Dec 142017
  

A fun project kit for learning hobby electronics. This kit (amazon link) (ICStation) is suitable for almost any age hobbyist but if younger than 12 it would be wise if someone older and with a little more experienced helped.


On the big track.

Put together and ready to test.

Really enjoyed putting this little line following robot car kit together. Instructions in English are available here in PDF: WHDTS Smart Intelligent Robot Tracking Car Assembly Manual

LM353 Dual Operational Amplifier

The magic for this little robot is performed by an LM353 IC. It’s a sweet little Dual Op-Amp processor.
DUAL OPERATIONAL  AMPLIFIER 8 DIP. The LF353 is a JFET input operational amplifier with an internally
compensated input offset voltage. The JFET input device provides with bandwidth, low input bias currents and offset currents.

Kit Parts

One little detail is the assembly manual shows the LM353 installed incorrectly. Here’s a picture of the right orientation.

The parts come loose in a plastic bag so step one can be identifying what are the parts are and where they go on the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) chassis. If you’re helping a youngster put this kit together you can instruct them in reading the resistor codes or using a multimeter to identify the ratings of the resistors so placement on the PCB is correct. The PCB is really well marked so placement of the components is readily obvious as to the correct location even without referring to the instructions. The one-and-only critique I have is in the English instructions the picture of the LM353 in the socket is wrong. The right way is pin one (marked with a small circle) facing to the front. I’ve attached a picture above of the LM353 IC correctly placed. You can have a lot of fun and learning putting this kit together and understanding the theory behind the way the LDRs (Light Dependent Resistors) detect the difference between the black of the line and the white of the area outside the line. And the way this information is used to keep the Robot Car on the right path.

Well marked component locations.

 

May 062017
  

Using a pushbutton that completes the circuit only while being pressed can turn an LED on while the button is being held down. But what if you wanted to press it once and have the LED light up and then press it again and turn off the LED? Well you can do this. It is done with an Arduino using State Change Detection (also known as edge detection). This tutorial will teach you how to do it and you will see the Arduino send a message to the Serial Monitor with that information and it will display the count of the state changes that turn on and off the LED. This can also be adapted to use with a relay to turn on and off an appliance such as a stereo amplifier, fan, or floor lamp. And with even further development  you can do this using an infrared remote control. So let’s learn more!

To make this project you will need:

  • An Arduino Uno, Nano, Pro-Mini etc.
  • LED
  • Momentary button or switch
  • 10k ohm resistor
  • Jumper wires
  • Breadboard

You Can Download The Arduino Sketch Here

And here is how you wire it up.

image developed using Fritzing. For more circuit examples, see the Fritzing project page @ http://fritzing.org/projects/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connect three wires to the board. The first goes from one leg of the pushbutton through a pull-down resistor (here 10k ohm) to ground. The second goes from the corresponding leg of the pushbutton to the 5 volt supply. The third connects to a digital I/O pin (here pin 2) which reads the button’s state.

When the pushbutton is open (unpressed) there is no connection between the two legs of the pushbutton, so the pin is connected to ground (through the pull-down resistor) and we read a LOW. When the button is closed (pressed), it makes a connection between its two legs, connecting the pin to voltage, so that we read a HIGH. (The pin is still connected to ground, but the resistor resists the flow of current, so the path of least resistance is to +5V.)

If you disconnect the digital I/O pin from everything, the LED may blink erratically. This is because the input is “floating” – that is, not connected to either voltage or ground. It will more or less randomly return either HIGH or LOW. That’s why you need a pull-down resistor in the circuit.

