass and will dull HSS tools fast. For one or two cuts HSS tools are fine but for more I would look into a carbide saw.

Let us know how you make out with a power supply.

Bernd

[John Rudd]

Bernd..Looks like a fg board...could just be the light playing tricks on my eyes...

Rob,

If you want some of the orignal Veroboard ( for free...) pm me your address and I'll get some in the post...

Shout up if you need help building a power supply..   Although I wouldnt recommend it as a first or early project...it involves mains electricity...

[Bernd]

Bernd..Looks like a fg board...could just be the light playing tricks on my eyes...

fg board ='s what? Fiberglass? Phenolic (sp?)?

The lighting tells my eyes it has a green tint. Maybe my monitor's not set right. A green color usally indicates fiberglass to me. I've used the brown colored boards before also. They were a phenolic base.

Bernd

[John Rudd]

fg board ='s what? Fiberglass? Phenolic (sp?)?

The lighting tells my eyes it has a green tint. Maybe my monitor's not set right. A green color usally indicates fiberglass to me. I've used the brown colored boards before also. They were a phenolic base.

Bernd

fg = fibreglass...

Brown boards usually made from SRBP, Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper..

The green stuff is a solder resist mask added over the copper to protect it...Generally I just spray over my boards with some lacquer after soldering all the components to protect from the environment..Stops the copper from oxidising

[Bernd]

Got it now John, thanks. Like the clear lacquer over the copper. Great idea.

Bernd

[John Rudd]

Bernd,

I aint no Guru..

Just like sharing what I know, like everyone else...

I know some folk like Oneupmanship....having more knowledge than some one else...

I'm not like that..if some one needs to know something and I can help I will...

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Lads

Interesting ,i now no that there is differant types of board ,the board is green and has a white edge ,looks like Fiberglass ,nothing wrong with your eyes John

Thanks for the tips on using board John

Bend ,good idea as when  looking at a few projects they all ran on diferant voltages , i think i will by a bench top power supply ,they have some here  http://www.esr.co.uk/electronics/products/frame_powersupplies.htm  and they are not far from were i live



Thanks Rob

[Bernd]

Bernd,

I aint no Guru..

Just like sharing what I know, like everyone else...

I know some folk like Oneupmanship....having more knowledge than some one else...

I'm not like that..if some one needs to know something and I can help I will...

I'm glad your sharing. I've learned something and I hope others that look at this thread will also.

Collective knowledge  Great stuff. Don't know were you got the "oneupmanship" from. 

Looks like we both know just enough to be dangerous.  At least me anyway. 

Ok, back to learning.

Bernd

[John Swift]

Hi rob
         how's your electronics experiments going ?
some times depending on the make of resistors you are using
it easy to confuse the red and orange or blue and grey bands
when viewed under flourecent lights , if you are not sure :-- cheat and check them
with your multimeter

for many simple circuits you don't need a large selection of types of transistor
just because somebody designing in the UK may prefer to use BC... types and others in the US  2N.... transistors
but that does not stop you using a bc109 instead of a 2N2926 but check the emiter base and collector wires are in
the same order !!!
search for " ELEKTOR   TUP  TUN  DUS  DUS "  and you will see a large selection of interchangeable european
 transistors and diodes , Elektor magazine use in their projects
 
   I hope you are having fun

                                             John Swift

   

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi and Welcome John 

i hope to have my fist flux capacitor and photon torpedo up and running next week    ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Its coming along slowly at the moment  i am still playing with resistors and capacitors , Ohms law ,, the basics ,,,,,,,, I hope to do allot more this coming winter ,, i have a few projects in mined
    i thought it was my eyes when looking at the colours  ,, so i have been checking them with the meter just to make sure ,,, the problem is they are so small and i have to chase them about trying to get hold of them with my sausage fingers ,, then when i drop the dam things i cant fined it,  as they are the same colour as the carpet 

Thanks for the link and the tips  ,,,,,,,,, i have so much to learn 


Regards Rob

Do you have any projects on the go at the moment ?



 
 

[MrFluffy]

Hi All

Well i finaly managed to get to Maplins today ,,This is what i came back with
A small breadboard and some jumpers,,


and a GCSE electronics kit

I think that looks really handy especially the hookup wire pack and the gcse components, how much were they if you dont mind me enquiring. I didn't realize maplin's still sold stuff this interesting.

Bernd mentioned radio shack earlier, they're Tandy over in the uk. Once upon a time they sold components and Vellerman kits and all that, but nowadays I think they are just consumer electronics box shifters.

[raynerd]

I don`t know what your like on the computer John, but I had great fun when I was introduced to digital electronics in the form of PIC microcontrollers: http://www.raynerd.co.uk/?cat=28   This is relatively expensive but if you order a PIC with it, it is everything you need other than a computer to hook it upto and you can make working circuits, flashing LEDs, electronic dice .... within hours! Lots of support on the net to help. Obviously the focus is on the programming but you can do a lot with just the basics. Once you have a running PIC you can build a circuit to run it off.

I have since gone and taken my Foundation and Intermeddiate HAM Radio exams and have learnt tonnes more on electronics from those but digitial electronics was certainly a good way to get normally tricky circuits built !