click the image to enlarge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/*
State change detection (edge detection)
Often, you don’t need to know the state of a digital input all the time,
but you just need to know when the input changes from one state to another.
For example, you want to know when a button goes from OFF to ON. This is called
state change detection, or edge detection.
This example shows how to detect when a button or button changes from off to on
and on to off.
The circuit:
* pushbutton attached to pin 2 from +5V
* 10K resistor attached to pin 2 from ground
* LED attached from pin 13 to ground (or use the built-in LED on
most Arduino boards)
created 27 Sep 2005
modified 30 Aug 2011
by Tom Igoe
The original sketch modified May 6, 2017 Volthuas Electronic Laboratory Austin, TX
https://volthauslab.com/led-on-and-off-one-button
This example code is in the public domain.
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ButtonStateChange
*/
// this constant won’t change:
const int buttonPin = 2; // the pin that the pushbutton is attached to
const int ledPin = 13; // the pin that the LED is attached to
// Variables will change:
int buttonPushCounter = 0; // counter for the number of button presses
int buttonState = 0; // current state of the button
int lastButtonState = 0; // previous state of the button
void setup() {
// initialize the button pin as a input:
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
// initialize the LED as an output:
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
// initialize serial communication:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
// read the pushbutton input pin:
buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
// compare the buttonState to its previous state
if (buttonState != lastButtonState) {
// if the state has changed, increment the counter
if (buttonState == HIGH) {
// if the current state is HIGH then when the button
// is pressed the LED will change from off to on:
buttonPushCounter++;
Serial.println(“on”);
Serial.print(“number of button pushes: “);
Serial.println(buttonPushCounter);
} else {
// if the current state is LOW then when the button
// is pressed the LED will change from on to off:
Serial.println(“off”);
}
// Delay a little bit to avoid bouncing
delay(50);
}
// save the current state as the last state,
//for next time through the loop
lastButtonState = buttonState;
// turns on or off the LED every time the button is pushed by
// checking the button push counter.
if (buttonPushCounter % 2 == 0) {
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
} else {
digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
}
}
Sep 102016
  

Do you ever use a transistor in an electronic project then pull all the components back off the breadboard and put them back in stock. And then when you’re ready to use them again you’re just not really sure it’s still in working condition. It’s a frustrating learning situation when building an electronic project and for one reason or another it just doesn’t work, and you’re not confident all your components are working as they should.

Well here’s a project you might find handy to have on your workbench. It’s a simple transistor tester and if you have a dead 9VDC battery lying around then that would be the perfect power source for this project.

Components:

  • LED
  • 10K ohm Resistor
  • 680 ohm Resistor
  • 180 ohm resistor
  • SPST tactile momentary button/switch
  • Breadboard
  • 3VDC – 9VDC power source
  • Transistor to test

Schematic:

Here is how you connect the components

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tester laid out on the breadboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tester in action. Showing the NPN 2N2222 transistor is fully functional.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assorted buttons you can use.

Basic momentary tactile button is perfect for this project

Bottom view of NPN 2N2222 pins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project requires  less than $1 worth of components and can save you from much frustration. I hope you find it helpful. Now I need to make one that will test PNP transistors. So much to learn.

Happy electronic project building!

 

 

Sep 082016
  

If you’re looking for a robotics project to build. And if you want to be fun, quick, and easy this is the robot project for you. I found it at https://www.hackster.io/lovelyideas-in/arduino-remote-car-using-bluetooth-hc-05-android-app-control-3da97d  Mr. Jones Kys did a wonderful job developing this. Everything you need is available for download, including the Arduino sketch, schematic, and Android app.

Bill Of Materials:

  • Arduino – Uno,Nano, or Pro-Mini will work. Possibly others as well.
  • HC-05 Bluetooth module
  • Two DC motors and a chassis (you can be creative with the chassis)
  • L293D Dual H-Bridge motor driver
  • Power source (I used two 18650 Lithium Ion Rechargeable Batteries)
  • The Arduino IDE software (available for free at https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software)

The rough prototype.

I put this together using an Arduino Pro-Mini and HC-05 Bluetooth module. An Arduino Nano would also work perfectly. I powered this using two Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries. I ran the hot lead to the RAW pin on the Arduino Pro-Mini. And the 5 volts for the Bluetooth module came from the VCC pin on the Arduino Pro-Mini. I am looking forward to cleaning it up as well as possibly including encoders on each wheel to solve the issue of one motor turning faster than the other, which causes the bot to veer off a straight line.

 

Motor with encoder wheel and two encoders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see in the picture what an encoder looks like and also pictured is the encoder wheel you mount to your axle that spins inside the two protrusions on the encoder. Also you might notice the 0.1uF capacitor I soldered between the two terminals on the motor. That cuts down on theEMF emissions from the motor that can interfere with the radio signal.

Here’s a short video of the robot/car in action.

 

You can download everything you need and check out the project at:

https://www.hackster.io/lovelyideas-in/arduino-remote-car-using-bluetooth-hc-05-android-app-control-3da97d

Sep 272015
  

DC Electric DIY Motor Project


Let’s build an electric motor. “An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.”  We won’t go into exactly how the electricity makes this motor work because that would be a book all on its own, so let’s build this motor and have fun! To learn more about the technical knowledge of electric motors I suggest you start by reading the Wikipedia page.

Bill of Materials (BOM):

2 – Paper Clips
1 – Battery or power supply:  D cell, 9 volt, AA, 2 AA, benchtop power supply
1 – Bread Board, card board, piece of wood to mount the motor or rubber bands to hold paper clips to end of D cell battery
1 – Magnet – Can be a bar, circular, or just about any shape. I used 2 – 13mm diameter Neodymium magnets, and 1 5mm diameter magnet stacked one on top of the other. I drilled a hole in the board to prevent the magnets from snapping to the paperclip axles. These rare earth magnets are extremely powerful. Our motor with these magnets turns at 180 RPM and seems to have much more power than you would get using plain ceramic magnets.
1 – Magnet Wire 22 AWG. It is a lacquer coated copper wire. You can try using insulated wire but your results will probably not be as good as you would get using the proper wire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building Instructions:

1. Wind the 20 AWG magnet wire into a 20mm circle, making about 12-15 loops. It helps to wrap the wire around a cylinder of some sort to get better results. The coil you have just made is called a rotor.  You want to have a lead coming from each side of the coil about 20mm in length.

 

 

 

 

2. Holding the coil upright put one of the leads on a flat surface.  Using a razor knife or a small piece of 220 sandpaper, remove the lacquer coating from only the very top surface of the wire.  Leave the coating intact on the sides and bottom. Remove the lacquer from the wire from the very end to right up to where the lead meets the rotor.
3. Remove the lacquer from the other lead completely, 360 degrees around. Again from the tip of the lead all the way to where it meets the rotor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Straighten your paperclips and make an axle rest at one end. Needle nosed pliers are very handy for this part of the build. You should make them about 25mm long. Place your axles 60mm apart.

 

 

 

 

5. Place your magnet in the center between your axles. Hot glue is good to prevent the magnets from snapping to your metal axles. I drilled a deep hole that could hold all three of my magnets. Using the rare earth magnets which have a very powerful attraction, drilling a hole in your base is a good way to prevent your magnets from snapping over onto your paperclip rotor supports.
6. You can also drill a very small hole in the base to place your axles into for a strong motor. You can also thumbtack them down, or use any other method you can think of, you just want them solid enough to stand upright.

 

 

 

 

 

7. Now set the rotor onto the paperclip axles.  You want your rotor directly over the magnets and close to them as well.  You can place cotton from a cotton ball into the hole to raise the magnets, or any thing that will shim them to just below the path of the rotor as it spins.

8. Connect your power to your rotor supports by whatever means you have available. If you’re using a benchtop power supply you can connect your alligator clips to the axles. That is a great way to adjust the height of your axles also, letting the alligator clips hold the paperclips at the right height. If you’re using a D cell battery you can stand an axle at each end of the battery and wrap the rubber band around the entire setup. I don’t suggest doing it that way but it does work.
9. Turn on your power supply at 3.3 volts to begin with and increase if needed. Or connect your battery. The neodymium magnet motor sometimes started spinning on its own as soon as the power was turned on. This happened when sending 5v to the motor. You probably will have to bump the rotor slightly to get it started. You should see which direction it has a tendency to spin and that is the direction you want to push the rotor to start it spinning.

 

In this video the motor is powered by two AA rechargeable batteries that supply 1.2v and 2700mA each. Watch it go!

Desktop computer power supply modified to work as work bench power supply.

 

10. If all is well you should have it running now. Usually some fine tuning is needed to get things working perfectly. Cutting a small disc from a business card and placing on the rotor leads can prevent the rotor from moving laterally and falling off the axle supports.

If your motor still does not run, double check your work! Make sure the lacquer coating was removed exactly as instructed.
When you’re finished turn off the power and put away your tools, any scraps of wire that may have fallen on the floor, etc. A clean and orderly workshop is a safe workshop. Also you don’t want to leave a mess for someone else to clean up. The electronic hobby is a great way to learn, have fun, and make wonderful things that will improve your quality of life. It also is a great way to share your time with your children. This is a fantastic hobby so treat it with respect and be safe. We hope you have enjoyed creating this motor, and reading this tutorial as much as we have had making it. Putting this together for you and spreading the  knowledge of the hobby of electronics has been a privilege.
Thank you.
Volthaus Electronics Laboratory
Sept. 27, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 122015
  

Once a month or so the Volthaus Electronics Laboratory  Team will make the rounds of various thrift stores (i.e. Goodwill, etc.). Recently while browsing we found two Altec-Lansing Powered Sub-Woofers. One was priced @ $5USD and the other one was $10USD.