Good luck!
Chris

[John Swift]

Hi Rob ,
             just wait 'till you start with surface mount components they do not hide on the carpet, but in it

my last planned project has been to service a 10 year old CL300 minilathe having decide to take up metal working
this christmas.
so far I have reverse engineered the speed control  in order to fix the two faults it had
the interlock relays buzzed a lot before latching and if you advance the speed control quickly
you had a burst of full power before running at the set speed.
if some one is interested i'll have a look at how i post a scan of the circuit diagram

I am now in the middle of fitting new roller bearings
one slight mistake I should have waited untill I  had the roller bearings before removing the ball races
now I will have to put one of the old bearings back in order to make two longer spacers .
the inner of the new bearings are setback by 1.25mm

since then my acer x221w monitor lost power to the fluorecent back light
with no service manual the first trick was to open it up !
once in side I decided to cheat as the transformer had over heated
I removed the transformer and any other components not required on  the combined power supply and lamp driver pcb.
 I  replaced the lot with a universal lamp driver of ebay

after that  the 29 year old tv developed  a fault in the video out put stages fixed with a new TDA2532 ic (new old stock)
now the switch mode power supply has stopped working , more bits on order

Hi craynerd
                      I have built ( or should that be assembled ) the pc I am using now
I would only call my self a computer user and not an expert
before I was distracted with other things I adapted some one elses program and programmed a pic chip to drive a stepper motor
I'll be back at square one when I get back to it again
                   

[John Swift]

Hi Rob
         Just for fun have a look a " silicon zoo "  hidden artwork inside ic's
    or " tin whiskers "no not tins of whiskers cat food but the metal tin filaments that grow inside transistors and thigs
pictures can be found at vintage-radio.net and nasa goddard for starters

" quaraplex park " has old vt machines  some I have used but thats another story

[John Swift]

oops I can not type very well that last bit should be    quadruplex park

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi MrFluffy

Its not a bad kit ,,,  i think all in it cost about £30 ,,,,,,,,,,,, Dave will be shaking his head now    ,,,, I have lots more now since i had a very large donation of components and test gear ,, more knobs and doodads than i no what to do with 

Hi John

Sounds like you have plenty on the go ,,,, What you planning on making on the lathe ?  Photos required      getting into metalwork 
This PIC stuff seams to be a must,,,,,,,,,, one day ,,,,i hope .

Regards Rob

[Bluechip]

Me  ?? Shaking me Yedd ??


You get what you want from where you want.

Pay no attention to hard-bitten and disillusioned old farts babbling about Rapid, Farnell, CPC etc. being a lot cheaper.

Despite the fact that we are RIGHT ... as ever ...

Anyway, I've had a splendid day. Cleaned all the crap out of the garage. And the greenhouse.

Now have a squeaky-clean bench, Myford, and WM16 ....

Wonder how long they've been there ?? Also wondering where to get a Fork-Lift to move the Wheelie Bin ?? 

Dave BC

[Rob.Wilson]

hi Dave
 


Rob

[John Swift]

Hi Rob
             the first use for the lathe , once its going and I have a feel for it  ,
will be to make non standard parts for other projects and coil-formers for my own version of the denco radio coils
thats no longer made .
I may try to use 2mm plugs and sockets to imitate the old octal plugs and sockets

it looks like I will have to get my self  a camera to show what I'm upto

Hi Chris
             I have just looked at the raynerd web site
I wish I had seen the miller speed control repair link before
it would of saved me from some of the work in tracing my FC250J speed control
some component values are changed for 110v verse 240v operation
and in my case the op amps are powered via dropper resistors instead of the small transformer and voltage regulators
and i don't have the 3rd quad op amp to monitor  if the motor is overloaded
but a lot of the circuit is the same
 
my circuit is on mew & me forum web site

                                          thanks
                                                         

                                                         John Swift

[MrFluffy]

Pay no attention to hard-bitten and disillusioned old farts babbling about Rapid, Farnell, CPC etc. being a lot cheaper.

Despite the fact that we are RIGHT ... as ever ...

Horses for courses though isn't it? I just ordered some AllegroMicro hall sensors from digikey (farnell france had no stock till aug). With shipping from the states + import tax etc (digikey france ships from thief river just the same as the UK does, just the website itself is in the region), four allegro hall sensors ended up costing 30e. From Farnell's the same component order was 45!
Annoyingly close in spec sensors (they were missing the chopper stabilized feature I needed) were on ebay from hong kong, a tenner for 12 inc shipping...

If there had been a walk in shop that sold components, it would have made sense to visit to pick these up and thats where they're handy, run out of kynar wire, nip the shop for the quick win and no delivery charges etc. And can you imagine talking your 12 year old nephew through buying some resistors for a simple project from RS or Farnell's? "Well first you have to create an account..". That's why I'm pleased to see Maplins still doing that , keeps the entry door open for new blood

If your going to be buying a lot of something, definitely mail order is the answer. And surprisingly ebay at times too. If I need something discontinued that is the first place I look now.

[raynerd]

And surprisingly ebay at times too.

I find that very often, especially sellers in China. You have to wait a while but a fraction of the cost.