 

They were originally a part of a 5.1 computer speaker system but when found, it was the sub-woofers only. They were purchased and brought back to the lab for tear down. They have proven to be loaded with high quality components. The first thing found of course were the speakers. The smaller of the two was 4in and the larger was a 6in and they were obviously well made.
Inside each one was a very larger number of components such as Samxon capacitors in a variety of values,  several TDA Op-Amps (TDA7265, TDA7294, TDA7482, etc.), hardware, and each one had an AC transformer featuring multiple VCT voltages.  Just guessing, somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 worth of parts per sub-woofer were salvaged.

The only problem with these powered sub-woofers were they were missing the satellite speakers, one of which in each system contains the controls. All in all an excellent find of components at a truly rock bottom price.
And everything recovered from them works perfectly. Possible future plans call for the cabinets, speakers, and some of the other salvaged parts to be used in two projects. The projects are high wattage, lab built guitar and bass amps. The second powered sub woofer (100 watt) contained a massive toroidal  transformer.

These transformers alone are worth anywhere from $25USD to $50USD or more. Which brings us to the question:

What components should you take the time to salvage?

1. Knobs

Knobs average in price from .50 centsUSD for a functional but not very attractive knob to $1.50USD for a Marshall amplifier style. When you see a quality knob, grab
it, you will be so glad you did! It takes only seconds to remove a knobs and it is so helpful when building a project you can just reach into your storage drawers and get one, put it on and proceed with your masterwork.

2. Switches

The switch is one type of electronic component that is ever rarely discontinued. Through the years, I’ve found switches on rack mount audio gear, mixers (goldmines for knobs), ancient VCRs (miniature push-buttons off their PCBs), from multi-function printers.
And of course from amplifiers. I go for the input selection multi-pole rotary encoder switch. I’ve found them in abandoned cars dashboards.
Switches come in all shapes and sizes and is one electronic component that doesn’t go out of date.

3. Wire (stranded and solid), Nuts & Bolts, etc.

A fried desktop computer power supply can give you plenty of stranded copper wire. Even the case it comes in can be re-purposed as a project enclosure. And the hardware that holds everything in place can, and will become useful. An old computer is a treasure trove of bolts, stand-offs, etc. Everything you salvage from one is less that goes into the dumpster. Good for you and good for the planet. And your wallet.

4. Fuses

A glass fuse and its fuse holder are just as useful today as it was years ago.
You can find fuses and their holders from all sorts of equipment.
If the fuse holder is an inline type  (The little two piece holder in the voltage supply wire: think CB radio, radar detector or 8-track player: Yes i said 8-track player) or easily removed chassis mount design.
You can also obtain very useful fusible links from car fuse and relay boxes, and much industrial equipment contains re-settable circuit breakers.
I have also salvaged the two different sizes of blade fuse used in vehicles. I have an old commercial prototype 12v to 110v inverter and they soldered the blade fuse directly to the PCB. Once bypassed (it was easier to leave it in place and solder in a new one) the inverter works perfectly.
It’s not at all hard to collect enough fuses so you’ll never need to visit AutoZone to buy one again, or wait while an affordable one is shipped to you from China.

5. Relays

Relays are very useful, rugged (basically impossible to blow up), universal within voltage and current restraints, and easy to wire into place. And their usefulness is increasing. Via the Internet of Things so many appliances can be controlled through either your home network or the internet. An enormous range of equipment and appliances have relays inside which you can easily collect one from even moderately complex bits of gear you salvage.
Relays (and many other parts) can be removed from PC boards quickly and effortlessly by using a heat gun aimed at the solder side of the board and plucking out the relays with pliers. I remember picking up an ABS (anti-lock braking) controller from a car and realizing it contained no less than six small, high current 12V relays.

6. Ultrasonic sensors

This is a fairly recent development in automotive salvage and a set of four removed from a automobile at a salvage yard can cost you around $30USD. But they are quite a bit more powerful than an Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC-SR04 and all-weather also.

7. LEDs

The LED has become so low in price that salvaging them may seem like a waste of time, but if it is something special like an RGB for instance I will definitely take the time to remove it and deposit it into my container marked “exotic LEDS”.
It’s easy to salvage LEDs that are special to you for some reason. Those with odd lens, unusual shapes (I love those), and LEDs in shades of colors you might not normally see. And using the heatgun method mentioned earlier you can quickly recover handfuls of LEDs so go get em’. They are free.

8. Plugs and Sockets

While I’m not a huge fan of trying to stock up on recovered plugs, sockets, etc. there are a few exceptions to that rule. The RCA female sockets are particularly useful when building stereo amplifiers. Also another socket (jack) I will go after is the female 1/4in phone jack you find on instrument amplifiers and the instruments themselves. They cost an arm and a leg brand new so I get those every chance I get.

9. Heatsinks

You should visit my heatsink museum if you ever get the chance. Heatsinks are found in discarded computers in a huge range of sizes. From small ones that cover the chipsets to large heatsinks that are attached to the CPUs And there are huge ones in power supplies and in audio amplifiers. If you’re building projects it really pays to have a large variety of heatsinks on hand because many of the modules you attach to Arduinos and other microcontrollers need a heatsink if you want them to operate reliably.  
Take my ENC28J60 network adapter module for example. Many people swear they can only get them to work when pumping 5v into them. I tried and it did work but the ENC28J60 IC became so hot I am sure you could have easily fried and egg with that amount of heat. And in no time at all it started acting unreliable. Now I have had great success running mine at 3.3v. There is a DHT22 sensor connected to an Arduino Nano in the laboratory that is running a webserver sketch, and it has been operating for at least 6 months now, day and night, week after week with no problems. Check it out at  http://volthauslab.ddns.net/ It runs great for me on 3.3v but it still gets quite hot and I have heard other people say it worked for them a short while then quit and I’m positive heat is playing a major part in its lack of reliability. I made the holding clip from a basic paperclip and i also added a dab of thermal paste between the sink and the IC.

10. Motors

Motors are everywhere and you should not be letting a single one get away. You can find motors of two types in almost every malfunctioning CD or DVD drive. The rotary motor that spins the disc plus a neat little worm gear stepper motor. And you can also find stepper motors in printers as well. If you want the large motors you can salvage them from home appliances like dryers and washing machines. Those are just a little out of our league (currently that is).

Good luck because you’re going to need it once you begin to get your collection together. Getting organized and staying that way is a real challenge (fun). And we didn’t even cover what you can pull out of old CRT televisions and other things, but I think this is a good start. Have fun, be safe, save money and build wonderfully fascinating things!

VEL

Aug 132015
  

Electronic circuits don’t come much simpler than this.

 

 

BOM: (bill of materials)

  • PIR – The Passive Infrared Sensor – Buy Now
  • Buzzer – The buzzer that sounds when the sensor detects motion – Buy Now
  • 9 volt battery and battery clip with leads
  • Jumper wires to complete the circuit
  • Optional – Solderless Breadboard – Buy Now

This is the wiring of the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wiring:
Connect the positive lead of the 9 volt battery to the positive rail of the breadboard or the power pin of the PIR module and the negative lead to the negative rail or the ground pin of the module. If using the breadboard connect the positive and negative pins of the PIR module to the corresponding rails of the breadboard.

Connect the positive pin on the buzzer to the High/Low Output pin of the PIR module and the ground pin to the negative rail of the breadboard or connect it to the negative lead of the battery to complete the circuit.

Congratulations you now have a motion activated alarm!

PIR module information: PIR module datasheet

Buy the parts for this project!
Solderless Breadboard – PIR module – Buzzer

Mini Circuit Experiment Solderless Breadboard 400 Tie Points Contact

Infrared sensor with control circuit board

Convenient for connecting

1st project tips

 DIY, Easy, Project  Comments Off on 1st project tips
Mar 212015
  

In the near future we’ll have a video, schematics to share with you as our first project a motion activated intruder alert system. The nice thing is you can put this project together cheaply. Here are a list of the components needed.

Infrared Motion Activated Intruder Alert Components:

PIR – Passive Infrared Sensor

3-24 VDC Buzzer – 3-24VDC electric buzzer

Voltage Source – 5-20 volt DC power source – 9 volt battery will work perfectly.

 

 

 

 

One thing you will find you most probably need is some connecting wires. These DuPont Wire/Jumper Cables work great for connecting modules.